Taking Care Of Mice
Mice As Pets
Mice are far smarter than most people would give credit for. Once you’ve had mice you will always have mice! They really do make the most amusing and enchanting pets.
Mice are agile, intelligent, loving and ever curious companion animals. Just being given food and water, and a roof over their little heads won’t do. They MUST have intellectual stimulation and your time and attention.
Daily you should take your mice out of their cage and handle them. Once they know you well most mice will readily jump onto your hand, run down your arms, sit on your shoulder and hide in your sleeves. A lot of my mousie family will come (or run to me) when called, take treats out of my hand and hang on my every word when they see me walking up to their cages for a fussing.
Both female and male mice make great pets! However, I am of the belief that males make slightly better pets. Boys tend to be even more into interaction with you than girl mice, though both love your time and attention.
Social Life
Female mice are happiest when adopted out in groups of two or more. It is cruel to keep them as lone pets no matter how much fuss you can give a female mouse. You just can never be another mouse smuggling up to her, keeping her warm and grooming her. Females must at least have the company of one more girl mouse, hopefully two. Three is an ideal number to start with.
Girl mice do not have to be related to live happily together and share a strong bond. All strangers will need is a proper introduction some where neutral to start with (I will talk about this later).
With males it really depends on their line, and space factors. Males are best in pairs only, though some times trios. You can never have unrelated males living happily together on average (though some people have managed it). All my males come from good lines, and the boys do useally get on for life, but not always...
Lone boys need lots of fussing to remain happy and active. If you take on a lone male remember he will need you far more than a group living female will. Because even males that can’t live with other males need social interaction. In the wild males will always have the company of their females. Naturally this is not possible to do in captivity (unless you have your mouse neutered!). You will soon be over run with babies and the females would be under a lot of strain.
Cages /Tanks
When choosing a home for your mice there are several things to take into consideration:
* Mice are very good jumpers!
* Mice need cages/tanks with good air circulation (to prevent respiration problems/ and keep odour to a minimum).
* Most mice can get through the bars of normal hamster cages. If they can get a good part of their head through they will be able to get out completely!
All this considered, it’s best to house boys in Mickey Max Mouse cages (by Slavic). Girls in Ferpast Mini Hamster Dunas, Fun House Dunas, Mickey Max Cages. For other ideas on the best ways to house mice, please view allaboutmice here and here.
Environmental Factors
Mice love to chatter among themselves , though most of their "conversations" won’t heard by human ears, since they tend to ’talk’ using ultrasound. To prevent unpleasant noise or interference with their "chattering", and undue distress please locate your mouse cage away from computers, hi-fis, or any sort of ultrasonic pest control device. In fact refain from useing ultrasonic pest control devices all together!
Mice are very sensitive to light and much prefer to be kept in shadey conditions (though they do need some light!). Bright light causes them stress and they soon become visibility unhappy. So never have their cages/tanks situated directly under light bulbs or too near windows! Make sure they always have access to some shade.
Temperature sensitivity is an issue with mice, they find it hard to regulate their body temperature quickly. Another reason not to have mice too near windows. Mice need warmth, but they can also get heat stroke very readily. So please don’t keep cages need heat sources or in steamy kitchens. Mice and other rodents housed in kitchens are more prone to respiratory problems and their coats are more likely to take on a greasy feel.
Floor Litter
Cedar, pine, sawdust and other softwoods are completely inappropriate since they give off phenols which contribute to respiratory infection! Not only this but the litter gets dirty and soiled too easily! If you house male mice they will smell bad housed on such floor litters!
I think housing boys on such floor litters has given male mice the reputation for being stinkers. When boys are housed on carefresh they do not have a highly offence odour at all. The best choices for mouse bedding are Carefresh (or other recycled paper product, such as Megazorb usually used for horses), you will find these at Pets At Home and Farm Stores.
Bedding
Don’t use cotton wool or anything remotely like cotton wool. Most animal beddings sold in pet shops are highly unsuitable for mice, even if they say they are! Normal cheap toilet tissue, Meadow Hay (treated to remove mites) or shredded paper is best for mice. Mice like to have little places to hide and get away from it all, cereal boxes and similar items should be fine. This type of nest will not last long, because the paper absorbs urine and mice will chew cardboard. So you will need to replace it regularly (maybe as much as twice a week). There are some good purpose made houses available for mice to. I recommend looking at the product reviews on allaboutmice.co.uk for more information.
MORE INFORMATION TO COME!