Here is the pet mouse FAQ. I wouldwelcome any comments
or contributions, as I'm sure there's a lot more to say!
Angela Horn (udty075@kcl.ac.uk)
(formerly Angela King)
Disclaimer:
------------
The contributors to this FAQ are not veterinary surgeons; they are ordinary
people who keep mice and who have agreed to share their experiences and
to pass on information gleaned from other sources. The fact that someone
has been kind enough to contribute to this FAQ does not imply that they
agree with everything else in it! I hope that the advice
and information inthis FAQ will be useful to you, but you must take it at
your own risk. Please feel free to copy or distribute this file as long
as it isproperly accredited.
Contributors:-------------------------------
Compiled by Angela Horn (London, England), with contributions from:
Ted P. and Susan R. (Alaska, USA),Madeline Lewis (USA), Satu
Karhumaa (Finland). Thank you to everyone else who has provided feedback and
comments.
Where to find the latest FAQ:
-----------------------------
This FAQ should be posted regularlyto rec.pets, and can also be found at:
http://www.rmca.org/Resources/
CONTENTS
********
1. Keeping mice as pets
2. Housing
3. Feeding
4. Skin problems
5. Breeding, and orphaned mice
6. Other health matters
7. Reference - mouse clubs & books
1. KEEPINGMICE AS PETS
********************
1.0 Why keep mice as pets?
---------------------------
Theyare very happy and playful, active creatures. They are great fun to
watch. Some fancy mice are extremely pretty. They get to knowtheir owners
and will come to take treats off you, climb onto yourhand and run all over
you. They are very easy to keep, undemanding pets. However, they are by
nature timid and so you need to spend time getting to know them. They will
not play *with* you in the way that dogs or rats will, but they are rewarding
pets nonetheless.
1.05 What are fancy mice? Are they any different to pet store mice?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Fancy mice have been selectively bred for exhibition. They are available
in a very wide range of coat colours, patterns and so on. An exhibition
standard fancy mouse looks quite different to the pet mice usually found
in pet stores - they are considerably larger and have larger ears and eyes, and
are usually more docile than ordinary pet mice. Ordinary pet mice are
frequently bred primarily for snake food, and so have not been selected for
healthor temperament. Both ordinary pet mice and fancy mice may have
beenproduced by close inbreeding, and this can result in a loss of
vigour which
makes the mouse vulnerable to illness. It is importantto emphasize that there
is as much chance that mice from a pet store are closely inbred as mice
from exhibition stock, so you will have to judge each mouse on its merits.
If you are interested in exhibiting mice, or would like to obtain some
fancy mice to keep as pets, contact one of the organisations listed at
the end ofthis FAQ. Several of the books listed at the end of the FAQ
cover the mouse fancy, and exhibiting mice, in detail so the subject will
not be covered here.
1.1 How many should I get?
--------------------------
At least two - mice are social animals and it is *very* unnatural for them to
live alone. Single mice are generally bored, lonely and miserable, and they
do not make good pets as they tend to spend more time sleeping or hiding in
the nestbox than mice kept in groups. With a single mouse you also miss out on
the fun of watching mice play together and groom each other. It is really not
fair to mice to keep them alone if it can be avoided - if they liked solitude,
they woudn't live in colonies in the wild.
Sometimes male mice which are very aggressivetowards other males
have to be kept alone - see the section on keeping males together
below, for more on this. But living alone does not have to be a disaster
foryour mouse if you are prepared to put in a lot of effort to make his
life more enjoyable - here are some examples of ways you can make a
single mouse's life better:
"Male mouse lived alone in a two-level home (plastic tank on top of an
aquarium, with a rope to travel between the levels. We trained him to
come out the upstairs door when he heard a certain whistled tone.
We trained him to
come out the upstairs door when he heard a certain whistled tone. We
whistled him out for play time twicea day, morning and evening. He
went on a few airplane trips in my pocket. He had lots of toys, a big
variety of food, and lots of love. When he died of thoracic cancer I
felt he had led a good life.
Female pet store "runt" lived originally in a small plastic aquarium,
graduating to a larger tank, and finally kept on a small coffee table
without restraint. She was also trained to a whistle, so it was easy
to beckon her for play time. Because she had a neurological problem,
she could only turn in a circle. So, we gave her a bicycle tire and
other circular tracks for exercise. When she died of leukemia, I felt
she had had a good life also." Susan R./Ted P.
1.2 How old should they be when I get them?
--------------------------------------------
Baby mice are fully weaned from their mother at about four weeks old, but they
benefit alot from staying with their litter mates for another week - the
disruption of leaving both mother, sibilings and home in one day is a lot to
cope with. Ideally they should not leave the litter before 5 weeks of age.
If you get them tooyoung they will be jumpy and hard tosocialize at first;
see the sectionbelow on mouse development. Somepet shops will offer mice
for sale as soon as they start to eat solid food, at about 2 weeks of age.
However, although mice this young eat solids, they really do need
theirmother's milk for another couple of weeks. Mice weaned this
early often don't
survive.
Mice are not fully grown until at least 12 weeks of age, although many mice
take longer than this to reach full size. Angela Horn
1.3 Can you ever keep males together?-------------------------------------
Yes, if they are introduced very young (under 5 weeks old), andpreferably
when they are from thesame litter. Established groups of male mice should
not be separated for more than a few hours, or they may start fighting.
In particular, you generally cannot take one of a group out to mate with a
female and then return himto the group. One of the most common factors which
make male mice more likely to fight is being kept in a small cage, so if you
keep a group of male mice you reallydo need to get them a large home.
Sometimes even established groups of males
fall out, though - you have to watch them carefully. Somestrains of mice are
more aggressive than others, & so your success in keeping males together will
depend in large part on the family background of your mice. There will always
be the occasional fight with males which live together. If this fighting
seems to get serious, ie there are bleeding wounds or a mouse seems depressed
and is spending a lot of time sitting still, then the mousewhich is bullying
him should be taken out of the cage. At this stage you have several choices.
a) Keep the mouse alone, and try togive him an interesting life
b) SeeSection 1.3.1 - introduce the mouse to others which
he cannot bully so easily.
c) Put him with an old,infertile doe for company
d) Have him neutered - see section 1.6
e) If the mouse is one you want to breed from, but not constantly, then you
could use the following method which worked very well for me. Put a doe
in with the buck, and leave them together when she has her litter. The
doe may well become pregnant immediately after giving birth, so understand
that you riskhaving two litters close together. When the babies reach 4
weeks, or the doe is about to have her second litter, split the family up
leaving the female babies with the mother and the male babies with thefather.
Because the older buck recognises the babies as members of his own family,
he will not attack them and they should be ableto live together for the
rest of their lives. Angela Horn
1.3.1 Introducing Adult Male Mice, by Madeline Lewis
--------------------------------
I have done this several times, with varying degrees of
success and my *procedure* is sort of made up as I go along. In all cases,
the mice have been fully adult -- 6 months or older.
I take the*bully* and keep him by himself for a few days (sort of a cooling
off period). I give him a fresh nest box (usually a finch nest) to mark with
his scent. Then, when I clean the cages, I put all my males together
in a single holding cage (this is my usual practice anyway) to hang
out together
while I'm cleaning. Ileave them all together for around an hour to see how
things go. Then, once I've cleaned and set up the cages (more on this in a
minute), I separate the boys into their various living groups. I have one
very large aquarium -- 100 gallons -- and this is the one into which I
introduce my troublemaker. As part of my cage set up, I use the undeodorized
nest box and also the troublemaker's wheel -- still stinky from his urine.
This way, he has some of his own belongings and apparently doesn't feel the
need to assert himself as strongly. He will usually run vigorously on his
own wheel and fuss around in his own nest box for a bit. Then, I watch very
carefully to make surethat troublemaker isn't too aggressive and that the
resident group also don't make his life too miserable.
Some things that I'm certain really can make the difference between success
and failure:
1) The cage must be very large -- male mice are insanelyterritorial and so
there must be ample (if not surplus) space for everyone in the cage.
2) This is perhaps the most important point: itis best to introduce the new
maleinto an existing group of four or more. Since even close-knit male
groups are constantly falling out with one another, it's likely that a male
on the outs with his group will *befriend* the newcomer.
3) You need to supply lots of resources -- 2 or 3 wheels, several nest
boxes, lots of tubes and toys -- so that existing group and the newcomer
don't feel that they have tocompete strenuously for scarce resources.
4) I don't give them interesting treats as food for a fewdays -- just plain
rice. This seems to reduce fighting over tastybits of food.
All this being said, this plan doesn't always work and then you'll have to
removethe old troublemaker (now *victim*)from the situation. Still, I've
never had male mice fight to the death and only one of my males has sustained
a severe injury as a result of fighting. When I first started keeping mice,
I did have two males (brothers) die of what I now recognize to be stress from
bullying by an older, domineering buck. Now, when I see things are not going
well and bullying is going on, I immediately remove the offender in hopes of
cooling his jets.
Even though it takes a lot of energy and alertness,
I do think making this effort is better than condemning a male to live by
himself. I've had injured males who clearly have enjoyed spending a few days
by themselves while theyrested and healed, but any healthymouse is bored
and depressed on his/her own. They are such intensely social creatures that
it seems to me a tragedy to force the males to live out their lives in
solitary confinement. Madeline Lewis
1.4 Don't mice smell? How can I stop them smelling so much?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Males smell a lot - they produce a musk-like substance. Females smell much
less and many people find they cannot smell a couple of females at all if they
are keptclean. Mouse cages need to be cleaned out at least once a week to
stop them smelling offensive, but if you clean a male mouse's cage too often
he will just scent-mark it more to replace that lovely smell!
Other tricks include putting a glass jar in the cage in the dirtiest corner,
and small lengths of plastic pipe laid on the floorof the cage; the mice use
this asa toilet & it can be rinsed out regularly. Angela Horn
We use a highly absorbent bedding (CareFresh), and an air filter.
Since all our males (except spiny's) are neutered, the odor is not too
bad to start with. Susan R./Ted P.
1.5 How do you introduce adult females?
----------------------------------------
Clean out the cage thoroughly, rememberingto scrub all toys and cage
furniture to remove the smell of the established mice. Since they recognise
their own territory by smell, they will be less defensive over territory that
doesn't smell like it is their own. Dab each mouse (old and new) with
something smelly like perfume or vanilla essence, to confuse their scents. Put
all the mice in the clean cagewith an extra-tasty feed. There will almost
always be some squeaking and occasionally tail biting while a hierarchy is is
established. If anyfemale mouse is vicious towards theothers and inflicts
serious wounds then do not breed from her - she will pass on her nasty
temperament to her children. Angela Horn
1.6 Can male mice be neutered?
------------------------------
Yes. Traditionally the problem with operating on mice was that they didn't
survive the anaesthetic. However, mice can cope with Isoflourane
anaesthesia, andneutering (castration) is a relatively simpleoperation.
The question is notwhether mice *can* be neutered,but whether you feel that
yours *should* be, given thatany operation will put the animal through some
discomfort. You have to decide on an individual basis whether surgery is
justified.
It really makes a big difference withthis or any other veterinary treatment if
you find a vet who is experienced with very small mammals, and who is
comfortable with handling them. Contact local ornational rat, mouse, hamster
or gerbil societies to find out if there are any recommended vets near you. AH
"We have hadsome success keeping sibling malestogether from birth, but
at about four months age, fighting escalated to the point of tissue
damage (tails, ears, etc.). Rather than separate the boys, we tried
neutering. Our Vet uses isoflurane as an anesthetic, and no ill effects
have occurred. The anesthetic also permitted various other surgical
procedures on mice of 15-50 grams (wound repairs, etc.
We've had over a dozen of our males neutered, with no evidenceof
complications. We checked with a large US Veterinary College about
other methods of birth control for mice. The professor said that
vasectomies are unsuccessful due to subsequent cyst formation; there is
no contraceptive fororal use on mice. After neutering,
aggressiveness generally diminishes, although it takes a while for
testosterone levels to go down, as it is stored in the animal's fat.
Also, the mouse remains fertile for a week or two. We have males
living with females, with each other, and unrelated males living
together thanks to neutering.
One of our favorite male mice used toget so excited that each
out-of-cage experience ended with one ofus getting bitten. Since his
surgery, the biting has stopped, although he is still quite excitable
and we have him in solo houseing. One gratifying benefit of neutering
is that the male smell is substantially reduced!"
Susan P.& Ted R.
1.7 How should you pick a mouse up?
-----------------------------------
With a strange or nervous mouse, the safest way to pick it up is to grasp the
BASE of its tail (not the tip) firmly, lift its bottom up slightly and slide
your other handunder the mouse, palm upwards. You can then lift your hand up
with the mouse sitting on it, but keep hold of the tail unless
you know the mouse is calm. Holding the base of the tail in this way is not
uncomfortable for the mouse *as long as you make sure its body is supported
by your other hand* and will not upset it. Most pet mice will not jump from
heights of more than a foot or so, but very nervous ones might - so keep a
grip on the tail until you're sure. Don't hold the mouse tightly round its
body - this will scare it andcould hurt it.
When a mouse is comfortable with you, it may walk onto your hand if you hold
youropen palm in front of it. Alternatively, you can very gently
scoop it up,but be very careful not to squeezeit or hold it tightly
round the body.
In some cases you might see people picking mice up by the base of the tail and
holding them, dangling, upside down. This is not really cruel as it
doesn'thurt them, but not surprisingly most mice don't seem to like
being handled like
this - it is more comfortable for them if you support the body with your hand
as described above. Holding a mouse by the tip of its tail, or near the tip,
IS cruel and could hurt it - the tip of thetail could be skinned or break off.
Angela Horn
Not being comfortable with picking mice up by the tail, we pick up
scared mice by enticing them into a paper tube(from toilet paper,
etc), then wait for the mouse to come out. I do this in a small room
with the door shut rather than grasp the tail for insurance. When a
mouse is more relaxed, I pick it up by putting one hand on either side
of the mouse, palms up, and scoop the mouse. As it gets more comfortable,
the mouse will walk directly only my hand.
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