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Choosing Your Pet Mice
So, you have decided to buy some pet mice. You need to first decide how many mice you are going to have. This is best determined by what size cage you have for them. You need to allow them as much space as a gerbil, hamster or other small rodents. Never have one mouse on its own, however, mice are social animals and get very lonely when kept on their own, this often leads to them getting sick.
Next, you need to decide between female and male mice. Keeping a mix of males and females will almost certainly mean you'll have a litter of 'pups' as baby mice are called before long. This is irresponsible unless you are intending to breed your mice intentionally.
So the pros and cons of males and females are as follows:
Males - They tend to fight among themselves occasionally to hold territory and can be a bit smelly. On the plus side, they are bigger than females, tend to not get sick as often and are less fidgety with you making them easier to handle.
Females - They can be weaker and sometimes get sick. When you are handling females they don't tend to stay still for long, always trying to run off. On the plus side, they do not have hardly any odor at all and will rarely if ever fight among themselves.
So there are the pros and cons, it's up to you to take a few moments to consider what sex you want your mice to be.
Feeding You Pet Mice
Mice are fairly popular pets in most countries. It should not be hard to find some prepared mice food available at your local pet store. If there is not a specific food mix for mice, hamster food will usually do, just check with a pet store professional first to make sure.
You can give pieces of most fruits and vegetables to your mice to if you want to balance out their diet some more.
Remember to keep some fresh water in their cage too in a bottle or bowl. You should only need to fill up their water and food bowl once a day, usually in the evening is the best time as mice are nocturnal and will be waking up around then.
Housing Your Pet Mice
This is the easy and fun bit. You get to shop around for a cage that you think will fit into space in your home and house your mice comfortably. It's best to go as large as you can afford or accommodate if it has an exercise wheel and other toys/obstacles inside this will benefit the mice.
You are going to be cleaning it out once a week so don't keep it anywhere hard to access. Lay some wood shavings down for bedding and give your mice some cardboard tubes to chew on and play in.
Enjoying Your Pet Mice
Now you have your mice and everything set up for them its time to enjoy them. Most people find it relaxing to have them in view so you can see them building nests and playing with obstacles. Try and handle them at least every other day and they will be a lot tamer, they might even start approaching you as you put your hand into the cage. Feed them some treats in the palm of your hand or give them a stroke and observe how happy they are.
Phil Avent is a freelance writer and blogger. For more information regarding looking after pet mice visit http://petmiceblog.co.uk/. Article Source: EzineArticles |
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