Fun Interesting Facts About Mice
Most people think that mice are pests or even vermin, and that they cannot be kept as pets at all. This is a great misconception because these cute little creatures do in fact, make wonderful pets especially for children who have never kept a pet before. Naturally, if you are thinking of getting a pet mouse or two for your kids, you would need to keep a watchful eye on things to make sure the pets and your kids are behaving themselves.
Here are a few fun and interesting facts about mice and the joys of keeping them as pets
- Mice are very funny little creatures, they are extremely social as well as clean pets to keep in a home. They create one place in their cages to put their food, one to use as a bathroom and another area where they like to sleep
- Mice are happiest when kept with as least one other mouse
- There are loads of different varieties of mice, which include domestic mice, fancy mice, spiny mice and what is known as zebra mice
- When really frightened by something, a mouse will play dead until they feel the danger has passed
- When Walt Disney first created his now famous cartoon character, he called him Mortimer Mouse. It was his wife, Lillian who thought the name Mickey Mouse would be better
- Male mice are known to court their mates and they do this by serenading the females with their own “mouse song” - a recent research has now added mice to the short list of singing mammals which include only bats, whales and human beings!
- A mouse can live anything from 1 to 2 years although if well looked after, a mouse can live even longer than that!
- A mouse was first cloned in 1997 and lived for 2 years and seven months
- A mouse's tail is usually as long as their bodies are
- Mice can use their whiskers to detect any changes in the temperature around them – they also use their whiskers to feel any smooth or rough surfaces they run or walk along
Mice are very cute little creatures and have been popularised by the likes of the cartoon character Walt Disney created, namely Mickey Mouse as well as Tom and Jerry. Here are a few more fun facts about keeping mice and their cute characteristics:
- Mice have cute pointy noses and very large ears. Their bodies are longish and their tails are long and hairless
- When it comes to colours, mice can come in all sorts from pure white to a mix of grey and brown shades of every kind
- Mice can be as small as 1 inch long or as long as 7 inches depending on the species!
- Popular pets are the common house mouse – unfortunately they are also the most popular to use in laboratories too!
- A mouse has many natural predators because they are such small creatures. This includes birds, cats, foxes and in some countries wild dogs are serious predators to mice as well
- Mice like to eat fruits and grains but will feast on other things in the wild too
- The African Pygmy mouse is only 1 to 3 inches long
- Mice are talkative little rodents, they communicate with each other using ultrasonic sounds as well as very unique mouse sounds!
- Mice will eat from 15 to 20 times a day which is why they need to be close to food at all times when kept as pets in captivity. You also have to make sure they always have access to fresh clean water
- A female mouse can start having babies as early as 2 months old and can give birth to anything up to 12 babies and she can do this every 3 weeks!
- Mice are very agile little creatures and are capable of jumping up to a foot and a half – they are also very good swimmers and climbers too!
Mice make great first time pets and can be a constant supply of fun and laughter with the antics they get up to. These little mammals are very active and belong to the same family as hamsters, rats and gerbils, namely the Muroidea genus.
Here are a few more fascinating facts about these funny little rodents
- Mice have scales on their tails which they use to help them climb up things which is why they are so adept at climbing!
- The normal, average weight of a mouse is between half and ounce and 1 ounce
- A group of mice is aptly referred to as a “mischief”
- In the wild, a mouse will eat almost anything they come across!
- A mice can jump or fall down from a height of 12 feet without injuring themselves
- Mice trails can be easily spotted because a mouse will use the same route repeatedly to go back and forth every day to where it wants to go
- Mice don't like to travel too far from a nest – they usually only go about 12 to 20 feet away from it
- House mice can breed throughout the year
- Mice can get pregnant again within 48 hours of giving birth to a litter – this is why it's important to have same sex mice as pets
- Male mice are referred to as Bucks
- Females are called Does
- Baby mice are called Kittens or sometimes they are referred to as Pinkys
If you are thinking about getting a couple or more mice to keep as pets, maybe you'd like to consider adopting some from a rescue centre. This is a great idea because it means you can be certain of get the same sex mice and avoid the risk of breeding them by accident. You would need to set up a nice secure environment to keep them in too. The other thing you would need to consider is if you have other pets in your home, namely cats or a dog, you would need to make sure your new pet mice are well out of reach of them – think about Tom and Jerry only in real life dogs too can be a real threat to pet mice!
