A Guide to Your First Pet Mouse

Do you want a pet that doesn't require walks, expensive shots or lots of room and time? Do you live someplace that is small or that doesn't have a yard? If you answered yes to these questions, then you should think about having pet mice.

Mice? Absolutely. Mice are friendly, quiet, inexpensive and come in a wide variety of colors. They are entertaining to watch and can even be taught simple tricks, if you choose.

When choosing a pet mouse there are a couple of things to consider. First, get a relatively young mouse, one that will take well to being handled. The type of mouse will be about 4 to 5 weeks old. Make sure the nose, eyes and back end are clean and clear of any discharge. A healthy mouse will be shiny and full of energy.

Mice are very social animals and for this reason, they should always be housed together, at least in pairs. Because of this, you will need a knowledgeable person to help you determine the sex of your mice, even this young, they are able to reproduce.

Now that you have your new mice, they need a place to live. With mice there are several choices of cages. The best are aquariums or habit-trail type cages, because mice (especially babies) are so small, a wire cage isn't recommended, they can squeeze through some very small spaces and escape.

Your mice will need bedding to sleeping in, dig in and to just hang out in. Please don't use pine or cedar shavings for bedding, these have been known to cause respiratory and allergies in rodents. Some choices are fluffy bedding, crushed corn cob bedding and even shredded paper. Any of these will work well for your new mice.

The last things that your mice need to have is food and water. Mice do well on a rodent seed based diet. There are also rodent blocks available, these are nutritionally complete, but don't offer much variety. Mice get their water from a water bottle...you can use a dish, but it will get dirty very quickly.

That is all that you need for your new pet mice, however, there are several things that will keep your mice happy when you aren't home. One of the most popular toys for mice is a wheel. Your little friends will put this to good use, day and night. Some other inexpensive toy ideas are toilet paper tubs, fabric scraps and boxes.

The reason mice are so good for people for limited time is because while they are friendly and normally don't bite, they are also normally not too keen on being picked up. They are more for watching...kind of like cute furry goldfish.