Domestic mice as pets
There are more than 40 different breeds of mice that are kept as pets in today’s modern world, but most pet shops supply the domestic white, brown or dappled mice that we have all come to recognise.
Most pet mice have been carefully bred in order to boost their most attractive qualities.
Watching a group of pet mice interacting with each other can be a very entertaining pastime. Although mice are sometimes a little mischievous and be slightly more difficult to handle that larger rodents such as rats, they become very tame and can even be hand-fed by their human owners if they are handled regularly from earlier on in their lives.
The average pet mouse lives for 18 months to 2 years, although they have been know to live for as long as 3 years. They are highly sociable animals, preferring to be housed in groups, ideally in pairs of females. Being nocturnal by nature they will be much more active throughout the night than they are during daylight hours.
Your mice should be supplied with a basic diet rolled or whole oats, but you can add hamster food for variety, and carrots and dog biscuits are actually good for their teeth! Mice should always have a good supply of fresh, clean water to drink.