| Misc. Mouse FAQ's |
| how can I tell male from female? Male mice are easy to spot when they are adults because they have a rather prominent scrotum at the base of their tail, where as the females don't. However when you pick a male mouse up he may suck this peice of anatomy inside of him... so you should hold his tail up for 10 seconds to see if anything drops, if so it's a male! The younger the mouse the harder this method is to use but it works from 4 weeks on to the trained eye. Younger than four weeks there is one method but it takes expericance to learn and isn't as accurate. I hope to have picture illustrating this soon. VERY young mice (1 day to four weeks old) can be told the gender by the distance between the two openings on their underside. Males are much farther apart than females and there is such thing as "undescended" males in which this is the *only* way you can tell what they are with out a vet's assistance. Undescended males SHOULD be neautered as their condition hightens their risk of getting cancer and neautering combats this. And undescended males *CAN* impregnate females most of the time. Make sure you have a *GOOD* vet to preform ANY surgery on your little furries! Mice can sometimes die under anestesia... in fact there's a 25% or higher chance they will not respond well to the anestesia in any surgery. *oops* I've gotten off topic! Do mice have any health problems? Mice as all animals have their own assortment of health problems am pretty new to mice so I don't know about all of them but I do know they are prone to respitory disease (bedding on pine or cedar greatly hightens the risk of this) as well as they are likely to get tumors and cancers. Some line, particularly bad bred and inbred lines have a much higher risk of getting one of these diseases. Mice can also become obese, particularly the golden ones for some reason. One of my mice died of a massive heart attack brought on by being severly obese (about three times the size of a normal mouse) How long do mice live? Mice usually live for only 1-2 years but they can live longer if the conditions are right, as well as their genetics! My mouse is making an odd grinding noise...is this OK?? Mice will grind their teeth or "brux" when they are happy or contented. Take this as a good sign! How Noisy are mice? Mice are very quiet. Much quieter in my opinion than rats and hamsters. The only noise they really make is the odd sqeak when alarmed and tapping on their water bottle. Other than that they are pretty quiet, however they are nocturnal and more likely to be loud at night when you are suppose to be sleeping. Are their different species of mice? There is many different species of mice. The mice most commonly kept as pets is Mus Musculas Domesticus, in other words the domestic version of the common grey house mouse. Other mice some times kept as pets include deer mice, feild mice, harvest mice, wild-caught house mice and others. What is the difference of a pet mouse from a labratory mouse? A labratory mouse is just an albino mouse strain that has been specially bred for different things. ALL of these mice are bred for temprament as scientists and researchers need not be bitten when dealing with them. However many have been bred to be specifically predisposed to cancer, tumors, diabetes or other diseases while other go through painful procedures and other things for scientific research. Many of these experiments in my honest opinion shouldn't even be carried out on animals any more as there is other means of getting the same data but many of these experimnets save human lives. It's through mice, rats & other labratory rodents in which we will find the cure to Cancer some day and so we ALL owe ALLOT to the rodents and other creatures who unwillingly were cast to do these experiments. Most labs destroy the animals they no longer need but some are gracious enough to have an adoption program. If you come by one of these do not fear adopting from them since these rats & mice are bred for temprament they should be sweeties and they will be thankful to you for homing them! What do I do about sharp nails and/or overgrown teeth? Can I trim or clip them? I do not advise clipping mice teeth by yourself. You should visit a vet for atleast the first time to do this. It is not nessessary in most mice but some have problems with their teeth lining up properally. Just give them things to chew on and most mice will be fine. On the sharp nails question I can give you some tips. Often putting rough rocks or bricks in the cage where they will walk on it keeps their nails dull enough for me. If your rat will let you you can file down his/her toenails if need be. I don't advise actually cutting their nails unless you have some QuickStop or Styptic powder to stop the bleeding if you cut into the nerve in their nails. (yes they have a nerve in their nails just like dogs and cats) Do mice get along with rats? birds? DO NOT put a rat anywhere near a bird or mouse! Even the sweetest rat will kill a bird or mouse in a heartbeat! (unless trained otherwise at a very early age) Mice should not be caged with any other species as they probably won't cope well together. A hamster would probably kill a mouse, gerbils will probably be too stressful for mice to handle, and other pets aren't a good idea either. |