All Topics  
Mouse

 
Mouse

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Mouse
 
 
  Topics Mouse Topic Home

A mouse (plural mice) is a small animal
Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the Kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life....
 that belongs to one of numerous species of rodent
Rodent

Rodentia is an Order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing Incisors#The_Rodent_incisor in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....
s. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse
House mouse

The House Mouse is one of the most numerous species of the genus Mus commonly termed a mouse. It is a small mammal and a rodent. In most parts of the world, they live in close proximity to humans....
 (Mus musculus). It is also a popular pet
PET

The term pet typically refers to a pet.PET may also refer to:...
. The American white-footed mouse
White-footed mouse

Peromyscus leucopus is a rodent native to North America. It is commonly called the White-footed Mouse. It ranges from the northeast United States to the southwest and Mexico....
 (Peromyscus leucopus) and the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus
Peromyscus maniculatus

Peromyscus maniculatus is a rodent native to North America. It is most commonly called the Deer Mouse, although that name is common to most species of Peromyscus and is fairly widespread across the continent, with the major exception being the southeast United States and the far north....
) also sometimes live in houses.

Although mice may live up to two and a half years in captivity, the average mouse in the wild lives only about four months, primarily owing to heavy predation
Predation

In ecology, predation describes a biological interaction where a predator feeds on its prey, the organism that is attacked. Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them, but the act of predation always results in the death of the prey....
.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Mouse'
Start a new discussion about 'Mouse'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Mouse Vermin02
A mouse (plural mice) is a small animal
Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the Kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life....
 that belongs to one of numerous species of rodent
Rodent

Rodentia is an Order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing Incisors#The_Rodent_incisor in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....
s. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse
House mouse

The House Mouse is one of the most numerous species of the genus Mus commonly termed a mouse. It is a small mammal and a rodent. In most parts of the world, they live in close proximity to humans....
 (Mus musculus). It is also a popular pet
PET

The term pet typically refers to a pet.PET may also refer to:...
. The American white-footed mouse
White-footed mouse

Peromyscus leucopus is a rodent native to North America. It is commonly called the White-footed Mouse. It ranges from the northeast United States to the southwest and Mexico....
 (Peromyscus leucopus) and the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus
Peromyscus maniculatus

Peromyscus maniculatus is a rodent native to North America. It is most commonly called the Deer Mouse, although that name is common to most species of Peromyscus and is fairly widespread across the continent, with the major exception being the southeast United States and the far north....
) also sometimes live in houses.

Although mice may live up to two and a half years in captivity, the average mouse in the wild lives only about four months, primarily owing to heavy predation
Predation

In ecology, predation describes a biological interaction where a predator feeds on its prey, the organism that is attacked. Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them, but the act of predation always results in the death of the prey....
. Cat
Cat

The cat , also known as the Domestication cat or house cat to distinguish it from other Felinae and Felidae, is a small predationy carnivore species of crepuscular mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin, snakes, scorpions, and other unwanted household pests....
s, wild dog
Dog

The dog is a domesticated subspecies of the Gray Wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties....
s, fox
Fox

A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species of small to medium-sized Canidae, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush....
es, birds of prey
Bird of prey

Birds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. Their claws and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh....
, snake
Snake

Snakes are elongate legless carnivore reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears....
s and even certain kinds of insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s have been known to prey heavily upon mice. Nevertheless, because of its remarkable adaptability to almost any environment
Ecological niche

In ecology, a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in its ecosystem to each other; e.g. a dolphin will be in another ecological niche to one that travels in a different school.....
, and its ability to live commensally
Commensalism

In ecology, commensalism is a class of relationship between two organisms where one benefits and the other is not significantly harmed or benefited....
 with humans, the mouse is regarded to be the second most successful mammalian genus living on Earth today, after humans.

Mice can at times be harmful pests, damaging and eating crops
Crop (agriculture)

A crop is the annual or season's yield of any plant that is grown in significant quantities to be harvested as food, as livestock fodder, or for any other economic purpose....
 and spreading disease
Disease

A disease or medical condition is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and Medical signs....
s through their parasites and feces
Feces

Feces, faeces, or f?ces is a waste product from an animal's gastrointestinal tract expelled through the anus during defecation....
. In western North America, breathing dust that has come in contact with mouse feces has been linked to the deadly hantavirus
Hantavirus

Hantaviruses belong to the Bunyaviridae family of viruses. There Bunyaviridae family is divided into 5 genera: Orthobunyavirus, Nairovirus, Phlebovirus, Tospovirus, and Hantavirus....
.. The original motivation for the domestication of cat
Cat

The cat , also known as the Domestication cat or house cat to distinguish it from other Felinae and Felidae, is a small predationy carnivore species of crepuscular mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin, snakes, scorpions, and other unwanted household pests....
s is thought to have been for their predation of mice and their relatives, the rats.

General

Mice have been known to humans since antiquity. The Romans differentiated poorly between mice and rats, calling rats Mus Maximus (big mouse) and referring to mice as Mus Minimus (little mouse). Mice can also be kept as pets, and are often sold in petshops.

De-coloration in mice was supposedly first noticed in China by 900 BC, where a green mouse was discovered.The green gene is a recessive gene which arose from mutation.

The word "mouse" and the word muscle are related. Muscle stems from musculus meaning small mouse - possibly because of a similarity in shape. The word "mouse" is a cognate
Cognate

Cognates in linguistics are words that have a common etymology origin.An example of cognates within the same language would be English shirt vs....
 of Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
 mus meaning 'to steal,' which is also cognate with mys in Old Greek and mus in Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
.

Characteristics

Mice range in size from 12 to 21 cm (4 to 8 inches) long (including a long tail). They weigh from . The coat color ranges from white to brown to gray. Most mice have a pointed snout with long whiskers, round ears, and thin tails. Many mice scurry along the ground, but some can hop or jump.

Distribution and habitat

All species of Mus are native to Eurasia
Eurasia

Eurasia is a large landmass covering about 53,990,000 km? or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface . Often considered a single continent, Eurasia comprises the traditional continents of Europe and Asia, concepts which date back to classical antiquity and the borders for which are somewhat arbitrary....
 and Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, where they range from lowlands to mountaintops. The five species in the subgenus Pyromys are found in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India....
, India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, Pakistan
Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
, and mainland Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia....
. Much of their range originally consisted of open grasslands or grassy patches in forests.

Reproduction

Breeding onset is at about 50 days of age in both females and males, although females may have their first estrus at 25-40 days. Mice are polyestrous and breed year round; ovulation is spontaneous. The duration of the estrous cycle is 4-5 days and estrus itself lasts about 12 hours, occurring in the evening. Vaginal smears are useful in timed matings to determine the stage of the estrous cycle. Mating is usually nocturnal and may be confirmed by the presence of a copulatory plug in the vagina up to 24 hours post-copulation. The presence of sperm on a vaginal smear is also a reliable indicator of mating.

Female mice housed together tend to go into anestrus and do not cycle. If exposed to a male mouse or the pheromones of a male mouse, most of the females will go into estrus in about 72 hours. This synchronization of the estrous cycle is known as the Whitten effect
Whitten effect

The Whitten effect is a phenomenon observed by W. K. Whitten , whereby male mouse pheromone-laden urine synchronizes the Estrous cycle "among unisexually grouped females."...
. The exposure of a recently bred mouse to the pheromones of a strange male mouse may prevent implantation (or pseudopregnancy), a phenomenon known as the Bruce effect
Bruce effect

The Bruce effect is a form of pregnancy disruption in mammals in which exposure of a female to an unknown male results in pre- or postimplantation failure ....
.

The average gestation period is 20 days. A fertile postpartum estrus occurs 14-24 hours following parturition, and simultaneous lactation and gestation prolongs gestation 3-10 days owing to delayed implantation. The average litter
Litter (animal)

A litter is the offspring at one birth of animals from the same mother and usually from one set of parents. The word is most often used for the offspring of mammals, but can be used for any animal that gives birth to multiple young....
 size is 10-12 during optimum production, but is highly strain dependent. As a general rule, inbred mice tend to have longer gestation periods and smaller litters than outbred and hybrid mice. The young are called pups and weigh at birth, are hairless, and have closed eyelids and ears. Cannibalism is uncommon, but females should not be disturbed during parturition and for at least 2 days postpartum. Pups are weaned at 3 weeks of age; weaning weight is . If the postpartum estrus is not utilized, the female resumes cycling 2-5 days postweaning.

Newborn male mice are distinguished from newborn females by noting the greater anogenital distance and larger genital papilla in the male. This is best accomplished by lifting the tails of littermates and comparing perineum
Perineum

In human anatomy, the perineum is generally defined as the surface region in both males and females between the pubic symphysis and the coccyx. The perineum is the region of the body inferior to the pelvic diaphragm and between the legs....
s.

Laboratory mice

Pcwmice1
Mice are common experiment
Experiment

In scientific inquiry, an experiment is a method of investigating causal relationships among variables. An experiment is a cornerstone of the empiricism approach to acquiring data about the world and is used in both natural sciences and social sciences....
al animals in biology
Biology

Biology is a branch of the natural sciences concerned with the study of living organisms and their interaction with each other and their environment ....
 and psychology
Psychology

Psychology is an academic and applied science discipline involving the science study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally it also relies on symbolic hermeneutics and critical theory, although these traditions are less pronounced than in other social sciences such as sociology....
 primarily because they are mammals, mice also share a high degree of homology
Homology (biology)

In evolutionary biology, homology refers to any similarity between characteristics that is due to their common descent. The word homologous derives from the ancient Greek ??????e??, 'to agree'....
 with humans. They are the most commonly used mammal
Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
ian model organism
Model organism

A model organism is a species that is extensively studied to understand particular biology phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the organism model will provide insight into the workings of other organisms....
, more common than rats
RATS

RATS may refer to:* RATS , Regression Analysis of Time Series, a statistical package* Rough Auditing Tool for Security, a computer program...
. The mouse genome
Genome

In classical genetics, the genome of a diploid organism including eukarya refers to a full set of chromosomes or genes in a gamete; thereby, a regular somatic cell contains two full sets of genomes....
 has been sequenced, and virtually all mouse gene
Gene

A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cell and pass genetic trait to offspring....
s have human homologs. They can also be manipulated in ways that would be considered unethical to do with humans (note Animal Rights
Animal rights

Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings....
). A knockout mouse
Knockout mouse

A knockout mouse is a genetic engineering mus musculus in which one or more genes have been turned off through a gene knockout. Knockout mice are important animal models for studying the role of genes which have been sequencing, but have unknown functions....
 is a genetically engineered
Genetic engineering

Engineering There are a number of ways through which genetic engineering is accomplished. Essentially, the process has five main steps# Isolation of the genes of interest...
 mouse that has had one or more of its genes made inoperable through a gene knockout
Gene knockout

A gene knockout is a genetics technique in which an organism is genetic engineering to carry genes that have been made inoperative . This is done for research purposes....
.

There are other reasons for why mice are used in laboratory research. Mice are small, inexpensive, easily maintained, and can reproduce quickly. Several generation
Generation

Generation , also known as reproduction, is the act of producing offspring. In a more generic sense, it can also refer to the act of creating something inanimate such as electricity generation or cryptography code generation....
s of mice can be observed in a relatively short period of time. Mice are generally very docile if raised from birth and given sufficient human contact. However, certain strains have been known to be quite temperamental. Mice (and rats) have the same organs in the same places, just different proportions.

There are hundreds of established inbred, outbred, and transgenic strains. In the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, mice are not protected by the Animal Welfare Act
Animal Welfare Act

The Animal Welfare Act is a United States federal law designed to protect and ensure that care and treatment is provided for certain animals bred for commercial sale through interstate commerce, used in research, transported commercially across state lines, or exhibited to the public....
 (AWA) (administered by the United States Department of Agriculture
United States Department of Agriculture

The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive departments responsible for developing and executing Federal government of the United States policy on farming, agriculture, and food....
 (USDA), APHIS
Aphis

Aphis may refer to:* Aphis , a genus of aphid species* Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service , organizational unit of the USDA...
). However, the Public Health Service Act
Public Health Service Act

The Public Health Service Act is a Law of the United States enacted in 1946. The full act is captured under Title 42 of the United States Code "The Public Health and Welfare", Chapter 6A "United States Public Health Service"...
 (PHS) administered by the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research....
 (NIH) does cover their treatment.

Species

  • Subgenus Coelomys
    • Mus crociduroides (Western Sumatra)
    • Mus mayori (Sri Lanka)
    • Mus pahari (Northeastern India to southwestern Cambodia and northern Vietnam)
    • Mus vulcani (Western Java)
  • Subgenus Mus
    • Mus booduga (Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, southern Nepal, central Myanmar)
    • Mus caroli (Ryukyu islands, Taiwan and southern China to Thailand; introduced in Malaysia and western Indonesia)
    • Mus cervicolor (Northern India to Vietnam; introduced to Sumatra and Java)
    • Mus cookii (Southern and northeastern India and Nepal to Vietnam)
    • Mus cypriacus (Cyprus)
    • Mus majorius (Athens, Greece)
    • Mus famulus (Southwestern India)
    • Mus fragilicauda
      Mus fragilicauda

      The Mus fragilicauda, or the sheath-tailed mouse, is a mouse found in two locations in central Thailand. They were discovered and documented in 2002, as published in Zoologica Scripta....
       (Thailand and Laos)
    • Mus macedonicus (Balkans to Israel and Iran)
    • Mus musculus (introduced worldwide)
    • Mus nitidulus
      Mus nitidulus

      Mus nitidulus is a medium sized rodent of the genus Mus that appears in central Myanmar....
       (Central Myanmar)
    • Mus spicilegus (Austria to southern Ukraine and Greece)
    • Mus spretus (Southern France, Iberian Peninsula, Balearic Islands, Morocco to Tunisia)
    • Mus terricolor (India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan; introduced to Sumatra)
  • Subgenus Nannomys
    • Mus baoulei (Ivory Coast to Guinea)
    • Mus bufo (Mountains of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and neighboring parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo)
    • Mus callewaerti (Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo)
    • Mus goundae (Central African Republic)
    • Mus haussa (Senegal to northern Nigeria)
    • Mus indutus (Southern Angola to western Zimbabwe and northern South Africa)
    • Mus mahomet (Ethiopia, southwestern Uganda and southwestern Kenya)
    • Mus mattheyi (Ghana)
    • Mus minutoides (Zimbabwe, Southern Mozambique, South Africa)
    • Mus musculoides (Africa south of the Sahara, excluding the range of M. minutoides)
    • Mus neavei (Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to northeastern South Africa)
    • Mus orangiae (South Africa)
    • Mus oubanguii (Central African Republic)
    • Mus setulosus (Senegal to Ethiopia and western Kenya)
    • Mus setzeri (Northeastern Namibia, Botswana, and western Zambia)
    • Mus siridandus (Colombia, Argentina)
    • Mus sorella (Eastern Cameroon to western Tanzania)
    • Mus tenellus (Sudan to southern Somalia and central Tanzania)
    • Mus triton (Southern Ethiopia to central Angola and Malawi)
  • Subgenus Pyromys
    • Mus fernandoni (Sri Lanka)
    • Mus phillipsi (Southwestern India)
    • Mus platythrix (India)
    • Mus saxicola (Southern Pakistan, southern Nepal, and India)
    • Mus shortridgei (Myanmar to southwestern Cambodia and northwestern Vietnam)


As pets

Many people buy mice as companion pets. They can be playful, loving and can grow used to being handled. Pet mice should not be left unsupervised outside as they have many natural predators, including (but not limited to) birds, cats and dogs. Male mice tend to have a stronger odor than the females. Well looked after mice can make ideal pets. Some common mouse care products are:
  • Cage
    Fancy mouse

    Fancy mice are domesticated breeds of the common or house mouse . The terms fancy and "House Mouse#Mice and humans" are often used interchangeably by retailers, and are in fact the same variety of mouse....
     - Usually a hamster
    Hamster

    Hamsters are rodents belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae. The subfamily contains about 18 species, classified in six or seven genus....
     or gerbil
    Gerbil

    A Gerbil is a small mammal of the order Rodentia. Once known simply as "desert rats", the gerbil subfamily includes about 110 species of African, Indian, and Asian rodents, including sand rats and meriones s, all of which are adapted to arid habitats....
     cage
    Cage

    Cage may refer to:Fiction* Cage , a 1989 film starring Lou Ferrigno*...
    , but special mouse cages are now available.
  • Food - Special pelleted and seed-based food is available. Mice can generally eat most rodent food (for rats, mice, hamsters, gerbils, etc)
  • Bedding - Usually made of hardwood pulp, such as aspen
    Aspen

    Aspens are trees of the Salicaceae family and comprise a section of the poplar genus, Populus sect. Populus. There are six species in the section, one of them atypical, and one hybrid:...
    , sometimes from shredded, unink
    Ink

    An ink is a liquid containing various pigments and/or dyes used for coloring a surface to produce an , writing, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush or quill....
    ed paper
    Paper

    Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
     or recycled virgin wood pulp
    Wood pulp

    Pulp is a dry fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating fibers from wood or fiber crops.Pulp can be either fluffy or formed into thick sheets....
    . Cedar
    Cedar

    Cedar is a genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae. They are most closely related to the Firs , sharing a very similar cone structure....
     or pine
    Pine

    Pines are Pinophyta trees in the genus Pinus, in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species....
     should not be used because they contain harmful aromatic substances that can damage any rodent's respiratory system. Corn husk bedding should not be used because it promotes Aspergillis fungus
    Fungus

    A fungus is a Eukaryote organism that is a member of the Kingdom Fungi . The fungi are a monophyletic group, also called the Eumycota , that is phylogeny distinct from the morphologically similar slime molds and water molds ....
    , can grow mold
    Mold

    Molds include all species of microscopic fungi that grow in the form of Multicellular organism filaments, called hyphae. In contrast, microscopic fungi that grow as single cells are called yeasts....
     once it gets wet and is rough on their feet.


100 0726
Some benefits of having mice as pets are
  • Minimal shedding and allergens
  • Entertaining and interactive
  • Inexpensive
  • Clean (contrary to popular belief)
  • Socially self-sufficient when in a group of other mice
  • Less likely to bite than other rodent pets
  • Relatively intelligent
  • Bond well to their owners
  • Are playful and attentive


Disadvantages include:
  • Short lifespan
  • Small and fragile (not as easy to handle as a dog or a cat)
  • Defecate and urinate frequently
  • Nocturnal
  • Frequent eye infections when under stress
  • Easily subject to disease when without optimal care
  • Frequent reproduction


Nutrition

In nature, mice are herbivores
Herbivore

Herbivory is a form of predation in which an organism, known as an herbivore, heterotrophs principally autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria....
, consuming any kind of fruit or grain from plants. In captivity, mice are commonly fed commercial pelleted mouse diet. These diets are nutritionally complete, but they still need a large variety of vegetables. Food intake is approximately per of body weight per day; water intake is approximately per 100 g of body weight per day.

As food

Feeder Mice
Humans have eaten mice since prehistoric times. They are still eaten as a delicacy throughout eastern Zambia
Zambia

The Republic of Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
 and northern Malawi
Malawi

The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast and Mozambique, which surrounds it on the east, south and west....
, as well as in parts of east Asia. They are an excellent seasonal source of protein
Protein

Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid Residue ....
. In most other countries, mice are no longer routinely consumed by humans. Across the U.S. pet owners keep exotic pets such as snakes, lizards, frogs, tarantulas, and birds of prey
Bird of prey

Birds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. Their claws and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh....
. Most US pet stores now carry mice for this purpose. Because they breed quickly, grow quickly, are easy to care for, and can be sold in a wide variety of sizes, this makes them suitable for consumption by animals of various sizes. Mice also seem to be a desirable food item for a very large variety of carnivores. For ethical reasons it may be considered questionable (and under German law, forbidden) to feed live mice (or any vertebrate for that matter) to carnivores. An exemption may be made for those carnivores that do not eat anything but live food, a claim particularly made by snake owners on behalf of their pets. Common terms used to refer to different age/size mice are pinkies, fuzzies, hoppers, and adults. Pinkies are newborn mice that have not yet grown fur; fuzzies have some fur but are not very mobile; hoppers have a full coat of hair and are fully mobile but are smaller than adult mice. These terms also refer to the various growth stages of rat
Rat

Rats are various medium sized, long-tailed rodents of the Family Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus....
s (also see Fancy rat
Fancy rat

The fancy rat is a domestication brown rat , which is the most common type of pet rat. The name fancy rat derives from the idea of animal fancy or the phrase, "to fancy" ....
).

See also

  • Audiograms in mammals
  • House mouse
    House mouse

    The House Mouse is one of the most numerous species of the genus Mus commonly termed a mouse. It is a small mammal and a rodent. In most parts of the world, they live in close proximity to humans....
  • Mice in fiction
  • Mouse trap
    Mouse Trap

    Mouse Trap is a 1981 arcade game released by Exidy, similar to Pac-Man. It was ported to three home systems by Coleco; Coleco's ColecoVision, Mattel's Intellivision, and the Atari 2600....
  • Mouse (computing)
    Mouse (computing)

    In computing, a mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting dimension motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons....
  • Musophobia (fear of mice)
  • Rat
    Rat

    Rats are various medium sized, long-tailed rodents of the Family Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus....
  • Vacanti mouse
    Vacanti mouse

    The Vacanti mouse was a laboratory mouse that had what looked like a human ear grown on its back. The "ear" was actually an ear-shaped cartilage structure grown by seeding cow cartilage cells into a biodegradable ear-shaped mold....


External links

  • : extensive information about breeding mice and keeping them as pets
  • (with focus on their use in genetics studies)