Veterinarian SalaryWhen looking for an article about veterinarian salaries I came across an interesting article about mice. When picking out your mice, look for active bright mice, with smooth clean coats and pink clean skin on the ears and tail. The eyes and nose should be free of discharge, and the mouth and anal areas should be clean and dry. Their breathing will be relatively fast, but should not be labored or noisy. Check the cage it should be clean and the droppings should be formed. Mice are quite ideal as small pets that are entertaining to watch, are easy to care for and make very few demands on their owners. Their short life span is one of the biggest drawbacks of mice. On average they live for about 1.5-2 years, although they can sometimes live up to 3 years.
Mice are nocturnal and very social. They will be very active in the evening and night, but don't expect to do much with them during the day. Being social, they are best kept in groups. A pair of females is the easiest, although larger groups are fine if you provide the cage space. Pairs of males should be avoided, unless they are littermates, never separated, and given a large enough cage that they can have their own space. If your pet store doesn't separate mice at a young age you may well end up taking home a pregnant female. To tell the difference between young males and females check under their tails for the distance between the anal opening and genital opening - this distance is shorter in the females. Keeping males and females together should be avoided unless you want lots of mice in a short amount of time. |
