# Why hello there!



## Discordya (Jan 31, 2011)

My name is Sara and I am not a breeder but rather just thought I might could join here to learn information and mice specifics. My sister bought a fancy mouse from pet store for a pet and learned she was allergic. I know they are not necessarily the best pet but since he was bought as that, I could not bear to just give him away as food. I am hoping I am not entirely out of place here. I just wanted to be around some others who may share the same as me, and meet some other owners. 

Also, I am typing from my phone so please pardon any typos!


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## Kallan (Aug 16, 2009)

Hello  You are more than welcome to join, this is the place for anyone with fancy mice  I think they make great pets, you can either watch them like fish or get more interactive


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## Discordya (Jan 31, 2011)

I was hoping to get more interactive, but honestly I have only ever owned 2 large rats and I never got into taming them or anything. I gave them to someone later on who knew more about them, because I moved and went to a smaller place and their large habitat could not come with me.

I have this little guy in what I think is a good house. It's about 12 or so wide and probably about 14 high with a wheel and some tubes. I do, however from research on this forum, need to change his substrate and food. I am going to the pet store tomorrow for some aspen. My sis bought him with all this habitat and stuff for it and the food. She just gave it all to me.

I would love to get interactive, is there a place for tips on how you can be able to hold them and them not potty on you and things like that?


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## Kallan (Aug 16, 2009)

Definitely, head on down to the mousery and mouse care section and browse through the posts


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## Discordya (Jan 31, 2011)

Awesome! Thank you so much Kallan! I look forward to speaking with you, and all, and learning! I honestly don't know a single thing about the care of this little guy, but one thing I am known for is researching anything that comes into my care/responsibility to make I do everything I can the right way. 

Off topic a little since this is an intro spot, what kind of age group is around mostly, if any?


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## webzdebs (Mar 29, 2010)

Hello and welcome! mice make excellent pets you certainly won't be disappointed


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## Discordya (Jan 31, 2011)

I will take a photo later after I get some sleep. But can anyone tell me the average lifespan of pet store feeder fancy mice? He is light brown sugar color. I've read 7 months average and up to 2 years average, so not sure which it really is!


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## racingmouse (Jan 12, 2011)

Pet store mice can vary. It really depends on their breeding and how they are fed. A good diet should consist of grains and seeds, so a good `base` mix for rats or rabbits is a good start as they contain much the same grains, although the rabbit mix won`t contain animal proteins, but those are not terribly important as long as the mouse is getting good variety. Look for grains like oats, wheat and barley. You can add in budgie seed/millet, canary mix and other small seeds. hemp and linseed are sometimes already in some bird seed mixes, but if not, you can pick these up in healthfood stores and mix them all together.

I`ve kept mice as pets for ten years or so and I find the little pet store/pet shop mice can live anywhere between a year and two years. The larger show mice I`ve had (two seperate females from different breeders) never reached their first birthdays sadly.

Keep his cage very clean and well ventilated. Males urinate more so their urine smell can build up, so you want to avoid that. Enjoy your little friend because male mice are fantastic little characters! Just let him come to you and be patient. he will soon get to know you. Mice like to have a routine and sleep most of the day, but singly kept males may need more attention through not having a cagemate, but once they are on their own, you can`t introduce him to another male anyhow or they would fight badly, which is why they require that bit more human interaction.


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## Discordya (Jan 31, 2011)

Yeah, my sister had him with a cagemate but it passed away. She's not sure why. She kept really good care of them, cleaning once or twice a week and has lots for them to play with in the cage (wheel, ledges, a ramp, etc) and all.

She has this food, it seemed bad because of corn as I read somewhere corn 'can' be bad. But I'm not sure how good it is. I was going to go to the pet store today and see if there was anything else with no corn. Is there any food from the pet store you would recommend? What I'm using now is called Forti-Diet Pro Health by Kaytee. I don't personally like Kaytee brand things most of the time. I used to have rabbits and a lot of the Kaytee foods are not good for rabbits, it's just that it's not really healthy diets.

Anyway, main ingredients in this food I have says DHA OMEGA-3, has ground yellow corn, soybean meal diluted, ground wheat, ground oats, ground peanuts, sun-cured alfalfa meal, ground flax seed, dried cane molasses, corn sugar, calcium carbonate, ground rice, salt, soy oil, brewers dried yeast, dried beet pulp, whole cell algae meal (claims this is the omega-3), vitamin A supplement, yucca extract, mixed tocopherals, b12 supplement, vitamin E supplement, cholecalciferol (source of vitamin D3), and a ton of other technical word ingredients that I don't know what they are.

It seems pretty ok with all the oats and seeds and stuff, but the corn and the rice scare me a little.


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## The Boggit keeper (Mar 5, 2010)

Hi and Welcome!


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## Discordya (Jan 31, 2011)

Why thank you, Boggit keeper!

I do have a photo now, not sure if I should post here or elsewhere, or both! I'll post here for now  Those weird cylinder shaped things are his food. I don't know why they'd made mouse food so huge! I guess he doesn't mind. He takes them out of his designated food bowl, and scatters them around his cage. I am surprised he does not chew on his tubes. My fancy rats used to chew on anything you put in there, I had to take out all of their platforms because they just ate them! But this little mouse, he is cute and not chewing up his home.

SOP (sorry for poop!). He's a bowel active lil guy! We just cleaned this out last night!


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Howdy! My favorite of my rather large mousery is a little buck; the bucks are the most outgoing. It helps to let the mousie come to you; offer a tasty snack in the palm of an open hand. Little chunks of dried bread are extremely attractive to meeces. Give him a tiny taste then offer a bigger bit in your hand. Soon he'll associate your hand with a treat, and after a while he'll just crawl right into ti. You can also get him in a tube in the cage and lift him out like that. Hold him so he can see your face and let him rub noses with you to get your scent. My cuddlebuddy, Ferguson, like to give nosies and sometimes sticks his whiskery nose into my ear, which is delightfully tickly. He rides around on my shoulder while I feed the rest of the meeces.


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## Discordya (Jan 31, 2011)

Thanks moustress! I will try with something later today when he is more active. He has been sleeping! What can I do to make sure he will not potty on me?


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