# Hiii!



## Ebphillips (Nov 11, 2015)

Hi!

My name's Emma, and my friends and I are moving into a house together next year and we're allowed caged pets. We've decided we want to go for mice and I'm just doing some research. I've owned hamsters and gerbils before, and I'm a dog trainer in training so I'm really excited to clicker train mice - super interested in seeing what tricks I can come up with for them to do. From my research females in a group are better? We've not yet decided if we want 3 or 2, as there are 3 of us, but one is happy sharing. Does any one have any initial tips? I'll be researching breeders in our area (Reading, Berkshire, UK) over the coming months, as I don't want to contribute to rodent farms.

Cheers


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

hello and welcome.


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## micurious (Nov 7, 2015)

Clicker training sounds like it should be really interesting, I hope you tell us how it goes!


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## bella_squeak (Nov 4, 2015)

If I were you I would get 3 girls because then you each have one and if one dies then the ones who are left won't be as sad as they would be if they were alone.

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## Ebphillips (Nov 11, 2015)

Not sure how I'd start the clicker training so I'll see if I can come up with any research, I'll definitely be updating though! I'm so interested in how it could come out! Quick question about the 3 girls thing - I understand that when one dies the other two still have each other, but eventually the other two will die as well so aren't you just postponing the same problem? Or is the assumption that the first may die in an accident/get ill and not of old age?

Cheers


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## MouseMaid (Apr 7, 2015)

Hi Emma, as a dog trainer myself I find this a fascinating idea. As for how to get started, clicker training should work the same across all species - so your first move is to teach the mouse recognise the clicker as a conditioned reinforcer (basically they need to know that treat follows click, every time, without fail) Personally I'd do that by sitting with the mouse and a handful of treats, then just click and treat. I've got no idea how long it'd take with a mouse, but most dogs pick it up pretty quickly, within about three sessions of ten repetitions.

Once the mouse recognises the click means that they're about to get "paid", they'll repeat the specific behaviour they were doing when the click occurred (precision is key - a split second late will have them repeating the wrong behaviour, and I'm guessing it's even trickier with mice since they're so fast!)

Look forward to hearing how you get on


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## Lilly (Nov 21, 2015)

I am interested in this too, when trying to decide on whether to get mice or rats I came across a website and some videos on youtube showing them clicker training their mice to do agility courses, tricks, play basketball etc and it got me very interested, although on the website they say bucks are easier and its a lot harder if you haven't raised your mice from babies (I guess since pet shop mice may always be more timid).

Here are the links I saw that you might find interesting

Facebook page with quite a few links to youtube videos showing basketball etc

Website that explains a little more in detail about getting started


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