The California pocket mouse feeds mainly on the seeds of annual grasses and forbs, and probably consumes leafy vegetation and insects seasonally. It forages mainly on the ground, but apparently also climbs up into shrubs. Grazing of grassland by domestic stock eliminates cover necessary for predator avoidance. Young born in burrows dug in soft soil. The California pocket mouse occurs in chaparral and in grassland, but probably reaches its greatest abundance where these 2 habitats occur in close proximity.
Territory probably equals home range.
Gestation period is 3-4 wk. Predators include coyotes, bobcats, owls, and snakes. As a small-bodied granivore, the California pocket mouse probably competes with Dipodomys heermanni and Peromyscus spp. The reproduction of heteromyid rodents in captivity. Tinkle, D. W., and W. Harmon.