page_title: Rodents as pets
section_title: Fancy mouse
hierarchical_section_title: Rodents as pets / Description / Fancy mouse
caption_attribution_description: Pet mouse. Female, three months old. Color: Agouti Even Mismark.
context_page_description: A pocket pet is a small, pocket-sized pet mammal commonly kept as a household pet. The most common pocket pets are rodents such as hamsters, gerbils, common degus, fancy mice, fancy rats, common chinchillas, and guinea pigs. The term also includes exotic pets and marsupials like flying squirrels, Chacoan pygmy opossums, sugar gliders, and hedgehogs.
  Other small non-mammalian animals such as reptiles, birds, fish, and amphibians—e.g. lizards, snakes, turtles, goldfish, canaries, and frogs—may not be considered pocket pets.
  Many of these small pets are prohibited in certain areas for being invasive; California, Hawaii, and New Zealand have strict regulations to protect their native environments and agricultural operations. Gerbils, degus, ferrets, domesticated rats, sugar gliders, and hedgehogs have various prohibitions on their ownership.
context_section_description: Fancy mice were popular pets in Japan during the 18th century, due in large part to the abundance of color mutations in wild mice. In 1787, a book on this hobby, The Breeding of Curious Varieties of the Mouse, was published by Chobei Zenya, a Kyoto money exchanger. Over time, the tradition spread from Japan to Europe, and in 1895 the National Mouse Club was established in England.
  Fancy mice are nocturnal animals who utilize burrowing and hiding to evade prey due to their general defenselessness. Mice also utilize burrows to avoid light whenever possible. Mice live in families with developed social structure and territorial boundaries between families. Male mice organize themselves into a social hierarchy in which the most dominant mouse becomes the "lead buck", or the one at the top of the social ladder. Only the lead buck mates during mating season, all other mice are restricted by the lead buck or downright rejected by the female mice. Mice possess a highly developed sense of smell, hearing, and feeling; however, their sense of sight is poor due to the odd location of their eyes on their head. Mice can hear pitches inaudible to the human ear and communicate with squeaks, some of which reach pitches humans cannot hear, detectable through the use of a microphone and oscilloscope.
  Their sense of smell is highly developed and many mice can recognize if another mouse is part of their family groups based on smell alone. Their sense of touch is also highly developed; due to their poor eyesight a lot of movement is interpreted through the utilization of whiskers and guard hairs to orientate themselves and determine their surroundings. Female mice have a gestation period of 19 to 21 days and may have up to 15 litters a year; due to their ability to become pregnant again within 24 hours of giving birth. The average litter size is 10 to 12 pups who are born deaf and blind; within 2 weeks the litter will resemble small adult mice.
caption: Young pet mouse
exif: {}