A daily health check
Once you get to know your mice, you’ll start to see their individual behaviour. You’ll learn what’s normal for your mice and will be able to spot if they’re acting like they’re under the weather.
If you spot any of these problems, get your mouse checked out by a vet.
- Difficulty breathing, snuffling and wheezing. Respiratory infections are a common problem in mice.
- Runny eyes or nose. These can develop into life-threatening pneumonia.
- Any lumps or bumps, as mice can get tumours. Some tumours can become more serious, some fatty some cancerous, than others so always check with your vet.
- Not being as active as usual.
- Going off their food.
Stopping your mice from getting bored
All small pets need toys to play with and objects to explore. It keeps them happy and healthy, and you can watch their fascinating behaviour as they investigate their surroundings.
- Mice love to climb and explore so give them plenty of different levels in their cage. We recommend Rosewood Play’n’Climb.
- An exercise wheel can help keep your mice active but make sure it is safe for them to use. choose one without any gaps or holes they could trap their legs in. The wheel should also be large enough that they can run in it with a straight back.
- Cardboard rolls and tubes give your mice things to chew and places to hide.
- A gnawing block helps them to wear down their teeth.
Suitable toys available in store – ask a member of staff.
Keep some toys stored away and swap them around regularly. This will stop your mice getting bored and means you can give toys a thorough clean.
Diet
Mice are ‘opportunistic omnivores’. This means they eat plants, seeds and grains but will also eat insects when they get the chance.
Top tip: making a sudden change to your mouse’s diet can give them an upset stomach. Instead, gradually introduce new food day-by-day.
The ideal mouse diet will include:
- Commercial mouse food. Mice love variety so is often happier with a muesli-style diet. Food available instore. We recommend Tiny Friends Farm.
- Small amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables. There is a list below of fruit and veg that’s safe for mice to eat.
- Healthy treats such as boiled or scrambled egg, mealworms, lean meat, beans, peas, chickpeas and other pulses
Making feeding fun
In the wild, your mice would spend most of their time searching for food. You can recreate this natural behaviour for your pet mice. It’ll make dinner time more interesting for your pets and will stop them from getting bored. A few suggestions are to:
- Scatter their daily amount of food around their cage instead of feeding them from their bowl. You mice will have to sniff out their meal. this is a really useful trick if you have one mouse that is overprotective of the food bowl and won’t let your other mice have their fair share of the food.
- Hide treats like hay and veg inside paper bags or cardboard tubes and boxes. your mice will love to shred the cardboard to get to their food!
Safe fruit, veg and herbs for your mice
These fruit, vegetables and herbs are all safe for your mice to eat. You should feed them a small amount each day.
Vegetables:
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Chicory
- Sweet peppers
- Cucumber
- Cress
- Courgette
- Peas
- Carrot – as a treat due to sugar content.
Fruit:
- Apple (make sure you remove the seeds first and given in moderation due to high sugar content)
- Pear
- Peach
- Melon
- Dried banana
- Red grapes
DO NOT feed your mice citrus fruits like oranges, lemons or grapefruits.
Herbs:
- Basil
- Sage
- Parsley
- Coriander
Things to chew and gnaw
Mice love to shred, chew and gnaw on things. It’s a natural behaviour that helps keep their teeth healthy and stops your mice getting bored.
Mice love to shred and chew things like:
- Cardboard
- Coconut shells
- Hay cubes
- Unbleached loofah
- Pumice stone
- Seagrass
What are my mice eating their poo?
We might not find it very appetising but it’s actually really important for your mice to eat their own poo as it helps keep their gut healthy. Be sure to check the mice poo to ensure they’re eating the caecotrophic.
Like some other small animals, mice are ‘caecotrophic’. this means they produce two types of poo.
- The first is a softer pellet – or ‘caecotroph’ – and this is the kind they eat because it’s still full of nutrients which they haven’t properly digested yet.
- The second is a harder, drier poo which can be cleaned up and thrown away.
For any more information about the care of your mouse, please do drop us a message on Facebook or give us a call on 01902 494 860 where a member of staff would gladly help.