Mice behaviour

 

Make sure your mice are able to behave normally

 

 

 

Facts

• Mice like to stay in physical contact with upright surfaces and can find barren open spaces stressful.

• Wild mice are extremely active animals, travelling many hundreds of meters in one day.

• Mice have a strong motivation to groom and spend a large proportion of their waking time grooming.

• Wild mice burrow and build complex tunnel systems.

• Mice are crepuscular and nocturnal animals, this means that they are active at dusk and dawn and throughout the night.

• Changes in types of behaviour and how long mice spend doing particular behaviours can indicate that a mouse is in pain, or distress or is suffering.
    

Things you should do

• Make sure there are vertical and horizontal dividers in the cage (shelves and climbing facilities) to increase the complexity of the cage and allow your mice to confidently move about.

• Make sure your mice have the opportunity to exercise, forage, play, interact with their cage mates without aggression, climb, and investigate and control their environment within their home-cage.

• Make sure that there is sufficient space within the home-cage to provide suitable species appropriate enrichment whilst still allowing generous space for the mice.

• Make sure that your mice are able to clean and groom themselves properly otherwise they can become frustrated, and it can affect their ability to cope with their environment.

• Allow mice to burrow. You can do this by:
  - Providing them with bedding material that is deep enough to allow them to burrow and seek a darker environment, but that does not totally stop you from being able to check on them.
  - Or by giving them cardboard tubes with multiple exits which are large enough so that the mice can turn round and not become stuck and/or to help them avoid any confrontation with cage mates.

• Place their home-cage somewhere quiet and undisturbed away from the main activity of the home. This will help to make sure that your mice are disturbed as little as possible during the day, when they rest and sleep.

• Make sure you are familiar with your mice and how each mouse normally behaves. Any change in this could indicate that the mouse is unwell or suffering. More details on this can be found in the Health and Welfare section.