Pet Mice
I have always been partial to mice. No other pet offers so much personality in so little a package.
When I first graduated from veterinary college, I had the choice of going to Viet Nam as a soldier, or going to Bethesda, Maryland to care for 20,000 mice. I chose the mice.
Mice are rodents; and there are many many species of this rodent found throughout the World. But the one this article is about is the common house mouse, Mus musculus. The house mouse originated in Asia. The Chinese were keeping them as pets as early at 1,100 BC. Slowly, the domesticated strains of this rodent became calm, and lost their ability to live on their own. During this period, strains were developed for color, size, coat texture and particular temperaments.
Domesticated mice became popular in England in the late 1800s and were called “Fancy mice” or “Hobby mice”, to distinguish them from their wild cousins that zipped along the kitchen floor. About this time too, scientists began to find these slower varieties convenient for experimentation.
Today, in the United States, pet shops sell them as “Feeder mice” – due to their tragic fate of ending up as the diet of various carnivorous lizards and snakes.
When I first graduated from veterinary college, I had the choice of going to Viet Nam as a soldier, or going to Bethesda, Maryland to care for 20,000 mice. I chose the mice.
Mice are rodents; and there are many many species of this rodent found throughout the World. But the one this article is about is the common house mouse, Mus musculus. The house mouse originated in Asia. The Chinese were keeping them as pets as early at 1,100 BC. Slowly, the domesticated strains of this rodent became calm, and lost their ability to live on their own. During this period, strains were developed for color, size, coat texture and particular temperaments.
Domesticated mice became popular in England in the late 1800s and were called “Fancy mice” or “Hobby mice”, to distinguish them from their wild cousins that zipped along the kitchen floor. About this time too, scientists began to find these slower varieties convenient for experimentation.
Today, in the United States, pet shops sell them as “Feeder mice” – due to their tragic fate of ending up as the diet of various carnivorous lizards and snakes.
