Rat owners who also have mice

[amymckee]

OK, starting today I will be mousesitting for my friend's mouse Stewart. I plan to let him out only on the kitchen table, supervised. Is it true that you can't play with mice the way you can play with rats? I don't want him to be lonely, but I dont want to play with him too much. I guess I've heard that mice are much less interactive than rats.

[elegy]

mice don't seem to form as much of a bond to people.

i've never really been able to play with any of the ones i've had. handle, yes. they would sit on my hands and stuff, but i couldn't let them out for playtime or anything like that. i know they would run and never come back, unlike my rats, who just wander around and then get bored and figure it's much more fun to climb mom.

[Roxanne]

I've owned MANY mice in the past and never found that they liked to "play with me".  I've had ones
that were very calm and would sit one my shoulder for as long as I would let them, and then I've had
some that were bouncing off the walls and would use my "hand over hand method" like an exercize
wheel and never sit still.  I did handle all of them daily so that they were used to people.  With all of
them they needed both eyes constantly on them or they'd be off not come back.  My mice always
seemed happiest when they had lots of things to play and build with in their cages.  I would say you
should interact with little stewart for a little while every day and make sure there's lots of fun things in
his cage to keep him busy.  

[WeeRaffins]

I've had lots of mice too...actually, I had them before I had rats. They are sweet little guys, but I never got as close to them as I have with rats. I never really developed a 'friendship' with my mice. We played a lot, and they loved it, but they were just as happy with their pals as they werer with me.

I think you can play with Stuart every day, especially 'cause he sounds like he's alone in the cage. Have fun, and good luck!

[Gary]

I've got my mouse before I got my rats. So far I like my mouse better than the rats. Not having a good experience with those rats so far. Been bit multiple times, I feel like that crazy Australian guy on the Discovery channel. My right hand is sore.

Anyway, I love my little mouse, I set it free on my computer table and it seems to love running around. It sometimes climbs on my hand then up my arm to my shoulder. Loves investigating all the nookes and crannies. Not sure about playing with it though, just loves to scurry around.

Here's a link to a little website I set up for my mouse. Tell me what you think.

http://www.members.aol.com/garyleedance/mouse/whiskers.htm

[Grace Jr]

Of the mice I've had, the females weren't all that 'interactive'.  The males on the other hand were all big cuddle bugs, and loved playing with me.  I trusted the males to run loose, well, when the cats weren't out, but the females I watched very carefully.

They aren't as easy to play with as rats, since they are smaller, and easier to 'break', btu they are still fun.

[Chic 2000]

I had 2 mice that came from the "feeder" bin of the pet store one was black and one was grey.  They where young when we got them.  I think they made great little pets.  They weren't overly cuddly though.  They tend to be much more paraniod and easily frightened of human hands.  The grey one tamed much better than the black one.  She would gladly get into her rollie ball, crawl on us, and take tastey treats.  The black one stayed aloof of us most of the time.  

They lived with us for 2 years.  Then the grey one passed on from an enormous tumor growing on her.  The black one passed away not much later.

From owning mice we moved on to rats.  We had researched on the internet about pet rats.  Or deciding factor from getting more mice VS starting with pet rats was that rats are more easily tamed and pay more attention to their human owners than mice generaly do.  Rats aren't so scared of us and so paraniod all the time like mice tend to be.  But if we didn't have mice to start out with as pets, we never would have gotten the pet rats that we did.        

But a word of caution with mice and rats ... do not put mice with your rats.  Rats may harm them or even kill them.  We never put our black mouse with our new rats after the grey one died.  Sometimes they could sniff each other cause the 2 cages where close together but the rats would immediatly claw, bite and puff up in hostility at the black mouse when they caught a wiff of her presence or saw her.

[amymckee]

Well he's here, and he doesnt seem scared at all despite the car ride and everything. He seems pretty comfortable. I can't believe how tiny he is compared to my rats! I decided to but him on the dresser in the bedroom, which is OFF LIMITS. The biggest no-no in my apt is also the most exciting- but they hardly ever make it inside. The only problem is,  he arrive with two bags of chlorophyll treated pine! Once he has a night to settle, I'll be cleaning the cage... I feel wrong just having the pine in the closet!

Stuart eats seed mix, and he seems to like Total as a treat (one flake is as big as his head!) Are mice ok eating seed mix? He is a fat little pear, and could really stand to trim down a bit.

[amymckee]

I noticed Stuart was sneezing a lot, so I cleaned his cage tonight. That stuff is a mess! Everything it touches gets green powder on it, which turns to dye when it gets wet. I can't imaging having animals on it- they'd dye their feet green everytime they peed! He really enjoyed the carefresh, though. He chewed it and dug through it and had a great time. I also gave him a box, paper towels, a few balls, and put a new sock on the end of his little pipe-playhouse, so he's all set.

[emmamay]

i was wonder is that the same with mice? cause i was watching my old friends mice and they seemed 2 be amused so easly....silly i know but still i was just wondering.