I'm getting mice! How many should I get? Is 5 enough???

I'm assuming you don't intend to breed them. There are enough little mice out there looking for homes already.





I highly recommend getting your mice from a responsible mouse breeder. If that is not possible, try a local rodent rescue/shelter. If that also fails, find the best petstore in town (= the one with the healthiest looking mice, who MUST be separated by gender if they are 5 wks or older).





Lists of mouse breeders:


http://tinyurl.com/rf83m


http://www.thefunmouse.com/links/breeder鈥?/a>





Tips for finding healthy mice (and other info):


http://www.fancymice.info/generalfrontpa鈥?/a>





Both male and female mice are very inquisitive, friendly little animals (the latter depending slightly on the extent to which they have been socialized/handled from a very young age).





Male mice are more smelly (by which I mean that their urine is; mice themselves smell absolutely wonderful).





Males can also fight amongst themselves (too much testosterone). It doesn't always happen, but if it does you MUST separate them, or they will kill each other.





If these are your first mice, I'd go for females.





Not everyone minds it as much, but ';mouse smell'; really does take some getting used to, especially in the beginning, when they still feel themselves to be in an unfamiliar environment (=%26gt; extra scent marking).





How many you should get depends on the size of your cage, which you haven't specifically stated... The absolute minimum is two. I planned on getting 5 when I started keeping mice. I ended up taking 7 home (mouse lesson no.1: mice are like potato chips, you can never have just one! LOL; especially if they have all these pretty colours and all you are seeing is a handful of huuuge sattelite dish-like mousie ears all tuned towards you, soooo adorable).





Anyway. Seven females was fine for me. My cage (tank) was large enough. But getting back to the smell... in restrospect I think maybe I should've gotten a few less, just to begin with.





So, yeah, maybe my initial 5 max...


Four is a nice number, too, though.





Just get as many as you like. :)


It's really nice to watch them interact with each other.





Note that there is a definite advantage to keeping 3 as opposed to only 2. Mouse average lifespan is 1-3 yrs (it varies quite a bit). So your little girls are inevitably going to die at different times. Having 3 mice will decrease the chance of you ending up with one lonely mouse for a very long time, if the other happens to die ';young';. Just a thought.





Some excellent mouse sites:


http://www.fancymice.info/


http://www.thefunmouse.com/


http://www.hiiret.fi/eng/index.html


http://www.mouseranch.com/main.html





And a very nice mouse Yahoo Group:


http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/valer鈥?/a>


(in case the link is broken up: Valeries Mice Paradise)





I hope this helps. :)





Enjoy your little mice. They make adorable pets!





Greetz.


Cyzahhe





PS: Just coming back from the vet with one of my mice who has asthma, made me realize I forgot to add something...





When deciding how many pets to get, you might want to take into account veterinary costs. Mice are unfortunately very prone to respiratory infections and mammary tumours.





And, while antibios are relatively cheap and mouse tumours sadly often cannot be removed (always ask the vet for possible treatment options before putting a mouse down though), vets themselves can charge very high fees depending on which country/area you live in.





Just something else to think about.I'm getting mice! How many should I get? Is 5 enough???
Well If I were you mice arn't my fav but I would get all female or all male or eles they will make lots of babys and you might have a 100 mice before you know it. I herd mice and be agressive.I'm getting mice! How many should I get? Is 5 enough???
get a cat
what do you need them for?
Depends on how hungry you are and how many people you are serving. The general rule is two mice per person.
If you get five, you will have fifty in a month!





Try working with two females, then seeing what experiences you learn from those two. Such as, ';when will the males eat the babies?';


Then you will be prepared to handle a brood.


Before you introduce another sex into your cage, be SURE you have a store (or sadly, a snake handler) that will buy your babies!








VERY GOOD START!!! ARRRGH!!! I just HATE it when I see animals stuffed into a 10in X 10in cage with no respect for their nature or instinct.....especially dogs in apartments!
HA what FUNNY thing....i'm getting some mice tomarrow i would get to girls because they do not smell and if you get BOY and a GIRL they will mate.....well good luck with your new pets!!!!
5 should be enough for breeding. Be sure that you get at least 3 females. On the other had, a 4 to 1 ratio would be even better. If you are raising them for labratory experiments, you should be aware that florescent lights have been determined to be a significant cause of cancer in labratory animals.
5 !!!!!! 10 is better ... what can you do with 5 mice anyway?? 10 is the way to go...
LOL. 5 can turn into 55 if you mix the genders. Years ago, I bought 4 females and one was pregnant (didn't know when I bought her). I ended up with 53 because I refused to take them to the pet shops afraid they'd use them to feed snakes.





Fact: Mice are mature enough to mate at about a month old and from the time of conception to birth is also 3 weeks. So in 2 months, you have the grandchildren! A mouse can have up to 16 young per litter. However, I usually had between 4-8 in a typical litter.





Hope you're prepared with a 50 gal. aquarium. Good luck!
If you get 2 and they are not the same sex you will have plenty in a few weeks
If you get 5 and you don't want a million, get all girls. Girl mice don't fight with eachother normally, but males tend to. If you want to breed them, get another cage. If you keep males and females in the same cage, they'll mate continuously. Females go into heat several times a year and can get pregnant again 24 hours after giving birth.
more than enough just make sure they dont have babies and u end up with 30