House Mice

> People are going to start telling you about hantavirus, a deadly disease,
> but please be aware that hantavirus is carried by deer mice, not house mice.
> If the mice you have are truly house mice, you will not catch hantavirus
> from them. Deer mice have large hind legs and heads, huge eyes, and are
> colored brown on top and white underneath. House mice look pretty much like
> pet store mice in terms of proportions (but smaller), but are usually brown
> all over. (There are exceptions. Most of the house mice I have caught in
> my house have white bellies -- it is a color variation that does occur.)
> The most reliable way to tell a deer mouse from a house mouse is that deer
> mice have sharply bicolored tails, brown on top and light on the bottom.
> House mice have solid colored tails.

Wow, so I definately have 6 deer mice in captivity. I'm so glad to have
them in a cage rather than eating my food and running around my bed.

>> With my house mice, the main "danger" is escape. They are lightning fast
> and can jump very high. We have already lost (and recaptured) one of the
> females three times due to her escaping while we tried to clean her cage.
> Furthermore, one of them chewed her way out of a hard plastic cage by
> widening a tiny ventilation hole. Any place they can start chewing, they
> will.

The mice I have were like charged particles when I first put them in, but
they've relaxed alot. They just freeze, or start running on their wheel
when I'm dropping new food in or replacing their water bottle.

> It's possible they're all female, but I would say it's unlikely. I would
> advise you to take another close look so that you don't end up dealing with
> a litter (or more) of wild mice. Males have noticeable testicles, but they
> can retract them when nervous. I find that the testicles are harder to
> discern in my wild mice than in my domestic mice. A more reliable way to
> tell the sexes is by the distance between their anus and their external
> genitals. The distance is further in the males. This will be more
> noticeable if you compare the mice side by side. I sexed mine by putting
> them in a jar and looking at them from underneath.

I'll have to try again. They dont seem to be fighting at all, and after
about two months there still arent any kids. What is their breeding cycle
like. It's winter here. Do they avoid breeding in winter?


Thank you so much for your help.