Brave Art

A healthy mouse is a happy mouse. To be honest I didnt realize how much this mouse would eat after nearly 2 months he has eaten a massive bag of mouse food. If not exercising regularly they can easily and quickly become fat. The wheel in his cage seems to take care of this problem mostly but it must be very boring for him. In the wild mice would dig and climb so I thought I would build and buy some exercise equipment for him.

After a few minutes of having a nosey around he was straight up on them. I do believe that mice get genuinely excited when put with new things to do and everytime I have challenged Gizmo with a task he seems to be extremely energetic. I have recorded that Gizmo can run 10 feet per second, which is equivalent to approximately 7.2 miles per hour.

A mouse’s heart beats 500 to 600 beats per minute at rest. A mans beats 70 per minute, that’s one hell of a difference and would explain the difference in life span. An average pet mouse will live up to 2-3 years so keeping yours as healthy as possible can prolong it’s life. In the wild mice live to only 18 months. In captivity and with the proper care a mouse can live up to 5 years.

After 3 weeks now of handling Gizmo he is becoming more and more tame. When I call his name he now comes to the front of the cage and will crawl onto my hand when placed in his cage. Allowing me to take him out. He now happily sits on my shoulder as I walk around the house and even falls asleep in my hand and falls asleep when I watch a movie.

He still becomes nervous at times so I still need to spend more time handling him but he has become very tame in a short space of time. Researching up on mice housing I found if you want to tame your mouse quickly you need to make his cage layout as simple as possible i.e. less tubes and things to do. This makes you it’s biggest toy and place to play. I have provided Gizmo with a wheel for obvious health reasons which he seems to spend an unatural ammount of time running round in. Mice do seem to have an endless amount of energy!

Keeping there cage out of the sun is better for the mouse. I keep it on a shelf around waist height aswell just so it’s easier to place my hand in. I have built a platform for Gizmo to roam around in and learn new tricks outside of his cage.