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The common little house mouse played its part in the largest mass death of we humans - the Black Plague of Europe that killed millions of people in medieval times. It has been the source of cult worship and has, throughout our history, greatly influenced the economies of entire civilizations. Mice can eat their way through millions of tons of grain crops in a year, so it is no wonder that these little rodents have been the target of government attempts to control them. The Egyptians found that cats were the best controllers of mice, thus the arrival of these efficient predators came as a direct result of the mouse's activities.
We have tried to poison them out of existence, trap them, burn them, and hunt them - but all to no avail. Wherever humans decide to settle, so will they inherit an attendant mouse population. So versatile are mice that colonies of them have been found living in carcasses of meat in subzero cold stores. They had developed extra fat layers, grew thicker and longer coats - and of course had a readily available food supply in the form of the meat.
For many centuries, indeed until very recent times, the mouse was used as one of numerous ingredients in potions and lotions believed to cure all manner of problems from diseases and lumps, to infertility and cataracts.
They are extremely clean little creatures that fastidiously groom themselves. They are almost odorless, (the male being less so than the female) so any smells from them will be the result of poor hygiene on the part of their owner. They never bite unless provoked by bad handling, and they are very intelligent animals for their diminutive size. This makes them interesting to observe. They are fascinating animals from a color-breeding viewpoint because of their reproductive rate, and they are excellent pets to exhibit. The initial cost of pet mice is quite low, and their upkeep is likewise reasonable. All in all, they are ideal little pets and can teach children much about the responsibility of caring for a living creature.
You should make a clear distinction in your mind between the pet fancy mouse and its wild ancestors. Pet mice are the result of hundreds of generations of mice that have been selectively bred to be placid. They do not carry diseases, and their chances of surviving in the wild, should they ever escape, are slim. They would be attacked by wild mice and would quickly be caught by the many natural predators of their family - cats, snakes, weasels, ferrets, and birds of prey. Fancy mice have become fully domesticated just the same as rabbits, guinea pigs, cats and dogs.
Numerically, the rodents contain more species that any other mammalian order and are highly successful in evolutionary terms. Indeed, nearly half of all mammalian species are rodents. To give you some idea how successful they are, you can ponder the fact that if there are 250 million people living in North America, there are probably tens of billions of rodents, maybe even trillions, and the same is true for most other continents. Mice are found throughout the world and occupy just about every possible ecological niche. The order Rodentia is divided into many families, 35 of which are extant and which contain some 350 or more genera. In these families are to be found all of the Old World mice and rats. The ancestors of the domestic mouse are classified as members of the family Meridae. This family is divided into more than 100 genera, making it the largest mammalian family on our planet.
By the time you are at the genera level, the members are all very similar indeed, but are still obviously separate breeding populations. The lowest full rank in animal classification is that of species. It is identified by adding a name to that of the genus. In the case of the mouse, the species is Mus usculus, derived from the Latin word, Mus, meaning "mouse", and musculus, meaning "little mouse". There are numerous dentifiable sub populations (subspecies) of mice, and the house mouse is one of them. It is identified from others by having a third name, in this case domesticus, added to its species name. The closest relations to the house mouse (other than other mice species and rats) are hamsters and gerbils, then guinea pigs, chinchillas, squirrels, gophers and many other well known animals. Rabbits and hares are not, as is commonly thought, rodents, but are placed in a related order known as Lagomorpha.
The wild coloration of the mouse is, of course, agouti - a blend of black, brown and yellow hairs. The fancy mouse kept as a pet may have one of over 500 combinations of colors and hair types, though only a small percentage of these will normally be seen, even at a large mouse exhibition. In terms of its longevity, a mouse can live up to about five years of age, though two to three would be a more typical aveage. Few other mammals can rival it in the potential number of offspring a female can produce over her lifetime.
The eyesight of a mouse is not especially good, but its sense of smell is acute. Although it is traditionally regarded as a nocturnal species, a fact that its eye size would support, it may, nonetheless, be very active during the daylight hours. Its dawn, dusk, and nocturnal activities are survival strategies. Even so, millions of mice are still caught when they do venture out because their natural enemies have developed the ability to hunt well in the dark. It is not thought that mice can see colors because they possess no color sensitive cones in the eye. They see things in shades running from black through white.
Having a large surface area in relation to its body bulk, the mouse can lose heat by air to surface interfaces, so it has no need of sweat glands. Should it become very hot, it will, of course, pant. Its whiskers are long and sensitive. Apart from being able to touch things with them, the whiskers may also be able to sense vibrations in the air. Thus the mouse can detect things about its environment from them. Some hairs may also serve as a sensitive vibrissae, though they are not as stiff as the whiskers.
The social organization of mice is typical of many non-predatory groups and is based on the "scatter" principle of survival. In this method, thousands of mice may live in a colony; and should they be attacked, they all scatter in various directions. The hope is that the predator may not be able to fix on a single prey as there is so much activity going on around it as it attacks; each mouse hopes it will be its fellow mouse that is the unfortunate victim. Within the colony, mice live in family groups in which there will be a dominant male or female, a number of females, and a number of immature males. As the family grows in number, fighting breaks out, and young males and females will leave to start their own families or join other small groups. A distinct hierarchy is formed within families and groups. This is essential for the success of the group, as it is in most other animals, including humans.
Walter Maxey, and Englishman, is credited as being the Father of The Fancy. His interest in these tiny odents seems to have begun about 1877. As a result of his breeding and activities, the National Mouse Club was formed in England in 1895, and his name lives on in the mouse show cage known as the "Maxey". As more and more people began to take up the keeping of mice, it is not surprising that color mutations began to appear as the 20th century got underway. At that time, Gregor Mendel's theory of genetics was beginning to gain impetus, and the mouse became the chosen animal for genetic experiments. It was the first mammal to demonstrate Mendelism (in 1902).
The fancy mouse, like the canary, was a pet of the working status. At the 1950's people's interest began to turn to exotic animals, such as hamsters, chipmunks, and gerbils, which were the new on the pet scene. The fancy mouse began to disappear from pet shops, though it remained a popular exhibition animal with dedicated fanciers. In recent years, the mouse, as well as the rat, has enjoyed something of a renewal and is once again seen in pet shops.
