Pet Mice and Rats: Humane Care Without the Guesswork

Fancy mouse in a clean cage — A fancy mouse. Mice and rats are social, so housing them alone is a welfare problem. Photo: User Polarqueen on en.wikipedia — CC BY-SA 3.0

Rats and mice cost almost nothing to buy and are surprisingly demanding to keep well. Here is the honest version: group sizes, cage maths, bedding, diet and the health signs that matter.

Fancy rat exploring a hand — Fancy rats are trainable and unusually tolerant of handling. Photo: Editor012456 — CC BY-SA 4.0

Open the article in Zoo magazine →

Photography credits: User Polarqueen on en.wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons