Getting a mouse

[evansmummy]

I think we've finally decided on a mouse for ds's birthday. I've heard that the males smell more than the females, so will go for two girly mice as I know they are very sociable. Does anyone know where we can get one? I've tried all the local pet shops to no avail, and the nearest mousery that I can find on the Internet is a good hours drive away.

Can anyone help?

i've no idea where you can get one from. sorry.
all mice smell, my cousin used to breed them and they stink.
rats are much nicer, friendlier, intelligent and less smelly!

How old is your DS? Mice aren't ideal pets to be honest with you, they do smell and are incontinent.

Rats or guinea pigs do make far, far better pets to be honest - and they are more robust.

If you want to stick with mice perhaps your local vet or RSPCA centre would be able to help?

I just think mice look so cute! DH really don't fancy a rat cos he doesn't like the look of them, abd guinea pigs are a bit dull, well what i know of them anyway, which I admit isn't a lot!

DS will be 5.

Thanks for the advice though, I will bear it in mind and discuss again with dh.

We used to have mice when Ds was 5 - he loved them.

They are better in bigger groups though so you could get 4 or so in a cage like [http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HAMSTER-CAGE-LARGE-WESTMINSTER-PALACE-MOUSE-GERBIL-WOW_W0QQitemZ360203704551Q QcmdZViewItemQQptZUKPetSuppliesSmallAnimals?hash=item53ddd058e7 this]] because the bars are close enough to stop escapes! (they have to be 1cm or less so most hamster cages are too wide)

They are lovely pets I found - yes, they smelt a bit but a quick clean every other day, proper absorbant cage liner and a good disinfect every week kept on top of it.

They have fantastic characters and are really intelligent - ours came to call like dogs lol

QcmdZViewItemQQptZUKPetSuppliesSmallAnimals?hash=item53ddd058e7 this even

FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!

we have 2 mice, we got them from the local garden

I have to say though, they are the most BORING creatures on earth, they sleep all the time

We had mice when we were growing up, we had 3 pairs of them throughout my childhood, I think they are lovely - easier to handle than grumpy hamsters and cuter than gerbils. I've told dd she can have mice for her 6th birthday!

We have lots of mice living in our skirting boards- would you like one?

Joking apart my DH had one when he was growing up and reallly liked it - he says he would like DS to have one when he is a bit older.

Thanks all. I've found a few mouse breeders but the closest is an hours drive away, whereas there are several rat breeders almost on my doorstep.

I think we're gonna have to do some thinking about this, cos apart from the inital outlay, there are of course vets bills and general maintenance costs that I hadn't thought that much about. I'm not sure our tight budget stretches to a pet atm

hamSTER! hamSTER! hamSTER!

evansmummy you don't pay vets bills for mice. they just die, then you get a new one

...but don't tell anyone I said that

Not a lot of vets bills involved with either rats or mice really. They don't need innoculations or anything.
Food etc is fairly cheap, as is bedding material (you can rip up kitchen roll to make bedding go further)
Some places like Pets at Home etc do complete rat/mice starter kits where you get everything you need

We had mice, they were lovely little things, and weren't as bitey as our late hampster.
They really, really smelt though.

Guinea pigs are not dull!! No really they have stacks of personality, and are great pets for small kids. Can be a bit stooopid sometimes but that just adds to their charm I think!

I know nothing about mice, although my cat always brings them in - usually half dead! I could save you a couple of the healthier looking ones if you like??? I did see some fancy ones for sale in pets at home recently while I was in there admiring their guinea pigs!!!

Don't worry about vets bills too much, in our family we had 6 mice who never saw a vet - just died when they were 2-2.5, also had 8 gerbils, they were the same, 3 hamsters - one saw a vet when he'd dislocated his hip annd he was quite elderly so they couldn't do much - I took him back to be PTS a few weeks later as he wasn't improveing - the vet didn't charge me for either visit - although I also had a dog that he made a fair bit of money from! You're just looking at the initial outlay and a small quantity of food and bedding - we used to teach our mice to come when we called them by giving them treats, and made runs for them out of old cardboard boxes and toilet roll tubes - only superviised of course - they're pretty good at escaping(from the runs - not their cages)!