Mitchell's hopping mice info and wanting...

[emshep85]

Hi all.I have just been given a female.
Also, what is the diet a captive hopping mouse is given? I have heard just a rodent mix is fine, but should I be looking more into seeds etc to mimic natural diet? What substrate should I use?

 

[syeph8]

I just used to buy wild bird seed mix and those seed stick things and I also used to give mine tonnes of baby spinnach which they tore through.

 

[thomasbecker]

I use wild bird seed and either carrot, apples, corn, boc choy, spinach or grapes.

 

[HerpNthusiast]

Hi can you guys tell me do these cute mice stink because my mum is nervous about this.

 

[emshep85]

not at all we have them in our lounge room, 6 in total and no smell at all! the only comment i will make is that we have them on red desert sand and they are exellent diggers, we went away for two weeks and lets just say dust was every where! ( we put shade cloth above the mesh to stop it and no issues since.

 

[HerpNthusiast]

Thank you emshep85

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Oh how long can hopping mice last while your on a holiday because we like to ski for a week so would people have to feed them or what?

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I'm also very new since I signed up at 4.00 today.

 

[thomasbecker]

I fed mine every night and gave it new water in the dripper every couple of days

 

[KaotikJezta]

Be careful introducing new mice to existing ones. They can kill each other if they don't get on. Happens more with bonded groups where a new one is introduced but I have also seen older siblings gang up and kill a younger one.

 

[emshep85]

we had a house sitter look after them for us but if you gave them lots of food that would be fine, we have a water feeder like what you have for domestic mice in there for them and that lasts a long time. also as kaotikjezta mentioned be very very careful introducing new mice as they WILL attack each other, put them in nuetral ground ( a big empty bucket ) and monitor them

 

[HerpNthusiast]

Thank You

 

[thomasbecker]

That happened to me, I introduced a pair to my female and they didn't get along at all. Had to separate them or else one of them would have died.

Also, mine bred heaps, probably every month there was a new litter. Eventually had to give them all away and kept the female by herself.

 

[treeofgreen]

this thread made me google them, i want one now

can you get them in QLD? How much they usually go for?

 

[HerpNthusiast]

Dear treeofgreen i believe that keeping hopping mice in QLD is illegal



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oh is this a good tank size for a pair of hopping miceView attachment 270570

 

[thomasbecker]

seems good enough, any fish tank is good as well

 

[eddie123]

are these good snake food as i have heard they breed like crazy

 

[HerpNthusiast]

Oh Guys Do hopping mice need daily attention or could you leave them for a period of maybe 3 days because my mum thinks they need attention daily.

 

[emshep85]

no they dont need daily attention however every few days its not a bad idea to spot clean them as they do "poop" everywhere

 

[emshep85]

Not ours but the little buggers still aren't breeding

 

[HerpNthusiast]

Not ours but the little buggers still aren't breeding

Oh that's a shame

 

[DanLM]

They don't breed as often as normal mice do, but if you want to get them breeding feed them lots of grass. Seems to work for my little colony.