Mary Allen
Mice are small rodents. Whoever speaks of a mouse usually means the house mouse. There are almost 40 different types of mice. Mice originally lived in Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia. However, humans have also carried them to America, Australia, and many islands.
Mice are small, only about two to four inches long. The tail is almost as long again. Mice weigh between twelve and 35 grams. Depending on the type, it takes three to eight mice to weigh a bar of chocolate. Mice have gray to brown fur. This camouflages them well in nature.
How do mice live?
Mice live in forests, pastures, on the savanna, and even in rocky places. However, many mice like to live near people. Mice eat mostly plants, preferably seeds. They rarely eat insects or other small animals. In the farmers’ fields and in the gardens they eat almost everything they find. In the houses, they even eat cooked food when they get close.
But mice are also eaten themselves, mostly by cats, foxes, birds of prey, or snakes. Especially in the past, many people kept cats as pets so that they would eat the mice. Many people also set mousetraps or sprinkle poison.
In the wild, mice sleep most of the day. They are awake at dusk and at night. The closer mice live to humans, the more likely they are to change their daily rhythm. Very few mice hibernate properly. Some simply become rigid for a period of time, conserving energy.
Female house mice can carry young in their wombs several times a year. Pregnancy lasts three weeks. A mother always gives birth to several young at once.
At birth, a little mouse weighs less than a gram. It is naked, blind, and deaf. It drinks milk from its mother for three weeks. The young drink milk from their mother. It is also said: They are suckled by their mother. Therefore, mice are mammals. At the age of six weeks, a young mouse can already become pregnant. Mice can therefore reproduce very quickly.