«The answer is actually not a definitive yes — however, it’s also not a no. So what’s the deal? Mice will eat cheese if there’s no other food in the area, but this wouldn’t be their first choice or something they’re drawn to from its scent. We know,
(If the above tag doesn't show up as a line across this message-screen then just treat it like a line across this message-box anyway)
Okay, initial reactions of «Damnit, Habi, why in the world would you create a thread with such a traumatising-sounding title!?» aside, I am tell you the bit of background for what lead to this... posting. We all know that there are a lot of animals in game that is associated with these forums, and, many of them are kept as pets, but, mice (and/or rats) are critters that we typically beat up and/or exterminate (or at least try to, even though they seem to be impossible to eradicate, efforts at rendering them extinct being futile), particularly starting from Alby Dungeon. I am now currently keeping a mouse (or is it a rat ?) as a pet, temporarily anyway (probably), and, here is the story of how this all got started recently (see spoiler as my comprehensive-description of what transpired has apparently turned into some sort of long-story)...
Well, recently, I had to take measures to catch a mouse that some-how was «squatting» around mine living quarters. I even ordered a
«humane» cage-trap which managed to do the job (I did use Swiss-Cheese as bait for the job). Decided to bring it outside and release it after keeping it in the cage for the first half-day (also decided to place it above my garbage-can since I didn't want it to leave its «droppings» all over my carpet).
Out of all the things, the next day, I find that mouse (or is it a rat ?) back in my home again, but, this time, instead of scurrying off to hide or run away upon seeing me or when I turned on the lights, this little critter decided to show up in my kitchen whilst I was cleaning my kitchen-area. I should have known, considering, how rats/mice seem to be able to memorise mazes, I necessarily came to the conclusion that it was/is definitely the same one. This time, the cage was avoided, but, the mouse apparently jumped up onto my counter as I was moving some dishes around, apparently not caring that I was nearby. Then it crawled up onto one of my brushes that I use to wash dishes, apparently trying to collect bristles from it, and, that was when I decided to put on gloves and capture the little bugger.
I then dumped it into a bucket, for a time, thought that the bucket was tall enough (knee-height) to where it wouldn't be able to escape, but, of all the things, eventually, this mouse (or is it a rat ?) jumped onto the edge of the bucket, escaping from the bucket, jumping onto my books in a nearby box, so I had to grab it again and put it back into my bucket, but, I also needed to prevent it from being able to escape, so, I covered the bucket with a (semi-transparent) plastic-lid from one of my other containers. Eventually, though, because I wasn't sure if the air-circulation would be blocked off too much, I then used a fabric-type container instead to cover the lid to prevent the mouse from jumping out (although it did try to a few times, initially with the plastic-lid, then even with the fabric-lid, but, I made sure there was enough weight with a paper-towel-holder on the fabric-lid so that it wouldn't be able to knock the lid off). I also provided it with some water and food (cheese and hard-salami), not being entirely sure what to do with it, and, left it on its own for a day.
When I later on went to check on the mouse (cannot be at home 24/7 after all since I have been actively working towards various goals which actually require me to leave my living quarters of all things), I found that, because of its multiple escape-attempts, the styrofoam bowl of water that I had in there for it spilled all over, and, it was standing on the edge of the bowl, apparently shivering (well, no d'uh, yer gonna get cold and not have anywhere in the bucket that isn't full of water to stand/rest on if you do that, don't-cha-know). I then decided to look around for a larger container within which I could keep/house the little critter (I think this one is a male so I will refer to him from hereon in the masculine-gendre).
I decided that one of my bins that I was using as storage for some of my other equipment was appropriately large enough to keep him from feeling too crowded/confined/claustrophobic/etc., put on some gloves again, grabbed the little guy (it jumped away from my attempt to grab it the first couple of times, as I was reaching for him rather slowly, then decided to use martial arts speed grabbing if he was going to be
that insistent on trying to avoid getting picked up, which, obviously it wouldn't be able to escape/dodge from at my level of speed/skill/accuracy), once I grabbed him, then of course he kept on squirming around trying to escape, but, I went ahead and quickly dumped him into the bigger container.
Now, although various things transpired between then and now, such as my use of a Bio-Mat which emits Far-Infrared Light/Heat to produce/provide warmth), I didn't really check the inside temperature of the container for a while, thinking that I set the heat-level to low enough where it wouldn't be over-heated (but it still turned out to be quite warm after I checked after a few more hours later... realising that there was something of a green-house effect). I necessarily lowered the temperature, then, turned it off, then later on decided to re-activate the heating unit, this time on its lowest active-heat settings. Anyway,
never in my life had I ever thought about nor imagined that I would ever decide to keep a wild mouse (or is it a rat ?) as a pet (temporarily anyway... probably...). Like,
can they be kept as pets,
should they be kept as pets, and all sorts of other questions kept surfacing as I furiously went into doing research and reading as much as I could about whatever I found based on mine experiences with trying to provide his needs and observing his behaviours and peculiarities. You can see the «current status» (according to around the time-stamp of this posting) as to this pet mouse (or is it a rat ? O_O I'm still not sure... D= [although, I do think, that he's
probably a mouse...]), herein, within the next spoiler anyway, a snap-shot-photo that I just took just now.
Yup, I learned about how mice like to create their own bedding (remembering that it seemed to be collecting bristles from my dish-washing brush similar to how certain birds collect blades of grass in order to build their own nest), decided to provide it with cotton-swabs (
before reading/learning about/from others who seem to post that pet mice/rodents/hamsters
shouldn't have cotton-swabs for bedding material, due to various dangers cited, but, this mouse [or is he a rat ? D=] didn't seem to have any issues with using the cotton-ball swabs I provided to him to make his own bedding-space), then I read about how mice seem to love shredded paper-towels, so, I cut up several squares of one-inch paper-towel pieces and dumped it into the bin, which,
initially this mouse seemed to prefer to the cotton-bed that he made, even having rested/slept on it a few times, but, currently, as I am typing this out, he has chosen to stay rested upon the cotton-bed.
And, now, although I am skipping several other details (and other products that I ordered for pet-mice purposes which should be arriving by the 5th and 6th of this month within the next few days), here we come to how and why this «thread» got «triggered» into being written, and, that was because I was trying to find out what kind of cheese is the favourite type of cheese of mice (I mean, gee, I saw them go cuckoo and gaga for cheese in all of those different cartoons and stuff after all), only to find that cheese is one of those foods that actually should NOT be fed to pet-mice. I couldn't believe this... television has been a LIE, a teLIEvision, all my life (not that I watch or own any televisions and haven't for over a decade which makes it much more difficult to «propagandise» someone like me into beLIEving in those
obvious falsities, but, some-how, the beLIEf in cheese-loving mice still lingered around in mine own «unfounded assumptions» BASED ON WHAT I USED TO SEE ON TELEVISION which has NECESSARILY FORCED ME TO HAVE TO QUESTION EVERYTHING seemings as how my «childhood just got
crushed» the revelations about the
facts about what mice
should eat and
actually prefer to eat). Yes, believe it or not, this mouse is choosing the cabbage-leaf I provided, over the cheese (even the organic sugar-grains I dumped in there are being ignored... what gives...? O_O). And that is the story of how
I AM NOW CRUSH YOUR CHILD-HOOD WITH THESE MOUSE-FACTS!!! =O
Comments
2. nope, didn't destroy my childhood; it's like the things with cats and milk
3. historically the mice here liked peanut butter, but I imagine its like total crack to them, just as feeding carrots to rabbits is
Try fruit seeds?
.......Well:
...the mouse is cute (I rarely see black mice)
My cats would kill it.
you gonna name it? -- Er, sorry, ' HIM '? (coff, coff)
(might wanna check the jennytals if you're gonna keep ' HIM ' around)
Wait, why did I bother with this - ...
Yeah, I think it is a mouse and not a rat, too.
Re : 2
What, the thing with cats and milk, but, but, the cartoons... D=
Anyway, yeah, our semi-feral Bombay cat, from a few years ago, for some reason, didn't care for fish, but, he would quickly gobble up any chicken-liver when it was available (the first thing he went after when even a variety of other food was available).
Re : 3
Yeah, I fed it/him a few different things, only to soon after quickly read that, just about everything they like to eat is bad. Apples need their seeds removed since those seeds are apparently where cyanide comes from (don't get any funny ideas people). I then tried to feed him some of the more recommended «healthy» stuff (carrots, broccoli, celery), but, he didn't seem to be interested (only using the broccoli as something to stand on). I haven't picked up any fruits yet, although, I read that blue-berries are very good, how-ever, due to the mouse having escaped from the Ferplast-Cage that I had him in, I should probably just get a cat to warn it off unless I can some-how manage to catch him again (he seems to be wary of my trap-cage obviously since the first time getting caught).
Seems the mistake I made was allowing the water-bottle cage-hook to expand the bars behind it which is where I think he managed to squeeze through and escape from (I guess I got careless, mainly because of inexperience with this, but, I have since sealed that vulnerability with binder-clips in case I manage to re-capture him and should be able to keep him in the cage whilst preventing future escape from happening).
That mouse is actually grey (or dark-grey ?), but, probably, the lighting/angle of the camera made him look dark, probably also because he seemed to be a bit wet. Cats certainly eat mice, and, I was originally thinking of obtaining a pet cat in order to curb any mice-population, how-ever, well-fed cats, according to one of the articles I came across, don't actually eat mice, even though they will «play» with them, possibly capturing and probably even killing them in the process. Mice really do have a lot of predators, like, a LOT, the list being big enough to the point where it almost seemed like everything eats mice (the most-interesting of them all being the Preying Mantis which will capture and eat mice that are even bigger than themselves).
I didn't think about naming, but, since he's escaped (for now), I don't have any naming plans, but, if he continues to hang around, scuttling and scurrying off at random times and in random locations when I turn on the lights or whatever, and, that he ends up avoiding my trap that I have set for capturing him, then, I will probably be forced to get another pet cat to hunt him down, because, I do not exactly like having random critters make a mess of my place with their seemingly random droppings in/at semi-random areas/locations (I have vacuumed up what I could find thus far, but, one of my main issues is lack of space and too much stuff, for which, fortunately, I have been able to make arrangements with a local hotel-manager to be able to use one of their extra rooms which I plan to use as an office-room in exchange for mine assistance with helping their businesses out).
So much for mine investment into the Ferplast-Cage if I cannot re-capture him and put him back into it though...
Extra : So, I have learned since that, mice DO NOT LIKE to be picked up, and will REFUSE to be picked up, squirming, clawing and biting if you do manage to grab them, BUT, you can provide a «platform» for them to crawl onto/into (I decided to grab some disposable plastic-cups that I had, put it in front of the mouse, and, the mouse crawled into the cup, then I cupped the two cups together until I could move him into the cage, originally). This might be different for domesticated mice, but, even for domesticated mice, according to what I have read, you would really have more success just holding your hand out and letting it crawl onto your hand (similar to how he crawled into the cup that I angled horizontally in front of him), rather than trying to out-right pick them up or grab them in any way. For now, this will probably be the end of my updates on this mouse-situation, unless I manage to capture him again or get a pet cat (mine all-time favourite cat-type being the Bombay cat; they are amongst the 20 rarest cat-breeds, and, from looking at the list, I would probably have an interest in the Egyptian-Mau as a favourite, too).
Anyway, although it took over half a day, I finally got to see the mice running on the hamster-wheel. They seem to like to spend a significant amount of time throughout the night running on the wheel, both of them, although, they tend to interrupt each other's exercise at some point, almost like they're fighting over who gets to run/play on the wheel, so, I decided to order a second hamster-wheel, which will still take a few more days to arrive. For all intents and purposes, I don't want to write too much more at this time, but, I did take several photos of him/them, most of the following being whilst they were sleeping together (see Spoiler-Contents), although, not all images necessarily came out to be very clear high-definition (several are a bit blurred)...