Pygmy Mouse

[MilkmanWes]

Saw these at an exotic pet show yesterday and got one for my girlfriend.

Pretty dam tiny, only the size of a quarter or so. Had to sneak up on her to get pictures because she is so skittish.

For size reference that is the smallest ceramic food/water dish ou see in pet stores that I am sure most of you are familiar with and the white thing is a standard toilet paper tube. These are the smallest rodents in the world. Newborns are the size of ants according to what I was reading on them last night.

 

[thedreadedone]

no mice

wheres the pic? i want to see the ickle mouse

 

[MilkmanWes]

Oops

 

[MilkmanWes]

BTW - This is fully grown. Won't get any bigger.

 

[Bothrops]

Mus minutoides, very nice mices

 

[Immortal_sin]

wow..that is one TINY mouse!
I can't even imagine the size of the babies....

 

[Spider-man 2]

Looks like a meal for my T. blondi.

JK, I wouldn't hurt that cute lil guy. Resembles a hamster too much, which I could never harm.

 

[MilkmanWes]

Believe me, the thought of feeder breeding crossed my mind. Small so a significant colony wouldnt take up much space. But once one becomes a pet, you know how that is. Plus they cost more than the average mouse. I paid $20 for this one so even wholesale cost these would be far to expensive for as many as you would need to feed.

One caresheet said that when cleaning cages where mixed sexes are kept you must be extremely careful not to throw the babies away with the litter. Small enough to get lost in aspen shavings is pretty tiny.

We have about 10 syrian hamsters too. Want to adopt one?

Looks like a meal for my T. blondi.

JK, I wouldn't hurt that cute lil guy. Resembles a hamster too much, which I could never harm.

 

[Spider-man 2]

Nah, I am good. 46 pets is good enough for me.

 

[Crunchie]

ohh that's such a pretty looking little thing! I love hamsters as well, used to have three but my dad grew allergic too them so I couldn't keep them any more. THe parents had to give in and let me have a snake then though

 

[pamandron]

We have several of these at our shop. The babies are born with their eyes open and they usually are running around the same day. We call them Egyptian Spiny mice. It is pretty amazing to see the babies running around when they are so tiny. You also want to be careful not to grab it by the tail, because they can drop their tails. Another defense to keep predators away. At my shop we usually sell them for 8.99. Take care, Pam

 

[MilkmanWes]

That's god to know about the tail shedding. I don't suppose it regenerates at all does it?

I think if I ever had to pick one of them up I would have to do it with an aquarium net. No idea how you would ever grab them, that and I am afraid it would leap to freedom and we would never see it again.

 

[pamandron]

I might've made a slight mistake. That picture really looked like a egyptian spiny mouse. But the pygmy mice are a lot smaller. Is the hair on it real course? But if it isn't the egyptian then he won't drop his tail. What I do know about the pygmy's are that they are real fast and can jump really high, like out of a 30 gallon tank. I thought the egyptians were the only ones with the pointed face. So I am sorry for the wrong info.
Take care, Pam

 

[MilkmanWes]

This one was able to leap the height of a large kritter keeper and probably higher if the lid hadn't been there. I think she would have made it out of pretty much anything except the deepest tanks from what I saw.

One of the the breeder had there had a damaged tail, about the last third missing which could have been bitten off or dropped. The idea of it dropping the tail seemed a pretty reasonable explanation for this.

Her hair is very satin and smooth. The coloration seems different too, though I see several varieties of coloring on the spiny mice so that may not be enough.

Right now she has blocked both ends of a small habitrail tube and won't come out when we are around.