Breeding African Pygmy Mice
Breeding an animal is never a decision to be taken lightly and it is always best to have had a few years experience of them as pets before embarking on it. There are many things you need to consider; one vital aspect of breeding rodents knowledge of genetics and ethics.
Check your local rescues, as if they have rodents needing homes in your area you must think very carefully and have a good reason for adding more. You must have potential homes lined up as if you supply a pet shop with your rodent's offspring you stand a high risk of them ending up as a meal for a reptile.
For more details, see our article on when to breed rodents - ethics and care.
Breeding African Pygmy Mice can be quite low maintenance, providing you keep a close eye on their behaviour and give enough space. You must also be prepared to source unrelated to avoid excessive inbreeding. African Pygmy Mice have a few variations in coat and colours although these are not yet standardised.
Breeding and Gestation
African Pygmy Mice become sexually mature at 4-6 weeks. It is advisable to keep more females than males in your colony as fights between males can be very vicious. Gestation is 20 days.
As with any rodent, inbreeding is to be avoided but it should be noted that African Pygmy Mice seem to suffer more as a result of this, giving poor coat condition, bald spots and causing aggression.
As long as their care and space requirements are met, African Pygmy Mice can be prolific breeders so it is important to ensure good pet homes are lined up for when you need to separate them.
Although a female African Pygmy Mouse can produce a litter of 1-6 babies every 19-20 days this should be avoided as it will cause great strain on her body and significantly shorten her lifespan.
Litters
Litter sizes are around around 2-8, they are born measuring around 15mm. They are a darker pink than fancy mouse newborns and grow a pale grey juvenile fur after around a week.
This will later darken to the normal agouti of adults. They will open their eyes at around 14 days. Weaning is usually at 21 days. Separating out into same-sex groups can be done as soon as you see them eating solids.
Sexing
Young should be separate at 4 weeks into same-sex groupings. The best method to sex African Pygmy Mice is to place young in a clear plastic container or jar and observe from underneath. Females have noticable lines of nipples and males should have a testicular bulge to the base of their tail. Due to their small size, it is not always easy to identify at 4 weeks.
African Pygmy Mice Behaviour
One of the unique traits of the African Pygmy Mouse is its habit of stacking pebbles in front of its burrow. In the wild, these pebbles would gather dew for the African Pygmy Mouse to drink. This pebble stacking behaviour is not behaviour that can be replicated easily in captivity, but they do seem to appreciate a stack of pebbles regardless.
African Pygmy Mice have cheek pouches like hamsters which they use to collect seed kernels after peeling.
These exotic rodents are too small to be handled as you run the risk of doing serious internal damage. They are very fast and agile, being able to leap vertically a foot. If you do happen to lose an African Pygmy Mouse whilst cleaning out once suggestion would be to place a 2 litre plastic bottle at an angle with food in the bottom. As long as you've provided a method for them to climb into it then they should be attracted to this. If concerned you can try using tinfoil, turning off lights so that you will be alerted when the African Pygmy Mouse is present, and then turn the lights on to startle your mouse and grab the bottle.
It has been reported that males can exhibit extremely vicious behaviour to each other but many keepers have kept these together successfully, and it is possible that the strain of African Pygmy Mice available in Europe has less vicious behaviour than its American counterpart.
They are very active rodents but can frighten easily. They need cleaning around every 2-4 weeks depending on how many mice you have, but are relatively clean and do not have a discernible odour.
Overview of African Pygmy Mice
African Pygmy Mice are one of the smallest rodents and mammals in the world. Their tiny size can only really be appreciated first-hand. Adult African Pygmy Mice are only around 3-8cm long, 2-4cm of which is their tail. They typically weigh from 3-12g with a pale belly and a red coat colour although a blue variant does exist. Babies are born grey and change colour as they grow.
African Pygmy Mice make very interesting pets to own. They live around 2 years, although in captivity up to 4 years has been recorded. African Pygmy Mice live in colonies in the wild and so must be kept with company. They have several unique traits that make them a very interesting pet to own.
Although they are nocturnal, in a comfortable environment they can be observed at odd moments during the day. My colonies have favoured the late evening, and although they can be startled by sudden movement they do not seem alarmed by sounds.
Due to their tiny stature and speed, African Pygmy Mice are not a species that can be handled as it would be far too easy to damage them accidentally. Care must be taken as a startled African Pygmy Mouse can jump around 18 inches. They are very swift and agile climbers and due to their fast metabolism do consume a lot of food and water for their size.
One interesting characteristic of the African Pygmy Mouse is that, unlike most mammals, it is the X chromosome that determines its sex, not the Y.
African Pygmy Mice make fascinating, low maintenance pets to watch although they cannot be handled. Keeping African Pygmy Mice as a pet is fairly simple although the initial cost of their tank and equipment may be high.