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Mouse Sleeping Habits

Handle your mouse in the evenings when it is most active.

By Audrey Pavia

Mice are nocturnal, which means they are most active at dusk, after dark and at dawn. They developed this sleep pattern as they evolved to help protect them from larger predators that would more easily spot them during the day.

Handle your mice during the evening when they are most active. If you handle them during the day, they will be sleepy and may even resist being handled by biting or nipping you.

Because mice are most active at night, place their cage away from where you sleep. Otherwise, the noise they create from scurrying around or running on an exercise wheel will wake you up.

Posted: April 2, 2008, 5 a.m. EDT


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Mouse Sleeping Habits

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Reader Comments
What I have learned about mice is their deep sleep.

In the winter of 2005, I captured 5 baby mice in my home and observed them in the day time, discovered that they do sleep in the day. What was so alarming about their sleep is that it is a very deep sleep, in such a way that I thought that they were dead - they do not wake up that easy.

But they were not noisy in the night! There was one particular mouse among the pack that would make arm gestures to me as though it was telling me that it wanted to be free from their cage!

I let them all free one by one, except the last two mice (including the one that made arm gestures).

Each one of them made body languages to me as their way of thanking me for letting them free!

I learnt for the first time that these little creatures can communicate to us, if you observe them carefully.
Dje, London
Posted: 1/15/2010 8:11:06 AM
even though mice are very sweet, they can be a pain in the some where.Well its almost winter and its starting to snow,i put my mice in my room to keep them warm(my room is the warmest).And I watched my mice and not the t.v. I dont know what its with mice but there sometimes more entertaing than the t.v. :0 Well thx for the tips!
Natalie, chicago, IL
Posted: 12/3/2009 7:26:50 PM
you are a very good writer. that also explains the noise at night!
Dinda, Oshkosh, WI
Posted: 8/30/2009 4:44:00 PM
The noise they make running in the wheel, climbing the cage bars, munching on food, and rearranging their bedding makes it hard to hear the t.v.!! They're usually more entertaining than all those reruns anyway, though. :)
Kaitlyn, So. Portland, ME
Posted: 5/9/2009 9:37:14 AM
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