More Fun with Mouse Training

My mice have names now! The little black and white one is Dickens, the one who is almost entirely white is Jack, and the scruffy, long-haired, gray and white mouse is Oscar. A big thanks to everyone who suggested names on facebook, by e-mail, and in person. Also, I’ve been looking into getting the mice neutered! Neutering the boys would reduce their smell (male mice have quite the odor) and allow them to live together peacefully (adult unneutered male mice will often fight to the death).

I’ve continued to work with the mice and they’re getting a lot friendlier. This video is from the very end of December, so it’s a little old. However, I just got a chance to edit it, so I still wanted to share it. I had my mice for about two weeks when this video was recorded.

The mouse in this video is Dickens, my black and white mouse. He’s the bravest and the boldest of the three. Dickens is pretty friendly now, even friendlier than he was when I made this video. He’ll come to the top of the cage when I come into the room, begging to be picked up. He’s a curious little fellow and loves to scamper all over me.

Watch on YouTube: Dickens works on socialization training

In this video, I was practicing picking him up out of the cage and then putting him back into the cage. I don’t hold him for long and do lots of repetitions. This way he gets lots of chances to practice stepping on and off of my hand. Also, repetition is good because it helps him get accustom to what it feels like to ride on my hand when my hand is moving.

Once he hops onto my hand and I pick him up, he gets a chance to explore and gets to eat a bit of seed. These are both two activities he really seems to enjoy! The seed mixture is mostly millet, although there is a bit of other stuff mixed in as well.

I have started the beginnings of clicker training with him, but we haven’t gotten very far yet. We’ve been experimenting with the best way to set up a training area. I’ve also started getting him comfortable with the training area and teaching him to eat out of a small measuring spoon. I’m trying to remember all the little things I learned when I started clicker training my rats, much of which I wrote about in this post. I’ll keep you updated as we progress with more mouse training.