What are Fancy Mice? Are they Different from Pet Shop Mice?
Fancy mice have been selectively bred for exhibition. An exhibition standard fancy mouse looks quite different to the pet mice usually found in pet shops; they are considerably larger and have larger ears and eyes, and are usually more docile than pet mice. Ordinary pet mice are frequently bred primarily for snake food and so have not been selected for health or temperament. Pet mice are sometimes referred to as ‘American mice’ in the USA, ‘Swedish mice’ in Sweden and so on. They are just the same as ‘pet mice’ in England – the names are to distinguish them from English Fancy Mice in show classes. Light coloured English show mice can grow to a very large size. They can weigh 40-60g or more, while the smaller pet mouse may weigh only 20g (at the minute I have a six-week-old girl from a pet shop who weighs 15g and a large cream fancy doe who weighs 80g!). Dark coloured fancy mice do not usually grow to be as big as the light coloured ones. The weight of mice can vary greatly, depending o
