Mouse

__**Appearance**__
You probably have only seen a mouse in a pet store or a zoo. That is the only place I have seen them. Mice are so cute they are mostly gray, white, and brown, but in captivity black mice are more popular. A mouse's fur is as soft as a fluffy cat's just after it has been brushed. The mouse has soft fur and rounded big ears. A mouse has big teeth that never stop growing, a pointy nose and a very long and skinny tail.

When babies are born they have no fur and are blind.

A mouse is smaller than a rat which means that a mouse is about 120mm in length and they weigh10-24g, that's tiny!

__**Habitat**__
You probably have never seen a mouse in the wild and that is because they live in places like sewer drains (usually temporary), holes in walls, underground nests, hollow logs, tree stumps or cracks in rocks and fields. North America is where you will mainly find the deer mouse, in places like mountains, plains, forests and deserts. A deer mouse will usually make a nest in their home with things like, feathers, ripped material and dry leaves.

__**Diet**__
It may be hard to believe but mice don't actually eat a lot of cheese! Mice will eat things like berries, seeds, nuts, fruits, leaves and all the insects they can get their paws on. They even sometimes eat wallpaper glue or soap!

__**Predators**__
Mice, as you have probably expected are very small, which means that they are pretty much at the bottom of the food chain. Which also means that they have a lot of predators which are technically all of the meat eating animals like coyotes, foxes, hawks, eagles, snakes, owls, toads and wolves.

Although you may not expect it, rats and even other mice will eat other mice and I saw it happen!

__**Offspring**__
Like most species baby mice are born blind and helpless. Female deer mice will protect their young until they are about twenty days old.

When female deer mice are only thirty five days old which is quite young for a human, girl deer mice can have ten to twenty five pups (baby mice) by the time they are thirty five days old. It may be hard to believe, but some species of mice have more than four litters a year.

Mice are some pretty cool animals.

**__Adaptations__**
Although it may be hard to believe a mouse's teeth never stop growing. That is because they will eat almost anything!

A mouse's pups (babies) grow up very very quickly and can have there own babies at only six weeks old, if they didn't there species would be extinct so fast it would seem like they just disappeared. Also, mice don't just have one baby every six weeks, they have many more. Mice have big ears and can hear well, so if you have a pet mouse that stays in the house don't tell secrets in the house. I wonder if you have any adaptations?

__**Cool Facts**__
You would probably think that mice only live in forests, but they can live in deserts as well.

Mice are nocturnal, which means that they come out at night to hunt, if they make it that far.

Most animals live shorter in captivity because they are not used to it there, but mice can live longer in captivity.

A female mouse's babies have pink skin just like a pig does through its whole life, but unlike pigs they will get fur when they are ten days old.

A female mouse carries her babies in her body for about nineteen days. A female mouse gives birth about every twenty five days.

Mice are awesome!

References @http://www.canadianfauna.com/deermouse.php [] Kalman, Bobbie. __What is a Rodent?__. St. Catharines: Crabtree Publishing Compamy,2000. Nault,William H..__World Book Encyclopedia Vol.13.__ Toronto: World Book Inc.,1996.