2O The Dancing Mouse 



quantity of some green food, lettuce for example, should be 

 given. It is well, I have found, to vary the diet by replacing 

 the bread and "force" at intervals with crackers and seeds. 

 Usually I give the food dry every other day, except in the case 

 of mice which are nursing litters. One person to whom I 

 suggested that lettuce was good for the dancers lost four, 

 apparently because of too much of what the mice seemed to 

 consider a good thing. This suggests that it should be used 

 sparingly. 



Success in keeping and breeding dancing mice depends 

 upon three things: cleanliness, warmth, and food supply. 

 The temperature should be fairly constant, between 60 and 

 70 Fahr. They cannot stand exposure to cold or lack of 

 food. If one obtains good healthy, fertile individuals, keeps 

 them in perfectly clean cages with soft nesting materials, 

 maintains a temperature of not far above or below 65, and 

 regularly supplies them with pure water and food which they 

 like, there is not likely to be trouble either in keeping or breed- 

 ing these delicate little creatures. Several persons who have 

 reported to me difficulty in rearing the young or in keeping 

 the adults for long periods have been unable to maintain 

 a sufficiently high or constant temperature, or have given 

 them food which caused intestinal trouble. 



The males are likely to fight if kept together, and they 

 may even kill one another. A male may be kept with one 

 or more females, or several females may be kept together, 

 for the females rarely, in my experience, fight, and the males 

 seldom harm the females. Unless the male is removed from 

 the cage in which the female is kept before the young are born, 

 he is likely to kill the newborn animals. When a female 

 is seen to be building a nest in preparation for a litter, it is 

 best to place her in a cage by herself so that she may not be 

 disturbed. 



