Mice are not difficult to tame; they show great fondness for the one who feeds them, and if their cage be properly cared for, are as cleanly pets as one could wish to have.
To deprive mice of their liberty hardly seems cruel, since they are so mischievous and destructive, and the boy who makes pets of them, provided he catches them at home, takes away just so many provoking bits of mischief from his mother's pantry, which is much better than to snare birds or squirrels.
Mice will live and breed in a cage, and be quite as happy as when enjoying their liberty, for they are accustomed to make a home of such tiny places that they do not suffer in confinement, as pets do who find their greatest pleasure in roaming.
It is possible to buy white mice at any bird-fancier's, but there are reasons why it is better to have at least half your pets of the ordinary house mice rather than to have them all white. One is that your mother will look with more favor upon your mouse pet if it is one the less from the number that annoy her.
There is hardly any necessity of telling a boy how to set a mouse-trap, and in almost every house his labor will be very quickly rewarded with as many as he can care for.
But once the industrious little fellows are caught and caged, do not make the cruel mistake of thinking because they are only mice they do not need any care. As long as they were in the walls, or under the floors, they could take care of themselves, for they knew to the fraction of an inch on which particular portion of the shelf the cheese was placed, and exactly how to get at the bread. But when they have been deprived of their liberty, it becomes the duty of their captor to see that they want for nothing. What is true of any pet is equally true of mice; they are entitled to all the care and attention they need as soon as they are deprived of the power to care for themselves.
If one wants to have very tame mice, so tame that they can be taught to come out of their cage at the word of command, and return to it when the play is over, he should catch young ones, and put them in a cage with wire front and solid back and sides.
Almost any kind of a hard-wood box, not less than twelve inches long and wide, and eight inches high, can be made into a good cage by running wires about the size of an ordinary knitting-needle up and down the front, about a quarter of an inch apart. Then cut a small sliding door at one side, and have the back made to slide up and down for purposes of cleanliness. If at one end a small run-around, made of stout wire set very closely together, be placed, the pets will have such a home as they will be perfectly contented and happy in.
At one corner of the cage should be some rags for a nest, and unless there are little ones in it, this nest must be removed at least once each week. The entire cage should be washed quite as often, and every care must be taken to keep it sweet and clean. Dry sand or sawdust is a good thing to scatter over the floor of the house, as it can then be cleaned readily by simply scraping the old sand out and pouring in fresh.
Mice when at liberty are great builders, and have many curious ways of providing snug quarters for their young. In one instance a number of empty bottles had been stowed away upon a shelf, and among them was found one which was tenanted by a mouse. The little creature had considered that the bottle would afford a suitable home for her young, and had therefore conveyed into it a quantity of bedding which she made into a nest. The bottle was filled with the nest, and the eccentric architect had taken the precaution to leave a round hole corresponding to the neck of the bottle. In this remarkable domicile the young were placed; and it is a fact worthy of notice that no attempt had been made to shut out the light. Nothing would have been easier than to have formed the cavity at the under side, so that the soft materials of the nest would exclude the light; but the mouse had simply formed a comfortable hollow for her young, and therein she had placed them.