How to Tell the Age of a Fancy Mouse?

Telling the age of a fancy mouse gets increasingly difficult the older they get. At the beginning, it is very simple. A baby mouse that has no fur at all and didn’t even open his eyes yet is one week old at most. At four weeks old, they have fully developed teeth, fur, ears and paws.

From then on, they won’t change much. You can only determine their age by looking for signs that might not be that obvious. These signs are either related to how different parts of their body look like or to the thickness of their fur.

At the beginning, using a quarter can help you a lot in figuring out the age of your mouse. But when mice are more than one year old, you are going to need to look for other details as well. In this article, we are going to answer all your questions related to how mice age.

Telling the Age of Mouse Pups

This is going to be easy because fancy mouse babies are in the process of rapid growth. There are also plenty of visible characteristics that can help you figure out their age. For example, you can just take a look at their teeth and it will be obvious if they are younger than four weeks.

If the baby if only a few days old, his eyes probably haven’t even opened yet. While measuring them with a quarter, keep in mind that a one-week-old mouse is about a quarter and a half long. After the one-week mark is when their fur starts to grow.

Mice can be only called pups until they are four weeks old. At that time, all their body parts are developed and you can start calling them adults. Figuring out the age of fancy mouse puppies is easy, but what about the adults?

Telling the Age of Adult Mice

When mice become adults, it becomes really hard to determine how old they actually are. In the first four weeks, their body parts get fully developed. Their fur and teeth grow out, their ears fully form and their eyes become clear as well.

After that, their rapid growth continues until they are about 3 months old. This is when they are truly considered as adult fancy mice. From then on, they won’t go through much change until they start to become really old.

If you notice that your mouse is not growing at all, then it means that he is reached his final size. It means that your mouse can be anywhere between 3- and 15-months-old.

What is the Lifespan of Pet Mice?

If you have ever managed to keep a mouse alive and well for more than 2 years, then it means that you have done an exceptional job. Fancy mice have a life expectancy of one and a half or two years when kept as pets. This number is, of course, evaluated with average conditions in mind.

If you don’t mind putting the time and effort into keeping your mouse happy and in its best health, you can easily extend his lifespan. It is all about keeping the cage clean, providing healthy foods and making sure your mouse has the opportunity to play and exercise every day.

Stress levels, handling and cage mates are also important factors. Stress levels can have a detrimental effect on the health of your mouse. This is why it is so important to make your pet feel safe and comfortable every day.

How to Recognize an Old Mouse?

It is not easy to tell whether a pet mouse is old or not but you can approximate it by taking a look at his appearance. For example, you can notice that as time goes on, the fur of your mouse will become grayer. Their coat becoming scruffy is another sign that they are getting older.

Usually, when this becomes apparent, they are around the one-and-a-half-year-old mark. The reason why it is hard to tell whether they are old or not is that signs of aging can be confused with signs of illness. Moreover, if you compare two mice of the same age, they can look completely different.

Aging can be also confused with messy appearance. In general, if a completely clean and healthy mouse has a graying and scuffed coat, he is probably getting close to the two-year-old mark.

How to Tell if a Pet Mouse is Dying?

If your mouse is more than one and a half years old, then he might not have much time left. However, some mice still have up to one year to live at that point. How can you tell exactly how much time your mouse has left to live?

Is there anything that signifies that your mouse is really struggling and about to die of age? Fortunately, there are two signs that can give you a pretty good idea about the current stage your mouse is at when it comes to age.

It turns out that mice that don’t have much time left are rapidly losing weight and their body temperature starts to sink as well. If your mouse is already old, then watch out for these signs.

Wrapping Up

If you follow our tips, figuring out the age of your fancy mouse will be rather simple. With baby mice, it simply comes down to their appearance. You can literally see as their bodily features change day by day. After that, things are not going to be as simple.

But still, we have managed to share some pointers with you so that you can at least approximate their age. Fancy mice have pretty short lives but if you do your best at taking care of them, they can live for more than 2 years.

This can be done quite effectively by minimizing the stressors in their environment and keeping them on a healthy diet. It is also recommended to frequently change their bedding and clean the cage at least once a day.