How to Teach Tricks to Pet Mice

Teaching mice to learn tricks are not the first thing that comes to mind with mice. Nevertheless, mice are intelligent creatures that can adapt to teaching techniques and be trained as a dog can. As with dogs, there is a sequential process to teaching tricks to your mouse. If you don't follow the proper path you could lose control of your mouse and the ability to train it at all. Learn some of the basic steps and a few tricks for your mouse and you can have fun with the little guy and impress your friends.

Instructions

    • 1

      Win the trust of your mouse. Before you can teach your mouse any trick, you must establish a relationship with it. Learn the nuances of the behavior of the mouse. Work with the mouse everyday. Find out what kind of food it likes best as you will need to use that food to reward it as it gets farther along in the training process. If the mouse associates you with food as a reward for doing something, that will help the mouse be accustomed to your training.

    • 2

      Teach the mouse to crawl into your hand at command. Fill your hand with the mouse's favorite treat and place your hand in the mouse cage. Be patient if it is your first time doing this as the mouse might take awhile to get comfortable with having your hand in his cage. Eventually, the mouse will come and take a nibble. Every time the mouse takes a nibble, emit a noise such as a whistle or a click. Soon the mouse will associate the noise with the treat and will come running into your hand for food when it hears the noise.

    • 3

      Follow this process for other tricks. If you see the mouse doing something interesting, such as standing on its hind legs, call out the name (stand!) and reward the mouse with a treat. In the same way the mouse crawls into your hand for a snack, it will stand on its hind legs for one as well.

    • 4

      Teach the mouse to shake hands. Place the treat near the paw of the mouse while it is still in your hand. Take the paw of the mouse (very gently and slowly) and lay it on the treat. Say the command word, such as "shake" and feed the treat to your mouse. The mouse may take longer to become accustomed to this trick.