Spiny mice

Sinai -Stachelmaus

Egyptian spiny mouse

In the list and the texts below you find the currently accepted species and subspecies. But there is a constant discussion among scientists whether a species is a species or a subspecies or form. Above that some scientists doubt that spiny mice belong to the subfamily of mice (Murinae).
That’s why you find different taxonomies for spiny mice in different sources. In pet shops you may find some more unknown, fantastic names.

Spiny mice live in dry areas. They are to be found on semi-deserts, deserts, rocky landscapes, savannas and dry forests in southern Europe, small parts of Asia and huge parts of Africa.
They are physically adapted perfectly to their habitat. All species are smart runner and climber, which can jump extraordinarily high. So they can move artfully on rocky ground and in the bushes.
On contrary to other mice wild spiny mice don’t make regular nests because often there is simply not material for a nest and above that the littler leaves the “nest” already at the age of 6 days.
In their homelands, spiny mice matter to humans as carrier of typhus and other germs.
All species of spiny mice a widespread in their distribution area, but there is one exception: Asia minor spiny mice (A. cilicicus) are seriously endangered in the wild.

Arabian spiny mouse

All species have a more or less longish, pointed face, big, funnel-shaped ears and very long whiskers.
Spiny mice received their name from the hard bristles on their back which remind on spines of a hedgehog but these spines are as hard and strong as those of a hedgehog.
The species can differ much in size, colour and weight from on to another. Most species have yellow-ish fur which is crossed with more or less grey and a pale belly. Only golden spiny mice and Egyptian spiny mice differ noticeably with their reddish or rather charcoal fur.
The most common Arabian spiny mice have a body length of ca. 9 to 13 cm. The naked, dark scaled tail is 9 to 12 cm long. Thier wieght varies from 30 to 40 g. If they are fed too rich these mice can reach a weight of 70 and even 100 g.
The different species vary much more noticeably. From the smallest up to the biggest species there is a gap concerning the bodylength from 7 cm to 15 cm and a taillength from 4 cm to 13 cm. The weight varies from 5 to 80 g.
Further pictures of spiny mice you find in the picture galery.

Spiny mice need a huge, well structured enclosure. Above that they don’t like to be touched, but some species or individuals like to take treats from the human hand.
The owner can enjoy a large variety of behaviour spiny mice show, but for that he/she has to offer a sufficient enclosure.
A female group (with or without neutered males) of Arabian or Egyptian spiny mice is recommended to beginners. If you decide for a male group, it should consist of no more than 5 to 8 individuals.
For mixed groups or bigger male groups need you need at least basic experience in spiny mice.
Spiny mice make no good pets for kids!

Don’t close your hand

Handling of spiny mice is a bit difficult. Most of them don’t like to be touched at all and far less they allow you to have them on your hand. When you have a spiny mouse on your hand never close it, otherwise the mouse might bite.
You better catch them with a small critter keeper and put them with it from A to B. And you needn’t necessarily chase the mice with the small box to get them in. Most spiny mice are very curious and jump into the box of their own out of curiosity.
Never lift the mice by their tail! They will loosen the skin to escape and only the empty skin of the tail remains in you hand. On the mouse the bloody caudal vertebrae are left which are eaten by the victim or its friends or they simply fall off.

For sexing you can put the mouse into a transparent box or bowl and have a look from underneath.

At the vet spiny mice a challenging patients, because they won’t remain calm. Moreover you can hardly scruff them because their skin is so tight. If you scruff them, they will loose some hair, some individuals might get bald spots because of scruffing.
It is far more gently to examine them in a transparent box without touching or – if touching is necessary – wrapped into a towel with the body part to be examined exposed. Use the fold in the neck only for injections.

Spiny mice don’t tend to escape often, but sometimes they do it by chance. The best is to have to people when catching them: One leads the mouse in the direction of the other while the other provides a box with some interesting smelling in it. Usually the mouse is curious enough to jump in and have a look what smells there. Then you only have to close the top and put the adventurer back into the enclosure.
If that doesn’t work a live trap or spoon net will work, too.

Arabian spiny mice are very social

In social structure as well as in behaviour the several species can be very different. While Arabian spiny mice can be kept in bigger groups, golden spiny mice like to be not much more than two or three and Southern African spiny mice should be kept in pairs. Bigger groups will in most cases have problems sooner or later which can lead to aggressions with serious injuries and even death. So what is told for keeping spiny mice in groups is only told for more social species like Egyptian or Arabian spiny mice.
Even though a group is harmonic little injuries at the tails may occur. But this seems to be normal as this behaviour can also be observed at wild spiny mice which also often have injuries at the tails and sometimes even loose it.
However, injuries at the tail or fretted or even cropped tails might be a symptom of a behavioural disorder (e.g. too small enclosure) or a lack in their nutrition. You should necessarily find out the cause!
Pure female groups are the most harmonic and the easiest to keep. Pure male groups often start to fight without any females near them.
A solution might be a really big enclosure (at least 6m² for 10 to 15 individuals) or small groups (2 to 4 individuals). Sometimes the problems can be solved by removing one ore more individuals from the group.

The crepuscular or nocturnal spiny mice are not for snuggling, but they bound to their human, when he/she doesn’t bother them constantly with touching. If you try to take them on your hand, they might bite you painfully.
The curious spiny mice can easily be tamed by offering treats. Often they come to the door of they enclosure only to have a look, whether there is something new or interesting to see or to sniff at.

Egyptian spiny mouse

Though there are many sources in the internet which recommend a minimum cage size of 60x30x30 cm, such enclosures are definitely too small for such agile animals.
The minimum size for them to unfold an interesting range of behaviour is about 100x50x100 cm for 2 to 4 individuals. This size allows proper furniture and height for the smart climbers. And there is no limit to a bigger enclosure size. I keep my spiny mice (Arabian and Egyptian ones) in bigger enclosures with floor sizes of 2 to 7 square metres and the mice occupy all of it.
Even though 20 gallon tanks are often recommended for the smallest species of spiny mice, these are too small too. A minimum size of 100x50x50 cm would be definitely better.

The following applies for Arabian and Egyptian spiny mice: The best enclosures for spiny mice are converted cupboards or aviaries with some levels. These enclosures are perfect to structure and can be suited to the needs of the smart climbing and jumping spiny mice.
Since terrariums in a proper size are very expensive and unhandy, they meet the needs of mice and owner not as well as cupboards or aviaries. If you want to keep spiny mice in a terrarium, you will have to mind a sufficient airing!

Nice enclosure for spiny mice

Tanks aren’t tall enough for spiny mice except the small Southern African spiny mouse (minimum size 100x50x50cm). Mind that the tank shouldn’t be taller then deep. Tanks with a sufficient floor space can be enlarged by putting an aviary-like top on it. This way you can fit a tank to the needs of spiny mice.

As bedding you can use wood shavings, hemp, sand or something similar, which needn’t be very high, because spiny mice don’t dig or make artful nests. But they need hay in their enclosure.
Whether the bedding absorbes smells or not doesn’t matter because spiny mice don’t bee much and hardly smell.

The home of these curious rodents should be furnished diversified. You can use every natural material except thinner ropes which cannot be climbed by the mice.
Many species inhabit rocky areas, so they might be pleased do get some stones piled in a corner of the enclosure to climb on. Wedge the stones soundly so that there can’t loosen one and maybe strike a mouse dead.
Such stone piles as well as roots and branches are favourite places for sunbathing. Even though the mice like sunbathing very much, avoid exposing the whole enclosure to the sun. The mice will need a shadowy place, if it’s too hot in the sun for them.

Curious Egyptian spiny mouse

Besides thick branches you can also use thinner ones which will train the mice’s sense of balance and coordination.
For hiding places cork channels and boards, flower pots, houses made of wood, clay and many other natural things are rally fine. Also coconuts and finch nests are very popular.

A big and well structured enclosure is necessary for spiny mice to enjoy life and to move in a proper way. This is especially important, since spiny mice tend to get fat quickly.

In literature you often find that temperatures of 28-30°C are necessary. But I never noticed any sign of malaise with 20-25°C normal room temperatures. But if you want to, you can offer an additional heat source like a heat lamp shining on a stone. The mice will like it.

There are different opinions whether spiny mice do need a wheel or not. I account wheels as a makeshift, when they won’t move enough otherwise. When the enclosure is big enough a wheel is needless and seldom used by the mice.

You can feed the rodents from one central bowl but also use several small ones.
A water bowl often mutates into a toilet, so you better offer water in a bottle.

Fresh food is delicious and interesting

Main part of a spiny mouse diet are many different crops. In addition to that they eat about 5% green plants and 2 to 10% insects. The proportion of each element differs according to the species more or less.

The basic mix should mainly consist of smaller, low fat crops, because spiny mice tend to get fat quickly. A mix of a big portion of exotic bird food and a smaller portion of different cereals works well as a basis for example. To this mix you can add more small crops. Weed seeds and many things more.
As fresh food basically vegetables and other green can be offered, but stint fruit.

Even though spiny mice drink only little, they always need a water source (e.g. a bottle).

Arabian spiny mouse with a roach

In the wild the mice eat more or less animal protein in the form of snails and insects. This essential protein can be offered by feeding meal worms, crickets, roaches, locusts, earthworms, fatless meat, cooked eggs or something similar.
Mealworms have a quite high content of fat and don’t make the mice move very much, so you should feed them seldom. Es special delicacy and easy to breed are snails like the East African land snail.
Another option are dried insects.

I already mentioned that spiny mice tend to get fat quickly. Feeding them you should bear that fact always in mind, because obesity can shorten life noticeably.
Pet Arabian spiny mice nearly always are too fat because of a too rich diet!

Buck on the left, doe on the right

Information about the gestation time differs from 34 to 39 days following the rule: less babies – shorter gestation time, more babies – longer gestation time.
While the mother gives birth to her babies the male mice stand one next to the other on the entrance of the den or nest like a guard and defence it if necessary, while the protected female gives birth on all fours like hoofed animal. The other females of the group help her in the roles of midwifes. If there is no other female, the father will take over this role. This instinct makes spiny mice extraordinary, but you can hardly ever watch it because the mother will give birth only, if she feels undisturbed. Midwifes make the birth much easier because spiny mice babies are already quite big when they are born.
Usually, the babies are born in the morning and in the evening their mother is ready to mate again. The 1 to 4 newborn babies weigh about 6 to 6,55g (female) and about 6,20g (male). I found that spiny mice in most cases give birth to twins. Single or three babies are rarer, four babies are exceptional.
The mother and also other females greet the newborn babies by licking them clean. The licking is important to initiate breathing and motion of the babies.
Little spiny mice are born precocial: They have open eyes, tiny little incisors and a complete fur. Some minutes after being born they begin to crawl through the nest and explore their near surroundings while looking for their mother’s milk.
Childless females often try to adopt the babies, sometimes they even steal one and treat it like their own. This behaviour assures the survival of orphans, because lactating females will nurse and bring up also babies from another mother. This is very important to a species having such a small number of babies per litter.
At the age of 6 days milk isn’t any longer essential to survive for the small spiny mice but usually they are nursed up to 19 or 20 days.
Sexual maturity is reached at the age of 8 to 12 weeks. Within this time, most spiny mice have their first babies.
Kids of almost all spiny mice species have grey fur when they are young. In this fur you hardly find any spines. Some weeks after being born a round spot in the colour of its species appears on the youngster’s back. The spot consists of spines in different colours and grows by the time until the fur of an adult spiny mouse is completed. At the same time the spines get more and more distinctive.

The average life span of spiny mice is about 4 years.

In spite of their little litters spiny mice might outgrow sooner than some owner expect. Out of a group of five you can get more than 40 mice within 4 or 5 months. That’s why you should only keep males or females or females with neutered males.

Fat spiny mouse (left), one of normal weight (right)

In general spiny mice are healthy and robust creatures, provided that they are kept and fed correctly.
One health problem that occurs noticeably often is diarrhea which often seems to be untreatable since most mice die of it even though they already seemed to recover. I wasn’t able to find out the exact cause up to now, but a mutant of Escherichia coli ( EHEC ) is supposed to play a role.
Fed too sweet spiny mice tend to come down with diabetes, fed to rich/ with a too fat seed mix they tend to come down with obesity, which can shorten their life noticeably. And especially this obesity is a big problem, because most owners don’t notice at all that their mice are obese and develop a proper diet to treat their pets.
Above this spiny mice are sensitive towards too small enclosures and/or mistakes in feeding. The result is abnormal behaviour with various symptoms.
Even though spiny mice seldom see a vet in their life, you should safe money (about 100 €) for such a cause.

The introduction of young, still (partly) grey-coated mice with others of their age or adults isn’t that difficult than adults with adults. So if there ist a chance you should prefer that combination. Nevertheless, it would be helpful if you had already gained some experience in the introduction of other mice species (eg, fancy mice).
Best method for adult introductions is the step-by-step-method. It can be combined in difficult cases with the odour method. Mind to choose a carrier (or small cage) of sufficient size for this method. Otherwise the mice might react aggressive towards each other because of the lack of space.
If the mice are not completely peaceful, you will better introduce them over a period of 2 or 3 weeks to have a harmonic group afterwards.
For introducing youngsters or youngsters with adults 1 week is usually enough. Also adult females among each other with neutered males tend to be relaxed and not too tricky for beginners.
On the other side, among bucks there are sometimes individuals, which will never get along with each other. Separation and an introduction to (an)other spiny mice (mouse) is a solution for this problem. Neutering the aggressive male(s) is the other solution.

Curious Arabian spiny mouse

Depending on what spiny mouse species you are looking for, it is more or less difficult to find mice. Arabian spiny mice can be found amongst others in animal shelters, so it is worth asking there.
You can find them also often in pet shops for little money. More expensive and rarer are Egyptian or Golden spiny mice, other species you hardly find in a shop. But it is not a good idea to buy mice in a shop, because there's a good chance that you will end up with spiny mice that are sick, have parasites or are pregnant, since many pet shop employees cannot sex them reliably (and may well sell you a male and a female).
If you are looking for a rare species of spiny mice, a reputable breeder would be a better idea, since you will get healthy mice and a good counsel there. Also on special fairs some rare species are offered. But if you wan to buy there, you should have a close look at the mice, because there are often salesmen who sell sick or old or too young mice. You need to set aside between 150 and 350 Euros for 2 to 4 spiny mices, depending on how you house them (cage, homemade enclosure, bedding, toys/furniture, food, transport cage)..

The running costs for food, bedding and so on for 2 to 4 mice are around 20 to 30 Euros.

Such arrangements belong into the hands of experienced rodent keepers; you will need to provide your pets with a lot more space when keeping more than one species in the same enclosure!
The curious and open-minded spiny mice are suited well for co-housing them with another species. But not every individual likes to live together with mice of another species. So you should never acquire a second species, if you don’t have enough space for a second enclosure in the case that co-housing fails.
Before you try to co-house two species you better have already had them for a while each in its own enclosure and know both species quite well. This helps avoiding combinations that don’t fit together very well and under which at least one species would suffer.
The other species you want to co-house with spiny mice has to have similar needs like it has get by with a low-fat diet. Co-housing different species of spiny mice might become difficult. Gather as much information about each species in advance as possible. Furthermore, mind that different spiny mice species can mate with each other!
The enclosure has to have a floor size (including levels) of at least 2 to 4 square metres depending on the second species you choose. If you can’t or don’t want to make the effort necessary for co-housing you better pass on it.

You have a question this portrait didn’t answer? Then please ask it in our forum!

Sources:
http://www.heimtiere-online.de/main2_4_10.htm
http://www.terraristik-leipzig.de/stachelmaeuse.htm
http://www.rodent-info.net/stachelmaus_allgemeines.htm (ff.)
Don E. Wilson, DeeAnn M. Reeder, (Hrsg.): Mammal species of the world Vol. 2, 3. Auflage, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2005