centuries.




CHAPTER II

FEEDING, BREEDING, AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE YOUNG

In this chapter I shall report, for the benefit of those who may wish to
know how to take care of dancing mice, my experience in keeping and
breeding the animals, and my observations concerning the development of
the young. It is commonly stated that the dancer is extremely delicate,
subject to diseases to an unusual degree and difficult to breed. I have
not found this to be true. At first I failed to get them to breed, but
this was due, as I discovered later, to the lack of proper food. For three
years my mice have bred frequently and reared almost all of their young.
During one year, after I had learned how to care for the animals, when the
maximum number under observation at any time was fifty and the total
number for the year about one hundred, I lost two by disease and one by an
accident. I very much doubt whether I could have done better with any
species of mouse. There can be no doubt, however, that the dancer is
delicate and demands more careful attention than do most mice. In March,
1907, I lost almost all of my dancers from what appeared to be an
intestinal trouble, but with this exception I have had remarkably good
luck in breeding and rearing them.

My dancers usually were kept in the type of cage of which Figure 2 is a
photograph.[1] Four of these double cages, 70 cm. long, 45 cm. wide, and
10 cm. deep in front, were supported by a frame as is shown in Figure 3.