It’s no secret that there’s a media-driven hostility toward keeping mice as pets. Whether it’s because of their portrayal in movies and TV shows or because of poorly-informed people, it’s time to set the record straight.

Mice are, in fact, among the most intelligent, most entertaining, and cutest pets you can keep. In this article, we’ll dive into details regarding the Argente mouse. Then, after you finish reading, you can decide whether you want this adorable pet in your house or not!

What Is an Argente Mouse?

An Argente mouse is an Agouti mouse that has pink eyes, a small body with a delicate blend of silver and light fawn colours, and a unique golden fawn belly colour. As it grows older, its body will grow darker. Argente mice have blue undertones that complement their top colour, and they have a much rarer variety that goes by Argente Creme.

Why Keep Argente Mice as Pets

Argente mice are a type of fancy mice, which are domesticated rodents that all belong to the same species, Mus musculus. All fancy mice are excellent pets, and here are four reasons why!

1. Self-Cleaning

When people think of rodents, they instantly wander to thoughts about bad hygiene and diseases. However, they couldn’t be more wrong.

Mice are cleaner than dogs and cats in the sense that they self-groom many times every day. So you won’t have to go through the headache of showering your pet every couple of days.

More so, Argente mice might clean their cage mates if they sense lousy hygiene. And they don’t like messy and dirty cages.

2. Intelligent

You’ll be surprised to know that mice are intelligent pets. If you take the time to train them, they might be able to memorize routes, solve puzzles, get out of mazes, and more. Some mice also respond to their names when you call them.

3. Sociable

Despite the misconception that all mice are loners, Argente mice are, in truth, highly sociable. And they’ll get depressed if they’re forced to spend a long time in solitary.

Argente mice will socialize with their mates and owners if they’re in a good mood. And although mice generally don’t have strong eyesight, they can recognize you by your smell.

4. Low-Maintenance

If you own a cat or a dog, you probably know how needy they are. However, mice are pretty low-maintenance. They’ll thrive if you regularly feed them, clean their cages, and entertain them with wooden toys or a wheel.

Argente Mice Breeding

Breeding Argente mice isn’t an easy task; maintaining their exact shade that looks like shot silk is fairly challenging. But, generally, the standard Argente mouse has a delicately blended shade of silver and light fawn, with no colour overcoming the other. In other words, when you look at it, you should see the two shades.

If your breeding results in an exceedingly pale orange mouse, you need a darker Argente rodent to balance the equation. But if you end up with a dark mouse, you can use Champagne mice to lighten the colour of your offspring.

There’s a rare variety of Argente mice called Argente Creme, which is a pink-eyed white rodent. Although it’s quite rare, if you’re lucky enough to get one Argente Creme mouse from breeding, you can use it for producing many more.

To do so, you can breed your Argente Creme with a Chinchilla. Ideally, half of the offspring should be Argente Creme. But, contrary to popular belief, breeding normal Argente mice and Chinchilla won’t give you the rare variety.

More so, if your Argente Creme mice don’t have a white belly colour or have many shades that blend gradually till they reach the tail, then your breeding is faulty. And most probably, you have a non-standard pale Argente on your hands.

It’s also worth mentioning that many people mix up the partially white mice, blue Agouti, silver Agouti, and Chinchilla mice because their bodies are nearly the same colour. So before breeding, you should make sure of the type you have. 

Why Are Argente Mice’s Eyes Pink?

Pink eyes in rats result from albinism, which is the lack of pigment in their bodies. While Argente mice aren’t completely albino, some mutations might gain them the recessive pink-eyed dilution gene.

Can Breeding Pet Mice Cause Health Issues?

If you disregard the health of your mice before breeding, then yes, it can. For instance, breeding marked mice sometimes results in megacolon-suffering mice. But luckily, there aren’t health issues related to breeding Argente. The common faults you might meet are breeding a pale Argente or a mouse with a white belly.

What Do I Feed My Pet Mice?

All fancy mice love feeding the same way, which is on pellets, fruits, and vegetables. So to keep your Argente rodent happy, you should put a partially filled bowl in its cage every day.

To Wrap Up

Argente mice are cute, playful, and intelligent pets to keep. And if you lead a busy life, you’ll be glad to know they’re low-maintenance. You can distinguish our Argente friends by their unique eye colour and characteristic shimmery top colour. And while they have a difficult colour to achieve through breeding, you can give it a try and see what you get!