Is It True That Mice Like Cheese?

Why is it that whenever we watch a movie, especially cartoons, and a mouse appears, is it usually accompanied by a large piece of cheese or a mouse wishing could eat it? Is it something real? Do mice like cheese? If we think about it a bit, we will realize that perhaps it is all fantasy since mainly cheese is not found simply in nature, so it is not that it is an easily accessible food for rodents, so what is the point? Why do we think mice like cheese so much?

Mice love cheese or at least that's what we all think, but apparently, this idea is not real at all. It is something generated by movies and cartoons. Mice are not really attracted to cheese, not even the famous Swiss cheese, characterized by its holes.

So what are the foods that attract mice? Well, actually, what mice like the most are the sweetest foods. In fact, their natural diet consists of fruits, seeds, grains, and foods high in sugar.

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However, mice are omnivorous animals that, if necessary, especially if they live close to humans, do not disdain meat or even dairy products: in some cases, in short, you can even appreciate a piece of cheese, despite that if we want to find a good bait to catch them, rather than a piece of cheese, it is better to use a square of chocolate.

In addition, as anyone who has found the house "inhabited" by these rodents well knows, they also often try wood, electrical cables, fabrics, and even plastic material. And in case of need, they are also willing to eat their own feces to survive. It is true, however, that mice drink little and obtain the water they need to survive directly from the food they eat.

Knowing what foods mice actually like, I can only find out the reason for this representation of these animals loving large pieces of cheese in the drawings. Actually, there is no answer to this question. However, many think that it goes back to how people used to store their food. Years ago, people stored grains in glass jars and meats hung above.

The cheese, on the other hand, was on the shelves. That made it an easy target for unwanted pantry visitors, including mice. So, the mice ate cheese because they had nothing else to eat, not because they liked it and thus they ended up being represented as lovers of this food in cartoons.

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So I have gotten to know these critters better than many neighbors: I read twenty or thirty scientific articles and some manuals; I watched half a dozen documentaries. And for that reason, I did not expect it. Never. Never. No way did I see anything like this coming: Turns out mice don't really like cheese.

My first reaction when I found out (by chance, a few days ago) was to feel cheated. The problem is that I couldn't take it personally: the idea that mice are crazy about cheese is one of the most widespread zoological myths in history. David Holmes, an animal behavior expert at Manchester Metropolitan University, has traced this tale back to Shakespeare's play and dozens of paintings from the Middle Ages.

However, he did not find any scientific study that supported the love for cheese. What's more, after looking in detail at the eating patterns of rodents (both domestic and wild), he realized that cheese wasn't even among their favorite foods. They can eat it, and in fact, as I mentioned earlier, they eat it when nothing else is available. But it would never be its first choice.

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Another of the false myths falls on its superior in the food chain. The cat does not have seven lives. Felines, in general, have the ability to land on their feet due to their self-righting mechanism, which makes them adept at adopting an appropriate landing position and thus 'avoiding death'.

A curious case is that of the suicidal tendency of lemmings. This type of rodent does not kill itself on purpose. According to various researchers, these little animals have the instinct to move en masse in search of food, but when they come across lakes or rivers, many do not reach the other shore due to their poor ability to swim.

About our faithful friends, dogs, there are also false myths. Dogs are said to lose the ability to learn new things over the years. The reality is that over time they have less potential to assimilate new behaviors, but it does not disappear completely. It is also a lie that dogs can only see in black and white. Dogs see colors in shades of blue and yellow and are not able to distinguish between shades of colors such as red and green.

The idea is based on the fact that dogs - like most animals - have only two types of color receptors (called cones) compared to the three that humans have. These receptors are sensitive to different wavelengths, so dogs see a smaller combination of colors than we do. These circumstances have led to the belief that dogs rely more on brightness than color to distinguish between objects. But a group of researchers has just published a study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B that proves just the opposite. After different tests, in which the dogs have reacted to different shades, they concluded that colors weigh more than brightness in their vision.

Do you know any other myth about animals? :D

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