Dancing Mouse

Question
In the 1980's, while living in Friedberg,Germany, I bought some "Dancing Mice" from a local pet shop.  They were wonderful pets, and we had them for years.  Unfortunately we couldn't take them home to the U.S.  I've never found anyone here who knew what they were or how to purchase them.  Do you know anything about them and are they available to buy?  I have a grandaughter who would love to have one.  Thank you!

Answer
Dear Patricia,
thank you for your question.
I'm sorry to say that dancing mice are fancy mice that are brain damaged. They suffer from defects of the pituitary gland, which causes deafness, stunted growth and inner ear damage, among other things. The inner ear damage means that they have problems with their balance and cannot walk in straight lines, this causes them to "dance", to run in circles (often for hours), depending on how bad the damage is. Along with "singing mice" (mice that have bad respiratory infections, which causes them to squeak all the time), "dancing mice" are fortunately no longer found in pet shops (with very few exceptions).

If your granddaughter is okay with pets that are mostly hands-off, then fancy mice can make great pets. They are interesting to watch and most of them will soon take treats from their owner's hands. They just don't really enjoy being petted and handled, gerbils and rats interact much more with their owner, rats actually need daily playtime because they are so intelligent. You can read more about fancy mice and gerbils here
http://www.das-maeuseasyl.de/doku.php/en/species/index
and here's a good rat infosite
http://rmca.org/