Mouse

Mouse

Class	Farming and Animals
Type	Wild Animal
Life Stages	Mouse Pup Male Mouse (Buck) Female Mouse (Doe)
Breeds	Golden Deer White
Smallest Pen	20 tiles
Pregnancy	20 days
Food	Anything edible
Old Age	570 days

The Mouse is the smallest wild animal in Knox Country, and it gives a survivor a tiny morsel of meat and a few bone pieces. It is caught with a Mouse Trap, and a live catch can be kept and bred in a pen.

Mice are wild animals. They live on farms, in towns and around trailer parks, and they always run from people. A mouse can be caught and kept, but it stays wild and skittish for life. Young mice are Pups. A female Pup grows into a Doe, and a male grows into a Buck.

The game has three breeds, the Deer mouse, the Golden mouse and the White mouse. Their differences are in looks only. All three share the same body, the same habits and the same genes.

Mice matter as emergency food. A single mouse is a small meal, but traps keep catching them day and night. They also breed very fast. A pair can raise a large family within a few weeks, and each new litter adds more. Mice are harmless to people, so a colony is safe to keep. Their daily needs are tiny, which makes them cheap to feed.

How to Hunt Mouse

The Mouse Trap is the tool for mice. It catches them at any hour of the day or night. Farms, farmland and trailer parks are the best places to set one. Towns are nearly as good. Open vegetation and forest give poor results.

Cheese is the best bait. Processed Cheese is nearly as good. Peanut Butter and Bacon Bits come next, followed by Oranges, Apples and Tomatoes. Chocolate also works, though it is the weakest of the usual baits. A trap can hold a live mouse of any age and any breed.

A mouse in the open flees as soon as it notices a person. Every mouse is light enough to pick up and carry. Mice can be killed by hand without any weapon.

Dead mice and mouse droppings also turn up in derelict houses. Junk piles and cold storage are the usual spots.

Mouse Breeding

A Pup grows into an adult in about two months of game time. Does and Bucks can breed as soon as they are grown. Mice mate at any time of year.

A pregnancy lasts about three weeks. The pregnancy time can be changed in the sandbox settings. Each litter holds between five and nine Pups. After giving birth, a Doe needs less than a week of rest before she can carry again.

Pups can feed from their mother but can also survive on their own. Genes pass from both parents. They shape size, meat, weight, lifespan, strength, fertility and temper. Mice live for about a year and a half before they reach old age.

A captured colony is easy to keep. Mice eat any kind of trough food, and each one needs very little. Water goes in a separate trough. A small pen is enough for the whole colony. Mice can climb stairs and keep fleeing their keeper even inside the zone. They can also ride in a livestock trailer.

The mouse grows through these stages, each one taking the days shown to reach full size.

Stage	Grows For	Becomes
Mouse Pup	60 days	Female Mouse (Doe), Male Mouse (Buck)
Male Mouse (Buck)	60 days	-
Female Mouse (Doe)	60 days	-

Mouse Breeds

Each breed of mouse, with how much milk the game sets for it.

Breed	Image	Milk
Golden		High
Deer		High
White		High

Mouse Butchering

A mouse carcass gives a Skinned Mouse and a Bone Piece or two. A Pup gives Skinned Mouse Pups instead. The skinned mouse is the meat itself and goes straight to the cooking pot.

The carcass is used up completely and leaves no skeleton behind. The Butchering skill improves the result. Each mouse butchered also gives a little Butchering experience.

Living mice leave Mouse Droppings in their pen. The droppings are compostable and feed a composter.

What a butchered carcass gives at each life stage, one tab per stage.

Mouse PupFemale Mouse (Doe)

Name	Image	Amount	Breed	Spawn ID
Skinned Mouse Pups (Dead)		1	All	`/additem Base.DeadMousePupsSkinned`
Bone Pieces		1-2	All	`/additem Base.SmallAnimalBone`

Name	Image	Amount	Breed	Spawn ID
Skinned Mouse (Dead)		1	All	`/additem Base.DeadMouseSkinned`
Bone Pieces		1-2	All	`/additem Base.SmallAnimalBone`

Mouse Locations

Mice live wherever people once did. Farms, farmland and trailer parks hold the most, with towns close behind. Derelict houses often hide dead mice and droppings in their junk and cold storage. Forests and open country hold only a few.