It is hard to guess what a African pygmy mouse weights. But we have the answer:
An adult African pygmy mouse (Mus minutoides) on average weights 6 grams (0.01 lbs).
The African pygmy mouse is from the family Muridae (genus: Mus). It is usually born with about 1 grams (0 lbs). They can live for up to 3.08 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 12.9 cm (0′ 6″). On average, African pygmy mouses can have babies 4 times per year with a litter size of 4.
As a reference: An average human weights in at 62 kg (137 lbs) and reaches an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). Humans spend 280 days (40 weeks) in the womb of their mother and reach around 75 years of age.
The African pygmy mouse (Mus minutoides) is one of the smallest rodents. It is widespread within sub-Saharan Africa, and is kept as a pet in other parts of the world. Like the common house mouse, it is a member of the enormous superfamily Muroidea, which includes about 1000 different species.Grey to brick-red overall, it is pale on the underside and has small but prominent triangular ears. Adults are between 30 and 80 mm (1.2 and 3.1 in) long, with a 20 to 40 mm (0.79 to 1.57 in) tail, and weigh from 3 to 12 g (0.11 to 0.42 oz).African pygmy mice reach breeding age at about 6 to 8 weeks. Pregnancy lasts for around 20 days and the litter of about three young is born blind and hairless. Their eyes open after 2 weeks, and weaning is complete after 4 weeks. The lifespan is about 2 years, although individual specimens have been reported to live over 4 years in captivity.The African pygmy mouse has a number of unique traits. It stacks pebbles in front of its burrow. Overnight, the pebbles gather dew and in the morning, the pygmy mouse drinks the dew on the pebbles. After that, it retires to its den. Its method of sex determination has also been found to differ from most mammals in that rearrangements of the X chromosome have led to many XY individuals actually being female.They live in colonies or in pairs in grass close to water and are excellent climbers.
Animals of the same family as a African pygmy mouse
We found other animals of the Muridae family:
- Broad-toothed mouse with a weight of 129 grams
- Norway lemming with a weight of 67 grams
- Black-tailed tree rat with a weight of 125 grams
- Western harvest mouse with a weight of 10 grams
- Steppe mouse with a size of 7.5 cm (0′ 3″)
- Lesser short-tailed gerbil with a weight of 17 grams
- Short-tailed bandicoot rat with a weight of 178 grams
- Puna mouse with a weight of 84 grams
- Olrog’s chaco mouse with a weight of 32 grams
- Polynesian rat with a weight of 50 grams
Animals with the same weight as a African pygmy mouse
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Mus minutoides:
- Kuhl’s pipistrelle bringing 6 grams to the scale
- Savi’s pipistrelle bringing 6 grams to the scale
- Malayan horseshoe bat bringing 6 grams to the scale
- Indiana bat bringing 7 grams to the scale
- Yankari shrew bringing 5 grams to the scale
- Smoky shrew bringing 7 grams to the scale
- Croslet horseshoe bat bringing 7 grams to the scale
- Underwood’s long-tongued bat bringing 7 grams to the scale
- Peters’s musk shrew bringing 6 grams to the scale
- Long-eared myotis bringing 6 grams to the scale
Animals with the same litter size as a African pygmy mouse
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (4) as a African pygmy mouse:
- Turkestan rat
- Visayan warty pig
- Alpine marmot
- Pacific shrew
- Dark bolo mouse
- Kloss’s mole
- Indian gerbil
- Beaded wood mouse
- Tien Shan birch mouse
- Desert pygmy mouse
Animals with the same life expectancy as a African pygmy mouse
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a African pygmy mouse:
- Brants’s climbing mouse with an average maximal age of 3.25 years
- Smith’s vole with an average maximal age of 3.5 years
- Northern quoll with an average maximal age of 2.83 years
- Vinogradov’s jird with an average maximal age of 3.33 years
- Pen-tailed treeshrew with an average maximal age of 2.67 years
- Winter white dwarf hamster with an average maximal age of 3.17 years
- Southwestern water vole with an average maximal age of 3.5 years
- Fat-tailed false antechinus with an average maximal age of 3 years
- Bicolored shrew with an average maximal age of 3 years
- Water opossum with an average maximal age of 3 years