When my kids decided they wanted a pet of their own. Of course my husband and I figured the best pet for them would be a gerbil, hamster, or a mouse. We went to the local pet store, purchased a mouse that my kids immediately adored. Purchased all supplies needed to care for this furry new creature in the house. Of course they wanted to hold and pet "Hammy", but he was near impossible to get out of the cage without chasing him around it and scaring him. Gave him days to adjust to his new surroundings and decided to try once again. I took Hammy from his cage with some effort. However; once placed in my eldest daughters hand, he bit her. Scared her so badly that we had to immediately replace him back into the cage. She didnt understand why he bit her, because she was so gentle with him. I didnt really have any answer for her besides that he was from a pet store and most likely just hadn't been handled often. Than I proceeded to explain to a distraught 5 year old at the time, how animals need socialized constantly to become used to human hands. Needless to say, after a few weeks of attempting to tame him more myself (because my daughter became scared to handle him at all anymore) I had to return him back to the pet store we purchased him from. The second mouse we purchased along with him was Tiny. He sadly did not make it past 3 days. I understand mice can be so stressed with a change in environments and so forth, so as of today we will never be sure as to the why he died, but suspect its not uncommon of pet store critters at all. Than we moved on to gerbils and hamsters from a different pet store. All with the same result, dying or forced to return biting pets. I decided this was ridiculous. How hard does it have to be to own a pet rodent of any sort, in good health and with a good temperament? So I decided to start my own mousery, to offer better quality health/temperaments in mice than local pet stores do.