Dispelling the Common Myth That Mice Love Cheese

Simon Whistler, host of the informative video series “Today I Found Out” dispels the common myth that mice love cheese. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, although it’s unclear as to how the idea was conceived in the first place

In fact, as any pest exterminator or pet shop owner knows, mice don’t really like cheese at all and they’ll even actively shy away from certain types of cheese (they have a very sensitive sense of smell and certain cheeses give off odors that are repulsive to many types of mice). According to Dr. David Holmes of Manchester Metropolitan University who recently did a study on whether mice liked cheese or not, while if hungry enough, mice will pretty much eat anything (even nibble on you, cardboard, whatever), most type of mice strongly prefer grains, fruits, and sweet things; certain types of mice will also eat insects and other small animals. Basically, they like to eat what they’ve been accustomed to eating since before humans started making cheese around 10,000 years ago. So how did the myth that mice liked cheese get started? Nobody knows. It’s been around for a long time…

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.