How many calories does a mouse need per day?

Answer 1

Mouse and Human have a lot in common. We both share about 20,000 genes, have the same basic metabolic needs, have the same organ systems, are both mammals, etc. It's no surprise that for decades mouse has been utilized as a model organism for humans to study things like things like human disease. That being said, it shouldn't be too hard to estimate mouse's daily energy needs if we already know what a human needs. If an average mouse weighs 20 grams, the lb equivelant is 0.0440924524 lbs. An "average" 160 lb human male needs 2000 calories per day. So, caloric needs for mouse are more or less a ratio of these two. After the math, mouse ends up needing about 0.55 calories per day, although this value does not take into consideration mouse's higher metabolism and physical activity. It represents an estimate for basic metabolic needs. In reality, a mouse might require 1-5 or even more calories per day. This is just a raw estimate.