• Diurnal -The quality of being active during the day and asleep at night. Humans are an example of a diurnal animal.

• Ectoparasites - Parasitic animals that live on the outside of the body of their hosts (ex: fleas and ticks). This is in contrast to endoparasites, which live inside the body of their hosts (ex: tapeworms and heartworms).

• Fancy Mouse - This is a term used to refer to domesticated versions of the common house or field mouse. Used in this context fancy means "hobby", describing the hobby of the mouse breeder.

• Mus musculus - This is the scientific name of the most common variety of domestic mouse. Mus refers to the genus name and musculus refers to the name of the species.

• Nocturnal - The quality of being active at night and asleep during the day. Describing animals that are active only at night.

• Omnivorous - A omnivore is an animal that eats both plant and animal material. Often they are scavengers or combination grazer/predators.

• Socalizing - This refers to the practice of getting a mouse (or any animal for that matter) used to interacting with humans. A well socalized mouse will climb into a person's hand and is not frightened of humans.