Diet
Golden mice are granivorous, eating mostly seeds. They prefer sumac seeds, but also consume honeysuckle and other seeds as well. Sumac seeds are poor quality food because they contain tannin, which reduces the efficiency of enzymes in the mouse's digestive pathway. Studies have shown that females fed year-old seeds, which have more calories, have significantly higher mean ingestion and assimilation rates than females that eat freshly matured seeds.
Flooding is a problem for golden mice because the water causes the seeds to be unobtainable, to sprout, or to spoil.
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