Why is cage hygiene a nuanced management technique concerning a fancy mouse's reliance on scent?

Thorough cleaning confuses the mouse that relies on scent trails to navigate, requiring owners to leave familiar materials intact.

Fancy mice rely heavily on their keen olfactory sense for orientation, navigation, identifying their environment, and recognizing other mice through scent marking. This intense reliance on smell creates a management challenge when maintaining cage hygiene. While cleanliness is paramount for health, completely sanitizing a cage removes all familiar scent cues, effectively rendering the environment confusing and potentially stressful for the mouse. Experienced keepers navigate this trade-off by employing partial cleaning strategies, such as frequent spot-cleaning and only performing partial bedding changes weekly, ensuring the enclosure remains sanitary while preserving enough familiar scent markers to maintain the mouse's sense of security.