"If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" is based on the "If You Give..." series of books by Laura Numeroff, illustrations by Felicia Bond. The designers for the animated series sought to match the look of the books' characters and backgrounds.
Each 22 minute episode is made up of 2 short, 11 minute stories. In episode 101, the first story, 'Applesauce', was originally created as the pilot for the series. 'Applesauce' was animated entirely by the crew at Mercury Filmworks, based in Ottawa, Canada while the other episodes were animated mostly by Copernicus Studios in Halifax.
Roger Craig Smith does voices for both Mouse and Moose - frequently switching back and forth between voices in real time.
Originally, the grocery store for the series was going to be a Super Store, however, it was eventually decided that a smaller, 'General Store' like design fit better with the overall look of the production.
In the books, none of the human characters have names. Oliver, Mouse's boy, had several names during the development of the series, including Marcus and Owen. Eventually "Oliver" won out.