Breast cancer is the most common spontaneous malignancy in women, causing a serious threat to women’s health. Experimental animal models have been important research tools in bringing insights into the related mechanisms of breast cancer, as well as in delivering improved therapies for the disease. To reveal the pathogenesis of various breast cancers and facilitate the development of new drugs, ideal animal models of breast cancer should share some common tumor molecular characteristics and biological behavior with that of human breast cancer. In this review, five types of experimental animal breast cancer models were included, which may provide a basis for research on diagnosis and treatment of human breast cancer.