The Sinaloan pocket mouse lives on sandy lowlands along Mexico's western coast. Records come from coastal dunes, thornscrub, seasonal dry forest, and river valleys.
Compared with the related C. rostratus, its coat is darker and browner, and its skull is longer and narrower.
It uses coastal dunes, Sinaloan thornscrub, seasonal forest, and river valleys. Near the southern edge of the thornscrub, it is sometimes found alongside C. artus.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.