What Kind Of Cage Should I Buy?
A twenty-gallon aquarium makes a nice cage for two or three mice. You will need a screen top to keep the mice from escaping. When mice are kept in aquaria, steps must be taken to prevent them from overheating. You can purchase a temperature/humidity gauge designed for fish or reptiles. Be sure there is sufficient air circulation to keep the temperature from rising over 80F. Add some rodent condo shelves to give the mice different levels on which to hang out.
Use dishwashing soap and a sponge to clean it.
I do not suggest wooden cages. But if you do make one, do not use green or pressure-treated lumber to construct it.
Singly kept mice are more prone to escape than two. They will only do it a few time before decide life in the cage is better than the freedom of the house. Mice are quite territorial and soon know that the aquarium is their space.
What Kind Of Bedding (litter) Should I Use?
My favorite bedding for mice are commercial prepared , sanitized ground corn cobs. My next best favorite is ordinary newspaper or paper that has been passed through a document shredder. Most inks these days are non-toxic soya based.
Cedar chips have a pleasant, aromatic odor that masks urine smell. But some feel that cedar, aspen and other strong-aroma bedding are not good for the pet’s health. Most plants contain these natural chemicals to make them distasteful or poisonous to insects.
How Often Should I Change The Bedding?
You should change your mice’s bedding whenever you sniff the smell of ammonia. Ammonia irritates the lungs of your mice and, with time, it will damage them. High ammonia concentration also increases the damage caused by certain virus, bacteria and mycoplasma that mice often harbor in their lungs.
Ammonia diffuses away into the air. So the more air changes or airier the room, and the greater the surface area of the bedding, the slower the ammonia will accumulate.
If you put a sufficiently deep layer of bedding in a 20-gallon aquarium with two or three mice, you should not have to change it for up to a week.
What Temperature and Lighting Are Best For Pet Mice?
Mice handle cold much better than heat. They do best when they live in an environment that is kept between 65 and 80F. A reptile thermometer with a humidity guage is a smart purchase.
Although mice are said to have sweat glands on their feet – I have not seen overheated mice sweat. Instead of drinking more, they retreat to a corner, hyperventilate and eventually go into a coma.
Mice do not like bright light. If your mice retreat into nooks and crannies too much, your lighting may be too bright.
Should I Buy Toys and Stuff To Keep The Mouse Occupied?
Yes. Mice love toys and hollow objects in their habitat. Ladders, mouse-size exercise wheels, old cardboard tubes, wool socks, small cardboard boxes and fiber egg cartons, are all appreciated by mice.
They love to hide and burrow and, more then anything, they love to busy themselves build nests. Fabric and string remnants, shredded paper and soup cans all get converted into nests.
Most objects you place in the cage are best discarded when they become soiled. If there are items to reuse – be sure they are easily soaked and washed.
