QUESTION 1: How big a cage do mice need?
ANSWER: Minimun 60*40 cm, preferrably high enough for putting shelves and branshes in the cage for the mice to climb on. A 300 liter aquarium is fine for a group of 4 - 10 mice. I suggest a bigger aquarium for a bigger group of mice.
QUESTION 2: What kind of cage is best for mice?
ANSWER: I know about 3 different types of cages that is good for mice.
1. A big aquarium, the bigger the better, with a wire mesh covering all the top to let in enough air.
2. You can also build an open cage (with no walls) on a tabletop where the mice cannot climb down. I found a very nice description of such a cage in a book called "Mice A Complete Pet Owner's Manual" written by Horst Bielfeld.
3. A third variety of cage, which actually is a sort of mix between of the first two, is to have a big aquarium on a tabletop and having food and water inside the aquarium but never put a lid on top of the aquarium. Some even put in small ladders so the mice easily can get in and out of the aquarium.
You can put in shelves in the aquarium by gluing glass shelves with silicone, it works great!
Do not use plexi glass if odour is a problem, since plexi glass will become smelly rather soon (I found that out the hard way).
QUESTION 3: What about wire floored cages?
ANSWER: Wire bottom cages are bad for ALL kinds of animals. They can hurt their feet on the wire, their feet can get stuck between the wire.
QUESTION 4: What kind of bedding can I use?
ANSWER: If you live in the US on any other country with pine and cedar, don't use those! Both pine and cedar are poisonous for you and your pets.
Paper based cat litter, aspen, alder and fir are all beddings that are fine to use. Where I live (in Sweden) we can use wood shavings with no bad effects, our trees are not the same species as the dangerous pine and cedar.
QUESTION 5: How is it possible to keep two (or more) male mice together in the same cage?
ANSWER: Here in Sweden it is not uncommon to keep several male mice together in a cage. I have been told that is the US all male mice are so aggressive towards eachother that it is impossible.
The question of male aggression is something you can decide yourself, when buying and breeding your mice, since it is an inheritable treat. If you only buy and breed non-aggressive mice all your mice will sooner or later be non-aggressive.
I don't breed mice at the moment, but when I did I usually had up to 120 or 150 adults, and I always kept male mice together, even after I had used the males in breeding.
QUESTION 6: Are houses good for mice?
ANSWER: Yes, they absolutely love to have a small house or two to sleep in.
QUESTION 7: How do I make the perfect mouse house?
ANSWER: Make a small wooden house, that is easy to open for cleaning purposes. Here in Sweden there are nice plastic houses for hamsters, that you can buy in the pet shop.
When I had a big mousery I used to have metal houses which had the form of a tube cut in two lengthwise (making two houses). These were big enough for 20 mice or so, but I never had many mice in one cage. I had one of these in ehouses very cage and they were washed out thoroughly every week. Then I added lots of paper boxes and paper rolls for extra stimulation.
QUESTION 8: What are the best mouse toys?
ANSWER: Everything that is cheap: toilet rolls, small paper boxes, branches, hay, newspaper, and just about everything that is not harmful. The mice will eventually chew it all to pieces, so prepare to give them new toys on a daily basis (or weekly if your mice are slow in chewing!)
If you have many mice you can ask your friends to collect such things for your pets!
QUESTION 9: I have a big mousery, how can I make my mice happier?
ANSWER: I can give you a nice tip: Keep a big aquarium empty of mice. Put in a lot of playstuff for mice (I call it a playground). Put all the mice from one cage in the playground while cleaning out their cage... If you scrub their cage down thoroughly and so on the mice will have long stay in the playground during all that time. When their cage is nice and clean they can go back home, having had a fantastic time in the playground! Do that with every cage you clean out:-)
Renee Albe gave me this great tip: you don't have to have an old big aquarium, you can use the bathtub as a playground instead!
Copyright Eva Johansson.
Last update: 11th of August 2006.