For those who keep pet mice

[selv14]

I know that posting a pet-related question on a diaper forum is wierd, but most of the pet forums I have visited are near-dead.

Anyway... I'm getting two 4-week old Fancy Mice soon, as my friend just had a litter. As such, I need a cage. I'm thinking of getting a wire cage, since they provide good ventilation. But the pet stores here only have cages with bar spacing of 10mm (0.4in) spacing, or bigger.

Plan B is to get a glass tank, but I'm trying to avoid that option due to the lack of space(height-wise).

So, can mice escape through a 10mm gap?

 

[ozbub]

I'm saying yes if it's bars. But I'm no expert. I just know they can get really flat.

 

[parcelboy2]

If you can get a pencil through the bars then a mouse can fit

 

[Penny]

You really don't want a wire cage. I kept mice for about 6 years and they are like mini magicians. They can actually flatten themselves pretty small. For a fancy mouse a 10 gallon glass tank would suit them just fine but don't be afraid to go bigger.

But with mice if you don't want them getting out you want a glass tank with a mesh lid. They will try anything and everything to get out.

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What you can do is get a small glass tank to start with and then shop around online to see if you can find what you really want. Get to know your mouse and find out what would suit him best. Also females don't smell as bad just so you're aware.

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An don't feed them corn. It's in a lot of pet foods but please please please take it out. There's something in corn that's toxic to them and it causes breast cancer in mice and rats. My last mouse died from it and it was horrible. So please please please don't give them corn.

 

[Cottontail]

I'd suggest looking harder for a finer-pitched wire cage with a pan, or else get a ten-gallon fish tank. Consider, too, that you'll be wanting to scoop out and replace the bedding weekly, so pick something that makes that easy. I've had a lot of pet rodents of various kinds over the years, and my favorite kind of enclosure is one with a pan where the sides and top can simply be lifted off. This makes the constant chore of cleaning ultra easy, which is my main concern -- after ensuring the little beasts can't escape, of course!

 

[selv14]

Thanks for the input guys

Hmm looks like I need to get a glass tank then. My friend, who happens to be a breeder, did say that they won't try to escape. She mentioned something along the lines of how pet-store mice are more skittish, hence they try to escape whereas bred mice know they are safe and are less likely.

Having said this I can't take the chance, as I'll be out the entire day. So I'll go with Penny's idea of getting a smaller tank first, then look around.

 

[Mawile]

Yeah, just to reinforce what everyone's said, I caught a mouse in my house the other day and put it in our old chinchilla cage. The mouse was out before I even lowered my arms. The spacing is probably about 8mm. When I had a pet rat when I was like 6 or 7, we had him in a glass tank with pegboard as a lid. Too heavy for him to lift but plenty of airflow.

 

[w0lfpack91]

we use a Large Glass Terrarium for ours but then again we have like 30-45 depending on their birth cycles. but we breed them for food for the snakes since it is now "Unconstitutional and Inhumane" to feed a Snake a Live Mouse so its impossible to get them here, before you say anything we tried the dead mouse, the snakes didn't eat for 3 months and became very hostile, so we started breeding and feeding them the adults and now they back to being calm. we found out it is impossible to break snakes Of the Live Kill

 

[Aidy]

I had mice for years. They can fit under doors so I wouldn't use wire. I always had a glass cage. Love mice. Bit dirty but fun to make little maps for them in their tank.

 

[selv14]

Hi guys, here's an update:

I chanced upon an ancient post on someone's blog, which mentioned a 'pet shop avenue' in Serangoon North. It was basically two rows of shops full of pet-shops. There I not only found cages with small enough spacing, but I also found a fish tank which was of acceptable size!

After a bit of hard thinking, I decided to compromise with my space constraint and I ended up buying the tank. I won't bore you guys with the details, but the new tank is somewhat okay in the new corner which I've decided to put it. I'm still a bit weary about the fumes issue and being unable to let my mice climb and stuff, but I guess that it is a compromise that I have to make.

Thank you guys for contributing