smelly pet mice

[mandelyn]

Great advice in this thread, the only thing I can add, is nothing smells worse than a rodent in a fish tank. It's designed to retain moisture for aquatics and amphibians, or to stay dry with the use of a heat lamp for reptiles.

With rodents, any species, the urine causes a dampness, increases odor, and you don't realize just how bad it is until you either get in it to clean it or are right over head with your nose. When I had mice I cleaned the corner they peed in daily. The whole thing every couple of days. It was the only way the smell was manageable even with pine shavings under the gray paper stuff.

A fish tank is like a chicken coop with 0 ventilation.

As far as rodents themselves... female rats, hands down for me. Love them!

 

[Ashleigh]

I don't post much buuuut I thought I'd offer up a small warning.
Part of the issue could be that you have two boys in the same tank. I have 13 mice. My four little men all have their own ten gallon tanks and I clean them once a week. They smell much much much worse when I have the boy tanks next to eachother because they seem to mark more to try and out due the other one. Not to mention that male mice 9/10 snap with absolutely no warning and usually end up killing or maiming each other. They are better off living alone. I realise it would be extra work but if he is cleaning one cage twice a week it might be worth it to clean two tanks once a week.
Please consider seperating the boys for their own safety.
Best of luck,
Ashleigh

 

[drafthorse39]

Quote:
I agree and disagree with this. Agree: they will try to "out mark" each other with their urine. Disagree: I keep bucks in 20L tanks to grow out as feeders or ones I'm planning on holding back to breed to future does. As long as there isn't a female in the tank, there are never any problems. They don't have anything to get into a spat over. I've also kept rat boys together with no problems. If anyone starts fighting, I usually go through and sure enough I dropped a female in.

 

[mom2jedi]

Great advice from everyone. I had mice when I was in high school and probably won't ever have them again even though I really like them. I had two females and I changed their cage frequently but the smell can easily become overwhelming. Males certainly smell much more than females but trying Carefresh instead of shavings might help. Someone else suggested this bedding already and I agree that even though it's more expensive, it certainly keeps the odor controlled better. Mice only live for a couple of years so switching bedding or moving them to a wire cage (also a very good idea) isn't too long of a time to deal with the more smelly boys then switching to girls or rats (much more social) when it's time for new pets.

If you get a wire cage for them, remember mice chew more than hamsters (I agree with the consensus that store bred ones are awful) so you need to make sure the bottom/sides are chew proof. Not as big of a problem as with rats, but still something to consider. I can't remember if the smaller cages do this but the big ferret/rat condos have a plastic base that the wire top sits in so the wire goes all the way to the floor keeping the corners safe from chewing.

Good luck!

Edited to fix spelling.