Getting Pet Mice - Few Questions

[mice40]

I posted this on a mouse forum and hamster forum and nobody has answers so I thought I would see if a more active cat forum knew anything about mice.

I owned 2 hamsters (in separate cages of course) and one of them died a few weeks ago. I have decided to get mice, and I purchased everything I need and sanitized all the hamster things I am reusing. I have done much research using emiology and other mice YouTubers but I have a few remaining questions. By the way, I will be getting 3 female mice. Anyways, here are my questions.

1. How often should I feed fresh fruits and vegetables, and how much for 3female mice?

2. How often should I clean their cage?

3. What does a cage clean look like for mice? I know hamsters hate having cage cleans so I only do it ever 1-2 months, but I’ve heard things can build up quicker in mice so how should I go about cleaning the cage? Like a full deep clean?

4. Do mice smell extremely bad, if so how to manage it? I have hemp, aspen and paper bedding (paper bedding will just be nesting material) because I heard wood bedding is better.

Thank you for the help.

 

[tiggerwillow]

A work colleague of mine had mice (before I knew her) and I remember she told me hers were viscious, kept attacking each other and bullied the male by refusing to allow him to get any of the food.

She fully cleaned her mice out once a week.

I don't know about the food, work shift patterns means I rarely see her so am unlikely to be able to get answers quickly for you.

Also, do you have cats currently? Keep them away from the mice. I have two cats myself and I would not trust the older one with rodents. Younger one is a territorial wimp - she'll challenge other cats, but won't even try it with rodents, hides behind my older girl cat Tigger. Who in turn tries to get the rodents, to kill them (she cannot move fast enough nowadays to kill rodents though)

 

[game misconduct]

I posted this on a mouse forum and hamster forum and nobody has answers so I thought I would see if a more active cat forum knew anything about mice.

I owned 2 hamsters (in separate cages of course) and one of them died a few weeks ago. I have decided to get mice, and I purchased everything I need and sanitized all the hamster things I am reusing. I have done much research using emiology and other mice YouTubers but I have a few remaining questions. By the way, I will be getting 3 female mice. Anyways, here are my questions.

1. How often should I feed fresh fruits and vegetables, and how much for 3female mice?

2. How often should I clean their cage?

3. What does a cage clean look like for mice? I know hamsters hate having cage cleans so I only do it ever 1-2 months, but I’ve heard things can build up quicker in mice so how should I go about cleaning the cage? Like a full deep clean?

4. Do mice smell extremely bad, if so how to manage it? I have hemp, aspen and paper bedding (paper bedding will just be nesting material) because I heard wood bedding is better.

Thank you for the help.

1.you can offer it daily in small amounts to get an idea of how much by what they finnish off make sure to offer other rodent food to though make sure to remove the uneaten greens or you will end up with fruit flies/drain flies etc
2. i used to clean my feeder mice cages weeklydumping(3 mice you can probably do monthly) out all the pine shavings and washing the cage with mild dish soap. cleaner habitat = healthier feeders/pets prevents mites also but they might come with your mice anyways pet stores keep em in bad conditions usually since majority are bought for feeders not pets
3.clean cage looks like a clean cage fresh smelling pine bedding food/water bowls are clean no poop in em yes they do\poop into their food bowls. mice like to be out and can become quite tame
4.yes you if get lazy on the maintenance their cage will smell badly rodent pee smell will never be an issue if your not lazy about keeping things clean

 

[Willowy]

Mice have a particular odor. Even females, even when clean. Personally I can't deal with it. Maybe you can find a breeder to see if you can handle the odor.

Mine never got fully tame, although they would take food from my hand. But I probably didn't put enough time into taming them.

All in all, I prefer rats and hamsters. But mice definitely are cute!