Where People & Piggies Thrive

Newbie or Guinea Guru? Popcorn in!

Register for free to enjoy the full benefits.
Find out more about the NEW, drastically improved site and forum!

Register

Other mice

PhoenixFeather

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Jul 29, 2007
Posts
373
Joined
Jul 29, 2007
Messages
373
Hi,

We recently rescued 2 female mice that my kids' school had to get rid of due to a serious allergy issue. To be honest, I wasn't that thrilled about it, but my teenaged son was very attached to them and there weren't any other good prospects, so we took them. They're about a year old.

They were in a Critter trail cage with a huge wheel outside the cage. They loved it but the odor was horrible, we think due to the fact that they'd pee and poo in the wheel, where there was no litter to absorb it or help with the odor.

We got them a SAM 5-level cage (with a wheel inside) instead, and that works a bit better, but we still have some pretty bad odor issues. :(

My son cleans the cage thoroughly once a week, including washing down all the parts. But it still stinks again after about 2 days. Oddly, it sometimes smells better a little later in the week.

We use carefresh litter. One issue may be the fact that they push their litter out of the cage (through the bars). Is this common mouse behavior? In any case, of course once they do this, there isn't much litter left to absorb their pee.

The mouse care sites I've read all say to change the cage when it starts to smell of amonia, but then they go on to say that that should be about once a week, not every 2 days! Any idea what we are doing wrong?

Thanks!
 

charlie/gus/mo

Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Sep 26, 2007
Posts
19
Joined
Sep 26, 2007
Messages
19
I used to (when I cared for mice) clean the cage completely twice a week. And am sorry to say but I have found mice to be a bit smelly. Make sure you are washing all parts including tunnels. Also you will probably have to add more bedding mid way between cage cleaning
 

YANGLiCiOUS

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Oct 14, 2007
Posts
69
Joined
Oct 14, 2007
Messages
69
Mouse tends to smell, especially males.
They tends to kick out the bedding by accident when they are burrowing, there isn't anything to be alarmed of.
Ammonia can't be smelled. The smell is their pee. Ammonia build up when too much pee are in it, not because they pee the ammonia out, so it's fine to change once per week.
You are doing great, using the right bedding and even bought a cage for them, however I think that mouse should be housed in a tank or tub that is closed securely at the top because you can have mroe stuffs for them and it would be easier to clean out than cages.
A 2" ft fish tank would be ideal. With a wheel and several toys like ropes and hidey houses it would do them much better.
 
Last edited:

PhoenixFeather

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Jul 29, 2007
Posts
373
Joined
Jul 29, 2007
Messages
373
Mouse tends to smell, especially males.
They tends to kick out the bedding by accident when they are burrowing

These are females, and they remove the bedding on purpose. They pick the pieces up and push them through the bars.

I think that mouse should be housed in a tank or tub that is closed securely at the top because you can have mroe stuffs for them and it would be easier to clean out than cages.
A 2" ft fish tank would be ideal. With a wheel and several toys like ropes and hidey houses it would do them much better.
They do have a lot of stuff in their cage -- I'm not sure why you think there would be more in a tank. They have a hidey house, wheel, little staircases up to 3 little half-levels, and a tube that also goes up to all the levels and a top little penthouse area. They also like climbing the bars a lot, which they would lose out on in a tank, though that would help with them removing the bedding.

I wanted to consider a tank-topper type arrangement, but my son thinks they enjoy their current cage more than they would enjoy any of the tank-toppers we've seen so far, so he's reluctant to change.

By the way, you can definitely smell ammonia. It is used as a cleaning product, and it has a very strong smell.
 

PhoenixFeather

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Jul 29, 2007
Posts
373
Joined
Jul 29, 2007
Messages
373
https://www.guineapigcages.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=3230
Ofcourse I do believe the cage you have now is a good cage. Have you ever tried cleaning twice a week?

It does smell somewhat better if we clean twice a week, but really, the smell starts almost immediately, and doesn't necessarily get that much worse during the week. The cage is somewhat of a pain to clean, so we'd rather not, to be honest.

I got an under-bed storage container (shallow plastic bin), and placed the cage into that to at least catch the litter when they push it out of the cage, and we clean that out daily. Not having dirty litter strewn all over the place does help a bit.

I'm thinking of trying to get some kind of transparent plastic to wrap around the bottom part of the wire part of the cage, to block them from ejecting stuff so easily. Not like plastic bag material, something like plexiglass or maybe something rigid but more flexible. Of course it would have to be something that wouldn't harm them if they chewed it.
 

katiecavyNC

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Jun 5, 2006
Posts
516
Joined
Jun 5, 2006
Messages
516
Mice just stink. I hate to say it, but we have mice and they just really smell. I had a wire cage that I was cleaning every day and it still just permeated my son's room.

I switched to an aquarium with a screen topper and that helped some. We're down to one mouse now due to natural attrition and age, and now the odor is not too bad - once a week is good cleaning schedule.

Sorry to be so negative, but I will not be having any more mice due to the odor.
 

PhoenixFeather

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Jul 29, 2007
Posts
373
Joined
Jul 29, 2007
Messages
373
I don't think we will get new mice after these ones either. I wouldn't have chosen mice in the first place, but these 2 needed a home, and my son was already attached to them.
 

katiecavyNC

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Jun 5, 2006
Posts
516
Joined
Jun 5, 2006
Messages
516
You know, I think getting down to one mouse didn't just cut down on the odor because there was only one mouse rather than two, I think that the mice have more odor to the urine when they have another mouse to 'communicate' with in that way. I know the smell definately dropped more than half when the other mouse passed away.

I like the mice, that's the sad thing - they are really cute and very tame. I just am not thrilled with the odor...
 

PhoenixFeather

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Jul 29, 2007
Posts
373
Joined
Jul 29, 2007
Messages
373
I like the mice, that's the sad thing - they are really cute and very tame. I just am not thrilled with the odor...

I agree with everything you said. They are cute and fun to play with, and seem pretty smart too. But the smell is a big turn-off for me. :sad:
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.

Similar threads

Koti Massey
Replies
9
Views
4K
Koti Massey
Koti Massey
LunaKitty
Replies
17
Views
6K
pigger123
pigger123
piggielover200
Other Mice??
Replies
22
Views
5K
piggielover200
piggielover200
YourSoJelly
Replies
7
Views
3K
YourSoJelly
YourSoJelly
piggiepigpigs75
Replies
4
Views
1K
ShihTzuLover
ShihTzuLover
Top