Cage cleaning / cage size

by River Sat 02 Jan 2021, 7:22 pm

Right now, my boy's cage is just 200 sq. inches. I'm cleaning once every two weeks with spot cleaning in between because I noticed that if I clean as often as I did with my girls, he overmarks and it becomes counterproductive. If I upgrade his cage (right now it's looking like I'll upgrade to about 800 sq inches), how often would I have to clean then? Is it just more trial and error?
We're trying out hemp bedding, and I leave some old bedding behind when I clean. This is also just how we keep him from overmarking.

I'd also like to see what the side ventilation on you guys' bin cages looks like. I'm not sure how high I should put it to make sure everything stays inside. Does the mesh on the inside of the bin keep them from chewing on the plastic?

by Oreoandfriends Mon 04 Jan 2021, 5:25 pm

I have a large 50 gallon bin cage that usually houses a few females, usually I quickly spot clean it daily and do larger bedding changes monthly (I rarely do complete changes). With one boy a cage that size would be super easy to keep up with! Smaller bedding changes done more frequently might help with keeping his marking at bay while also maintaining a clean cage. You might already do this, but on cage cleaning days I find it helpful to only clean either the bedding or the toys, but never both at once. That way it will still smell like him and he won’t be too stressed! Some boys are messier than others though so sometimes full cleans are necessary.
I’ve made many bin cages but so far I’ve never tried to do side ventilation (although I might give it a try soon). I’d say to make the base tall enough to hold the normal amount of bedding he has plus at least 2-3 inches so he doesn’t make a big mess. My bin cages have the majority of plastic lid replaced with mesh so there’s plenty of ventilation and I make sure to air it out well every day too just to be safe. The mesh will be fine on the inside or outside but it can be difficult to make the edges smooth so I prefer to put it on the outside so the mice don’t accidentally poke themselves.
My mice have never tried to chew the plastic on the lid. I always cut the mesh to be bigger than the openings so even if they did chew the edges they would be stopped with more mesh. Just be sure to use lots and lots of zip ties so he can’t squeeze through!
Hope this helps!

by SarahAdams Tue 05 Jan 2021, 6:32 pm

I have ventilation mesh zip tied both on the tops and sides of my bin cages. I did NOT put the wire mesh on the inside of the bins due to sharp edges on the wire mesh.

I used the fronts of the small cages I had to put on the fronts. The wire part and doors are about 6 or so inches above the bottoms of the bins and nothing gets kicked out. I have only one male in each bin and do a spot cleaning every few days. My mice do not chew the plastic, either on the sides or the tops.

Cage cleaning / cage size PdEi5dc

by milkyway Sun 10 Jan 2021, 3:00 pm

SarahAdams wrote:I have ventilation mesh zip tied both on the tops and sides of my bin cages. I did NOT put the wire mesh on the inside of the bins due to sharp edges on the wire mesh.

I used the fronts of the small cages I had to put on the fronts. The wire part and doors are about 6 or so inches above the bottoms of the bins and nothing gets kicked out. I have only one male in each bin and do a spot cleaning every few days. My mice do not chew the plastic, either on the sides or the tops.

Hi, how did you attach the cage doors? I'm trying to do the same with this cage door (****was purchased as a travel carrier), did you drill holes through the sides of where the door would be and zip tie?

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