WC area

by Misha_usa Tue 11 Oct 2016, 3:39 pm

Hi there,

Nimh had beet at home for four days already, and despite we're very slooowly making progress on the taming issue, I'm quite satisfied with it so far. Today he already took food from my fingertips and delayed some minutes sniffing my hand all around, and he's not so shy of me anymore, so he's spending more time now wandering up and down around the cage, burying food under the hay and so.
I assume it's not bad for such a short period... is it?

However, and risking to look like some kind of idiot or something, what troubles me a little is Nimh's liking to "do his things" on what I think is the less suitable area...
This is his cage and, as you see, there is a 2nd floor with the excercise wheel, food bowl, water and the (don't know how this is called actually) "teeth-sharpener".
WC area <a href=

Everything is pretty much default for now, I'm already thinking on moving things here and thre and try to find the way to fit some proper toys, but I'll provably ask later, on a new pic, for some advice on that too.

The thing is he'd took a liking to poop on the platform (not exclusively, but quite a lot, as there aren't that many poops on the stuffy area), and today I noticed it had also escalated to heavily peeing on the wheel general area.
WC area <a href=

It's not so easy to see on the picture maybe, sorry.
I don't know if it's possible to educate this, or if I'm wrong on the whole issue but it's my first time having a mouse so I don't really know. I had hamsters and gerbs in the past, and both tended to "do their things" on a more or less specific area of his liking, always the same, so I'm afraid Nimh is choosing this as his perfect WC area because, please, it's the only non padded area on the whole place xD

Any advice whould be highly appreciated!

by Peachy Tue 11 Oct 2016, 4:07 pm

It does sound like taming is going good so far! Applause

My boys like to potty on their platforms too. There's not much you can do to stop him from doing it... mice sometimes pick a favorite spot to pee, but otherwise they tend to just go where ever they want to go. You can try to cut a piece of fleece or cardboard or something to fit there so that you can swap it out easily. Or maybe add a little bedding?

by MesaMouse Tue 11 Oct 2016, 7:10 pm

Mice will poop wherever and whenever -- it's not something they can hold or are even aware of doing...I was always picking poop out of the food bowl and getting pooped on by the girls when picking them up! As far as urinating goes, my girls literally seemed to hold it until they got on their saucer and then just let go! When they were young, that saucer wheel had to be scrubbed every morning but, fortunately, as they matured, they pretty much picked a corner of the tank as their urination spot so I always knew where to look first for daily spot-cleaning and that corner's bedding was usually pretty "moist" by deep-clean day.

by Misha_usa Tue 11 Oct 2016, 7:25 pm

Thanks to both! Smile

I'll most definitely try the fleece/cardboard solution abeona is proposing, but anyway cleaning the spot anytime I see it too dirty.

I'll go for the deep-cleaning tomorrow so then I may try and set things up a little bit different, and see how it works. Don't know if setting the excercise wheel at floor-level even if I need to raise the platform a little more may help a little too?

by CanadianExport Tue 11 Oct 2016, 7:44 pm

I find that my younger girls LOVE peeing on their wheel. It appears that Nimh likes doing that too so moving the wheel down to the bedding area may help to lessen the peeing on the platform. Mine also love peeing and pooping when they are perched on or in their food dish so moving that off the platform may help too. He will eventually probably pick a favorite area and then go there. My older girls pick a corner and go there. Good luck and I am glad Nimh is starting to get more tame!