Mice chewing tubs?

I've got my mouse colony in a tank right now but I'd like to switch to tubs (not in a rack) I've read some of the threads that say litter pans or regular tubs from target work. I'm confused...how do you keep the mice from chewing on the tubs? mine climb the water bottle and chew on the top of my tank right now. :confused:

nobody? :(
I guess I could try to hang the water bottle from the screen on the tub top but they are still going to climb it.

My mice are in Big kitty little pans in a rack I made. Those pans have no lip or groove that they can get their teeth on to chew. I keep my ASF's the same way. If they can get their little teeth on a lip or groove they will be out in a heart beat.

If you go to the ASF forum and look at the tub design, you'll see a real nice setup for mice/asfs. I use the same 50 or 55 qt tub. Mount a water bottle on the OUTSIDE of the tub. And if you're handy, buy some 1/4" screen and try to make a food hopper and mount that to the inside of the tub. The ASF forum really shows a nice tub setup like I said earlier...

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Originally Posted by Mitch21

If you go to the ASF forum and look at the tub design, you'll see a real nice setup for mice/asfs. I use the same 50 or 55 qt tub. Mount a water bottle on the OUTSIDE of the tub. And if you're handy, buy some 1/4" screen and try to make a food hopper and mount that to the inside of the tub. The ASF forum really shows a nice tub setup like I said earlier...

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On the outside....ok that'd work. I'll take a look at that forum. Thanks!

I hang my bottles on the inside, and my tubs all have lips and grooves... but my mice have never really chewed on them. I keep my breeder trios in 26x15x10 tubs with wire on the sides and top, and I make sure they have hides, wheels, and toys to chew at all times. it may be that they're distracted enough not to chew the tubs, or I may just be lucky. :)

The rats I had to start a breeding group had the same setups in larger tubs and chewed right out of three kinds!

My mice and ASFs are kept in 10gallons or large tubs. I don't remember the qt size, but they've never tried to chew. I keep chew blocks in there for them, and I melted a hole in the side for the water bottle.

:]

I'm getting that if the water bottle is outside the tub that should help.
I'm picking up a wheel today and I did put more stuff to chew inside the tank yesterday. So far that is seeming to help keep them off the water bottle. Aty least until I can change my set-up.

I'm also thinking of starting a small rat colony too. Argentra, Do you still have your rats? How did you stop them from chewing out?

:) Nope, after three tubs and the fact that they started trying to lunge for me, I took them in to the local store. I could have stopped the chewing out thing, since I was planning on moving them to 10g tanks (one female per tank) with the male in a wire cage, but I don't tolerate really mean animals in my house.

I may try again with a single trio of rats in the future if more of my snakes switch from mice, but for now I'm fine just getting them from the store. :)

What would the adress to the ASF forum be? :)