pooping in the dish...yuck

Ive separated my two female mice from the unpregnant female and the male just so that they will be a little less stressed out and have more room to themselves (even though they had plenty in that freakin "mansion" of a cage).

But now they have started pooping in thier dishes and it bugs me becuase .....well...just becuase..err.....its poop in there food !!

Is there anything i can do to stop this ??

I was thinking of buying one of those suet bird feeding baskets but i wasnt to sure becuase the holes in those things are big and i think the lab blocks would fall through...please help

Nothing you can really do about that. Mice just don't have any table manners. It's not that big of a deal. Just so you don't have water in a bowl, then you're good. Water bottles work best for providing water. I think they would just chew up the bird food holders. Ceramic or hard plastic crock dishes work well and don't get chewed up. All of the mice I have ever known/had have always pooped anywhere their little stinky bodies wanted to. Just not sanitary critters are they? :)

No, they really arent !

Im so used to Roxy Reb and Ruby with thier manners, they always seem to poop in the same corner over and over again.Snakes are so neat and clean.

Rodents on the other hand.....i guess they really are just messy little guys, food all over the cage, water spilled all the time, and of course......poopie in the dish.

And yeah, i tried a water bottle.....but get this....i couldent figure out how to set it up in my rubbermaid....im so spoiled with using a bowl with my snakes, keeping rodents is differnt in so many ways !

Anybody got a picture on how to do it ? like, a picture of your setup..(that is...if you have a rubbermaid setup)

At first i drilled two holes in the water bottle, tied a metal thread in it, and then tied it to the mesh on top so that it hung down.......but then it leaked all over prolly due to me drilling a hole in it....

Yep, no drilling holes in the water bottle... ;) They work by gravity and pressure. Just drill a hole in the side of the container the size of the metal tube of the water bottle, put the metal tube through the hole, and either tape or use one of those metal hangers that comes with the water bottle and latch it to the top of the container. I like using the tape though, more convenient. Works pretty good, and I'll try to get a picture of how I rigged mine up soon. The mice don't chew the water bottle all up and you don't have water spilled all over the place. Bowls just don't work with them, they don't seem to understand the concept.

I would either get another water bottle(the blue ones at Petsmart seem to work the best for me as they are very cheap and have a spring inside to keep the water from leaking out) or you can caulk the holes in the other one.

If you need help, you can post pictures of your setup and I can show you where to drill, how big of a hole, etc. Just let me know :)

Here ya go.

http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/...CN0546-med.JPG

http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/...CN0547-med.JPG

Exactly, just no tape in the cage where they can reach. That can get ugly really quick.

What kind of cage is that? Looks plastic, but I could be wrong. Is that your rat cage? Does it have good ventilation? Sorry, bunches of questions, just interested and curious :)

Yes, rats will demolish any tape in their reach, however, I have had no problems whatsoever with the mice.. that is the mouse cage. It's a stacking storage bin made for office supplies etc.

I have many holes drilled on all sides, including the top. I have no problems with condensation. Of course, more holes can be added as needed.

This makes me think of something; it is amazing how much cleaner rats are, than mice. All of my rats (1.3) will crap in only one corner of their cages. By contrast, my mice are complete ignorant slobs. I am actually quitting my mouse breeding operation becuz they are too nasty smelling and none of my snakes eat mice anymore!