Show me pics of your Mouse colonies

[truthsdeceit]

I got a question do you have to use a water bottle for mice or would those little 99 cent food dishes work to? I was thinking about buying those plastic shoe boxes at Wal-Mart that a $1 to put the pregnant girl in to seperate them but there not high enough for a water bottle.

Don't use a water dish. She'll bury it in bedding almost instantly and they she'll have wet bedding and nothing to drink. Very unhealthy.

Attach your water bottle to the outside of the tub, like I did. Melt 3 holes, one large enough for the bottle nozzle and two very small holes near the top on either side. You can use wire or do like I did and put paper clips through the holes attached to a rubber band on the outside which goes round the bottle. THe mice can't chew the paper clips and can't get to the rubberband this way.

Trust me they will try to chew anything you try to attach the bottle with so make sure it's chew proof. also always have the bottle in the hole, the nozzle hole is big enough for them to chew unless it's blocked.

oh and the bright blue hairtye you see round the nozzle is to keep the bottle more upright. The lip of the tub was pushing the top out and making the bottles unreliable.

[legionxxii]

Thats a good idea I will have to do that.

[dmaricle]

i get the tubs at dollar general for 2.50 and the ones at walmart are like 4 dollars and i like the dollar general ones better cause they have a lip on them that i can easily attach the water bottles to. and i have tried bowls for water before but the push poo and shavings into their water and it seems to be way to much trouble to keep them clean. i will post pics of our set up soon and it works so great.

[dmaricle]

ok this is our rat/mouse room.

the tubs that i spoke of.

this is the lip that are on the ones from dollar general.

[dmaricle]

this is the feed hopper i add to each one.

a top view of the lids.

[dmaricle]

now a few shots of the tubs in action!!!!!
our baby girls

weaned rats

mom with babies!

mom with babies 2!

[Doxster]

ive already been working on these for some time. for rats mice and snakes.
once i get a prototype worked up it will be posted here for opinions!

Awesome. I take it it's pretty hard? Especially if you do it with a metal frame. My welding skills aren't really up to date (about 3 years since my last weld), so I'd probably feel safer just buying it to be honest.

Be sure to post pictures of it when you are done!

[truthsdeceit]

Everyone's got awsome looking mouse colonies.

Anyone else want to share some pics?

[Brandon Osborne]

Here is a tip to help make things easier for "your" setups.

Instead of using the lid to these tubs and drilling all the holes, get some 1x2s and cut them to length to make a frame to fit the top of the tub.

Get some hardward cloth and a heavy duty stapler and staple the cloth to the frame. Now place the frame on top of your tub.

To eliminate wasted food, get an 6-8" PVC coupler, set it on top of the cloth and fill it with food.

You can also set your water bottle on top through the mesh. If you are concerned about them chewing the cap, place the sipper through a metal washer.

I would hate drilling all those hole you guys put in your tubs. Not only is it time consuming, it also give animals the potential to chew out the holes.

Have fun.
Brandon

[truthsdeceit]

Here is a tip to help make things easier for "your" setups.

Instead of using the lid to these tubs and drilling all the holes, get some 1x2s and cut them to length to make a frame to fit the top of the tub.

Get some hardward cloth and a heavy duty stapler and staple the cloth to the frame. Now place the frame on top of your tub.

To eliminate wasted food, get an 6-8" PVC coupler, set it on top of the cloth and fill it with food.

You can also set your water bottle on top through the mesh. If you are concerned about them chewing the cap, place the sipper through a metal washer.

I would hate drilling all those hole you guys put in your tubs. Not only is it time consuming, it also give animals the potential to chew out the holes.

Have fun.
Brandon

I think making a mesh lid, which is all your doing, sounds like a lot more work and has no guarantees for those of us that aren't handy.
I'll stick with my lids that snap on and in my case have locks on them.

The only reason I can see to eliminate the lids is if you're building an actual rack. Otherwise why dispose of something made to fit the tubs?

I agree that 'drilling' holes sucks! I use a soldering iron, less than a second per hole and the holes are perfect 1/4inch size, too small for mice to get there teeth in. Trust me I've never had a chew outs and my mice have lived in 16qt tubs for about a year just fine with all my home made holes.