Cleaning mice pans

[rocko2527]

Every week I remove each pan from the rack, scoop out all the mice into a holding bin, dump the dirty litter, scrape the pan out with a putty knife, replace with fresh litter and move the mice back in. I don't even wash the pans and haven't in years. Mice live in a world of scent, they need their homes to smell familiar otherwise they don't feel as comfortable. I've found that if I wash the pans they actually smell worse after a few days because the mice will be extra busy re-marking their territory.

Mark do you scoop out hoppers to? I tried and they fly everywhere LOL hard to catch to It seems like if you have one jump they all start jumping like popcorn

[MarkS]

Mark do you scoop out hoppers to? I tried and they fly everywhere LOL hard to catch to It seems like if you have one jump they all start jumping like popcorn

Ha, I know what you mean. They're not called hoppers for nothing. My holding bin is actually one of those blue rubbermaid storage containers, one of the extra deep ones. I position it next to the rack and under the tub that I want to clean, then I quickly pull the tub out and stick the entire tub into the holding bin all in one motion. If I've got hoppers, a lot of them will pop out but are contained in the bin, then I scoop out the rest of the mice and clean the tub.

It's interesting to note that the adults, weanlings and of course the pinkies and fuzzies will stay in the tub and you have to pull them out by hand, but a lot of those hoppers will take off like a shot.