I had this cage that I thought had a curse on it for a while, I had like 5 or 6 mice die in there, I dont know what it was! I tried putting the cage in the dishwasher, spraying it with a bleach/water solution everything and they just kept dying. Then eventually, for whatever reason it stopped. Our last male that we had died in that cage, and the females are fine now. Who knows what happend **shrugs**