Spiny Mouse Housing
Care Basics
Housing
Equipment
Sexing
Grouping
You should have your future pet's home (cage, tank...) perfectly ready before actually getting the pet to live there. At the very latest, you should buy the abode at the same time as your spiny mouse. Consider very carefully what kind of abode will suit best both your pet's and your needs. Getting a cage hastily may end up being costly if you find out that what you bought was unsuitable for your spiny mouse and you are forced to buy something else.
Young spiny mouse playing |
Home!
There are many kind of tanks being sold. It's up to you to choose the most suitable one. If you're good with handwork, you can construct a tank by yourself. The spiny mouse's abode should fill the following requirements:
1. It should be safe for the spiny mouse. There must not be anything in the
abode where they could hurt themselves.
2. It has to be escape proof. However, all lids or doors should be easy
to open and close (by you).
3. You have to be able to take your spiny mice out of their tank with
ease. Doors which are too small are very inconvenient.
4. The abode has to be easy to clean.
5. Feeding your spiny mice has to be easy.
6. There should be enough of ventilation.
7. There has to be enough room for the mice and their equipment.
8. The abode should last longer than an individual spiny mouse's life span.
Cage or tank?
Generally speaking, the topic should go: "Not a cage, a tank", as cages aren't recommended for spiny mice at all. So, the real alternatives are plastic and glass tanks. When choosing the abode, you should take into consideration the number, sex and species of your spiny mice and if there are other animals in your household - animals you have to keep away from your spinies. Furthermore, think closely what alternatives suit best in your home.
4-5 spiny mice can be housed in a 60 -litre terrarium, but for a single spiny mouse the terrarium shouldn't be much smaller.
Plastic tanks
There are all kinds and sizes of plastic tanks available from tiny show boxes to Ferplast Duna -boxes. "Habitrail" hamster homes with all kinds of different rooms and tubes can also be included in this section. When choosing a tank you should pay attention to the floor space available. The height is not that important (although the spiny mouse has to be able to stand up tall and preferably climb), but it is much easier to build additional floors and ladders to a higher tank.
Plastic tanks are light to move and easy to clean. Furthermore, they come with lids. You are able to put a large amount of beddings in a tank for the mice to play in and hide small cardboard boxes and tubes under the beddings.
However, the small plastic tanks are unsuitable for spiny mice as homes and if the tank is not high enough, the spinies can gnaw their way out through the lid. A determined mouse can even chew itself to freedom through the wall. With a tank you should make sure that sun does not shine in the tank - sunshine can raise the temperature in the tank to deadly hot. If the beddings get even a bit too dirty, the ammonia levels in the tank get so high it will damage the respiratory tracts of your mice. In the long run, the bottom of a plastic tank may get a bit stained from the mouse urine.
Glass tanks
Rather large, wider than high glass tank (usually former aquarium) is pretty suitable for spiny mice. Reptile tanks are not as suitable, as they often lack ventilation. A glass tank needs a wire mesh lid, escape proof and durable. Used glass tanks are usually easy to find for cheap prize, as a spiny mouse tank doesn't have to hold water. However, it should not have cracks.
Glass tanks have the good points of plastic tanks. Furthermore, they don't get stained and a mouse can't chew its way out.
However, glass tanks are rather heavy and especially the larger ones are too heavy to carry in the bathroom for wash ups. The dangers of plastic tanks are present with the glass ones as well; sunshine is dangerous and you have to remember to clean the beddings in time. Furthermore, a glass tank can get broken very easily, if you happen to drop it.
Beddings & Cleaning
Beddings or litter should not be forgotten! Good beddings are soft (so that the mouse can play in it) and as dust free as possible. From different wood chips aspen is safe. Do not use pine or cedar - these cause respiratory ailments! CareFresh and similar products are also safe, corn cob can get moldy fast and dry the air so much that it isn't good for the mice.
For nesting material you can give your mice high quality hay (green, not moldy or dusty), straw or shredded tissue paper. Do not get "hamster cotton" or similar fiber products. This has caused blockages in intestines, deaths by strangulation and amputations of limbs.
Cleaning up
You should clean up your spiny mouse's abode once or twice a week depending on the size of the abode and the number of animals in it. You should wash all your spiny mice's furniture with hot water once a week. Cleaning up is easier if you get two sets of everything to start with. This way one set is being used by your spiny mice, the other set can be cleansed thoroughly.
You can change the order of the spiny mice's toys while cleaning and hide little treats among the toys and beddings for your mouse to find. Spinies are active little animals and they love exploring their surrounding and changes in it.
 Beddings and litter suitable for spiny mice: Wood shavings, aspen chips, peat, wood pellets, paper pellets, hay and shredded paper. |
On to next part - Spiny Mouse's Home Furnishing.
Text: Satu Karhumaa, modified from original mouse article.