Furniture for Spinies
Care Basics
Housing
Equipment
Sexing
Grouping
A home without any furniture is pretty boring, isn't it! According to a scientific study, having plenty of things to play with makes mice smarter than those living in a boring environment. Most likely this goes for spiny mice as well! Now, you don't want to have a dumb pet, do you? So, give your pets lots of activities.
Food bowl and water bottle
Most important equipment are food bowl and water bottle. Make sure, that the water battle you buy actually works. There are huge differences between bottles from the same manufacturer. Some can't hold water at all, while some don't let any water out no matter how hard to poor spiny mouse tries to drink.
For a food bowl a ceramic cup will do, these are available from pet shops. There are also cheaper alternatives - small glass baby food jars as well as cheap tiny coffee cups suit well. If your spiny mouse is one of those who don't care to throw the food out before using the bowl as a toilet, it is better to put the food directly on the beddings. Plastic bowls get chewed up quickly, so they are not as good an alternative.
A spiny mouse having a dinner |
Nest
Spiny mice need a box or house for a nest. You can use your imagination with the nest box, as long as you remember that plastic parts are not safe, the spiny mouse toys should not have sharp edges and of course there should not be anything poisonous in them (paint, for example). There are several different alternatives available in pet shops; wooden, ceramic and plastic. The problem with wooden nest is that it soaks moisture. Ceramic nests are expensive, but they do last a lifetime - and not just your current spiny mouse's lifetime! Plastic ones can collect humidity inside the nest and spiny mice tend to chew holes in them. Splinters of plastic are not healthy for your pets if they happen to swallow them. You can construct a nest yourself as well. Earthenware flower pots make great nests and the spiny mice love them. Make a little hole in the side of a flower pot and turn the pot upside down. Be careful when making the hole, as the pots go easily into little pieces. Empty shell of a coconut is a good and fun nest too, especially if you hang it from the ceiling of the tank.
Do not give your spinies a wheel. It's a tail killer, as spiny mouse tail is quite fragile.
Other toys
Spiny mice love to have lots of toys around. All kinds of tubes and ladders are very popular among them. Ordinary toilet paper rolls are more than suitable for spiny mice. Biscuit and other small cardboard boxes are very suitable for mouse toys. You can attach several small boxes together and hide them under the beddings. Don't use glue, adhesive tape or metal to attach the boxes together, your spiny mouse might hurt itself. Just make a hole on the side of the box and stick a slightly smaller box a bit through that hole to attach the boxes together. Spinies will also chew on the boxes and make more and more little doors in them until the whole box is one big hole! Always remember to remove all plastic parts from the boxes.
Ladders can be bought ready made or you can make them yourself. Non poisonous branch of tree (willow, for example) from unpolluted area is also a nice toy to climb on.
On to next part - Sexing spiny mice.
Text: Satu Karhumaa, modified from original mouse article.