Here are some of the setups I've done for my rodents. My cages are constantly
changing because rodents do better in a stimulating environment which make
them think. Needless to say that toys are a very important part of the cage
setup, as is a hiding place and a water bottle. Rodents in general enjoy
levels, climbing and tubes, some more than others (hamsters don't enjoy
climbing as much as mice or gerbils, but they do enjoy climbing a bit and they
love tubes that go in all directions. Well... look at the pictures to see some
of the setups I've done. Don't forget to click on the thumbnails to view the
larger picture.
Gerbil Setups:
First,
here is an example of a split cage. A split cage is used to put 2 strange
gerbils together minimizing the risk of them fighting. To learn more about the
split cage method, check the Gerbils section of this site. This split cage is
made on a 20 gallon long tank.
Here is
a bin for gerbils. Generally, I prefer to use coconut shells, wooden toys and
metal wheels on gerbil setups, because they are big chewers and go through
plastic in a matter of seconds. Note that when I put in metal rung wheels, I
put tape on the rungs to make a solid running surface. Be sure to roll the
exposed tape with shavings (or any dusty thing) so the rodents don't get their
fur and feet stuck on the tape.
This
one is a 30 gallon tank, housing 6 male gerbils. I'm really proud of this
setup, I love it and the gerbils love it, everybody is happy with it!!! Those
2 story houses are the
"Timber Hideaways" pasted together one on top of the other with aquarium
silicone, to make 2 story houses.
There
were 2 hammocks in this setup, which you can see in the next 2 pictures, but I
removed them because the gerbils started chewing on them. I replaced them with
a metal bar floor between the 2 houses. Updated pictures soon!!!
This is
a 20 gallon long tank. This one houses four females. Again, you can see a
metal bar second floor. You can tell I like second floors... since they give
the animals some extra floor space, which is always good. 8) Another one of
those 2 story timber houses, too... this one a has a small one on top of a
medium one.
Hamster Setups:
Here is
a 5.5 gallon tank housing a dwarf hamster. Now, I just use 5.5 gallons to
house either lone DWARF hamsters or male mice (which should be kept alone). I
like to use with hamsters plastic tubes, but wooden houses and coconuts are
good too... I use with hamsters everything I have in sight, since they don't
destroy plastic right away, like gerbils do... nor their pee is stinky like
with mice (more on that below).
Here is a 10 gallon tank
housing 2 dwarf hamsters. I use the smallest wheels with dwarfs... they are
suitable for them, and allow me more space to put some other stuff in their
cages.
Mice
Setups:
This is
one of the first mice setups I did. You can see another of those metal bar
thingys, but this one is in the shape of a ladder. Also you can see some
wooden blocks, and wooden houses. I stopped using the wooden houses with the
mice cause they pee on them and the wood soaks up all the pee and it gets very
very stinky in a matter of days. I changed them for plastic, they don't seem
to bother on chewing them much... I still provide some wooden toys or doggy
biscuits, for them to have something to gnaw and trim their teeth with. You
can also see a bit of a wheel on the lower right corner. For mice, I suggest
that you get the big "hamster/gerbil" sized wheels, not the small ones (like
the ones I use for the hamsters) This is cause with a lot of usage of the
small wheel, their tail bends up to their backs and looks ugly. I'm not sure
if the bent tail can even hurt them or not, but better be safe than sorry, and
get them a bigger wheel.
This is
another mice setup I did, this one housed 8 females (well... one of them was
mis-sexed... and it caused a bit of a chaos... more on that later... lol) I
know it's pretty simple, and kinda boring... but believe it or not, the 8 of
them slept inside that red house! LOL
So, I
mentioned up there that one of the mice was sexed wrongly in my colony of
females... well... he was a very late bloomer, and by the time I discovered
the little brat, he had mated with 2 of the females, which resulted in 18
pups! I decided to keep all the females in the litters, since I can keep them
all together, and 1 of the males and give away the rest of the males (cause I have to house them all separately,
and I can't possibly have 10 cages each with one mouse... not in my range and
one of the reasons I don't breed mice).
Well... I wanted to try and keep all the females together... a total of 13
including pups and adults (4 adults and 9 pups, the other 3 original adult
females had already passed away) Well.. I bought this to make my ultimate
cage:
Looks
kinda crappy, doesn't it? Well, I didn't used it all alone! LOL... I put it
inside a 30 gallon bin, added the "ladder floor under it and tied it to the
other side to give it good support on both sides, added the hammocks I retired
from the gerbils cage (after being washed, of course... and they haven't
chewed on them so far!!!) and a 2 story plastic house, with a ladder to the
ceiling. I also made a hanging toy shown below. So... they have the whole
bottom of the bin to walk, inside the small cage, and on top of the small
cage. The small cage also provides for climbing, as does the hanging toy. They
can also walk or sleep in the hammocks and have a wheel to run (and
incredibly, they have so much to do and so many places to go here, that they
don't care too much about the wheel!!! which is a rarity in mice... they love
their hanging toy, though).
Toys:
Well,
first, here is the mouse hanging toy I was talking about... it's a coconut,
with a bird rope ladder:
What do
you think? Do they like it?
Here is
a wood house I made with some wood scraps my dad had lying around. This is
untreated wood, I don't know of what tree... and I glued it together with
aquarium silicone (gotta love that stuff!). I made an inside shelf so they can
climb into it... believe me many times I think I am missing a gerbil, and then
I find it sleeping in there! hehehe They also love this house:
Here are Bermuda and Flo showing how cool this house is! 8)
Finally... I thought I should post this picture here... I dumped a huge wad of
toilet paper in one of my gerbil cages, and look what they did, a giant nest!
I thought it was so funny! They slept all in there, you can see the little
entrance around the middle of the thing. 8)
