Cleaning Out Time

When you clean out your mice you must not forget about the water bottle. This should be rinsed every night with hot water before you put fresh water in for the mice and when you change the entire cage the bottle should be properly cleaned/scrubbed. Think about it: you wash a cup every time you have a drink before using the cup again, and mice drink many times a day from the water bottle. Since you can’t wash the mouthpiece every time they have a drink, you must wash it every day to prevent any germs building up.

Note how the doe is using her tongue to push the ball bearing forward to release water

When you are changing the rest of the tank, remove the water bottle also. It should be rinsed with hot water and scrubbed using washing up liquid to remove any residues or build-ups (which you will not necessarily be able to see). A pipe cleaner or small brush is cheap and useful to clean the inside of the bottle thoroughly. The bottle must then be rinsed many times with cold water to ensure that there is no soap/chemical residue left. Just think how that would taste – yuk!

Food Bowl

The food bowl is easy to clean and this should be done every night before adding fresh food. Simply use warm water and wash with a cloth and washing up liquid. Remember to rinse the bowl out thoroughly as with the bottle and dry well.

Two does (Roisin and Humbug) eating

Plastic Toys

Plastic toys are great because all they need is a wash with warm water and washing up liquid. As always, rinse and dry thoroughly before giving back to your mice.

Oiling the Wheel

A squeaky wheel can drive some people mad, especially if they keep their mice in their bedroom! Taking the wheel out at night defeats the purpose of having it since this is when mice are most active, so the solution is to oil the wheel to prevent the noise.

If you want to oil the wheel make sure you use something edible as mice will always manage to ingest something if you don’t want them to! Using sunflower, olive or vegetable oil is suitable because it doesn’t matter if the mice manage to eat some since it will not do them any harm. The wheel can be oiled whenever it begins to squeak so that you can have some peace!

A safe, solid plastic freestanding wheel suitable for mice

Wooden Toys

Wooden toys are not as easy to clean as plastic ones but I am of the opinion that they are better and the mice seem to enjoy them more. The reason wood is harder to clean is that it soaks up waste products (and also the water you try to clean it with). The only thing you can really do is to use a dry cloth first to wipe off the worst mess (e.g. dried faeces etc) before washing.

When you want to wash the wood, use a damp cloth that has been soaked in warm soapy water and rub the surface of the toy. Try not to make the cloth too wet or the toy will soak up the water and take a long time to dry out. Some people try using a cage-safe spray to wipe the toy down, since it is antibacterial, but if you do this you would have to wipe it down again with water to get rid of the chemicals.

Since wood will soak up a lot of water quickly, you will have to leave it to dry for a while before placing it back with your mice in the cage. You might have several toys that you swap over each time, so the mice can use one toy while the other is drying. Putting the toy in a warm place may help it dry faster, such as in front of the fire (be careful) or on a windowsill. If you are impatient I suppose you could always try using a hairdryer to dry the wood (!), as long as you made sure it was dry all the way through and not just on the top.

Tank

To clean the mice’s tank out you can use either warm water and washing up liquid or a cage-safe anti-bacterial spray sold in pet shops. I usually use a spray due to the size of my glass tanks and the trouble I would have moving them to the sink area.

When you clean the tank, make sure you get rid of all the debris first such as used bedding and substrate. I vacuum my tanks out to get rid of all solid material before I wipe them down. Then all you have to do is spray the tank with the anti-bacterial spray and use a cloth to wipe it all off. Make sure you clean the corners of the tank well (especially the toilet corner) and dry thoroughly before putting any bedding in.

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