Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just thought I'd post some DIY mouse rack ideas for anyone who might be interested.

I decided to custom-build my own mouse cages. I don't particularly like to keep or maintain rodents and would prefer to deal strictly with frozen-thawed rodents purchased from a professional supplier. However, when 25 hatchling snakes need to be offered live pinkie mice once per week, it is much more cost effective to attempt my own small breeding colony. Local pet stores charge around .55 cents to $1.00 per pinkie mouse (crazy!). When you multiply this times 25 hatchlings, it equals about $25 per week, or $100 per month. Ideally, I will attempt to switch snakes over to frozen-thawed pinkies.

I did not include any procedures or instructions for making these. It should be self-explanatory from the pictures. However, if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me. A few side notes: Do NOT substitute any other brands or containers. The Iris brand has absolutely no ridges inside and is completely smooth. This is ideal since mice will not be tempted to chew. Also, I used a similar setup for an entire summer once before and never had any mice chew the plastic zip ties. Maybe I'm lucky but there are so many zip ties that even if they chewed a few, they could still not push the wire basket up to squeeze out. Advantages to this method? The mice cannot contaminate their food or water with their own waste. The food and water will last much, much longer and is easily accessible. I use Aspen bedding for substrate as well as a few drops of Vanilla extract to the water, which supposedly decreases the odor.

Anyway, I used the following materials:

small 'Iris' brand storage container, 16 or 17 quart (Bed, Bath & Beyond sells them)
1/4 inch chicken wire (from Home Depot)
hard plastic zip ties (also Home Depot)
16 ounce water bottles called 'Critter Canteens' (from Pet Smart)
soldering pen (for melting holes in the container's lid (ask for this in Hardware at Home Depot)
22 gauge wire (obtained from a local garden store...official use is for making wreaths)

Hopefully some DIY'ers with smaller collections can make use of this info and improve on it. I certainly did not invent or discover anything but just thought I'd simply share for the sake of sharing.






Link to same info
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Sincerely, Jason
www.NortheastSnakes.com
NortheastSnakes@verizon.net

Do they not chew on the plastic container parts where you cut out or on the zip ties?
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1.1 Motley het butter corns
0.1 Snow corn
0.1 Okeetee corn
1.0 Anery mutt corn
0.1 Stripe Ghost corn
0.1 Amelanistic corn het carmel
2.1 Colombian Redtails
1.0 Hypo Colombian redtail
1.0 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.0 Anery Kenyan sand boa
0.1 Normal Kenyan sand boa

No...I kept mice in a very similar setup all last summer. However, I had a sheet of 1/4inch screen attached to the top instead of a basket. I kept food in a ceramic bowl inside the tub and had a water system with tubing attached to a 5 gallon bucket at the top of the shelves. I didn't like this b/c I could not get the water pressure quite right and the mice would deficate in their food.

Anyway, the one thing I basically changed was making the baskets instead of having a flat screen across the top. While they climb the baskets, I have not witnessed any chewing NOR has there been any evidence of chewing of the plastic or the zip ties. The wire baskets were measured to fit tightly against the inside plastic edges of the cut-out lid. I also have the screen overlapping over an inch on the outside so even if I discovered chewing, I would hopefully notice it if I'm cleaning and checking them regularly. So far, they seem to love it. No more messes and no more wasted food. Plus, the water bottles have two spring-loaded balls inside to hopefully minimize any leakage.
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Sincerely, Jason
www.NortheastSnakes.com
NortheastSnakes@verizon.net

.....nice cages.......

not to pick...but let us know the results.....

.....mice will chew the plastic pull ties till they break.not sure how long it will take......

1/4 inch mesh wire.......make sure they can eat through it......friend says yes.I say no...I use 1/2 inch....but runt hoppers can and do get through 1/2"

do not over fill the feed bin...mice will chew all the food through and waste it....bigtime........mine actually can chew up anything I give them in no time at all (1/2 hour) then mess on it and look at me like they are hungry.....duh....."you're standing on your fod now"......

you have room in there for 1 male and 6 females........yes they smell worse the more you have in them......but if you are going to take the time...get the most from the rack.....(I use 1 to 12 usually)....

........just thought I'd throw in my thoughts.......I been breeding mice for decades.....they can be a pain,.....LOL
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20% isn't bad
lots of snakes love them....and there are more things in the world than balls......
they breed like crazy ...........and............

Thanks for the feedback. I admit...I do worry about them chewing the zip ties BUT even if they do, the wire basket will still hang securely in place (it's not really held in place by the zip ties). If worse comes to worse, I can (and have already thought) about making the cage tops entirely out of screen.

I've had them up and running for 2 weeks and so far no chewing but you're right...only time will tell. Also, they've been able to get the food through the quarter inch wire without any problems so far. I've since actually mixed seed with pellet food so less slips through the screen. Everything seems stable so far.
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Sincerely, Jason
www.NortheastSnakes.com
NortheastSnakes@verizon.net

took some of my cages over 10 years to have the mice chew through the 1/2 inch wire.......but they did it....LOL....not the same mice finished as started it........they find a weaker spot and stay with it........and not all mice try to get out....

I do know people that use all wire tops on smaller dish pans..(1500 of them in his building.(pans)....1.2 to 1.3 in each....)

I clean once a week..I should do once every 5 days......and like said.,,I have 1.14 in alot of them.....

freezer is FULL........I produce alot more than I use..

.......good luck......keep an eye on everything..you will learn your mices perks and quirks......

I wean at about 17 days and re-do the tank at 6 months....
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20% isn't bad
lots of snakes love them....and there are more things in the world than balls......
they breed like crazy ...........and............