Reptile & Amphibian Forums

what kind of 2 mice should i get as a beginner to rodent care?

preferrably i want both females and for them to be about as small as feeder mice

does anyone know where i can buy them online?

It will be difficult to find mice online that can be shipped to you live. Better to find a local mouse breeder or just get a healthy group of females from a local petstore.

Look for clean cages and cages that don't have males and females mixed together. I also suggest you do all your research about caring for mice ahead of time and know how to sex them. Many petstore employees don't have a clue how to sex mice..even when its so blatantly obvious which mice are male. (their testicles hang outside the body like they do for human males).

The most common pet mouse out there are fancy mice (or pretty much normal domesticated mice). They come in all sorts of colors and coat patterns, from solid white with red eyes, to white with dark markings, or all black, grey, brown, tan, cream and many varieties inbetween. SOme also have silky coats, long fur, some have little to no fir at all (skinny mice, or naked mice). I don't recommend getting the skinny mice as a first time mouse though, they do need slightly special care than regular furry mice.

There are also different mice species available but they are not as common in pet stores. Spiny mice, zebra mice and pygmy mice are three types that come to mind. These are not as easy to care for as normal mice, often are not as friendly, need different care etc, so I suggest not buying any of these for your first pair of female mice.

Other than that, mice are very easy to care for. You can spend alot of money on a cage for them, or very little, depending on your budget and just how fancy you want the cage to look (or as I see it, how long you want to spend cleaning the cage every week). The habit trail interlocking tubes cages are very pretty, give the mice lots to do...but are a real real pain in the butt to clean. I had one of those, just a simple one, and I hated it. It also had a bad habit of falling apart every time I tried to move it. I trashed that stupid thing first chance I got. total waste of money in my opinion.

What I typically use are standard sterlite or rubermaid containers. I look for ones that have rounded corners and little to no beveled bumps or texture on the bottom. Pretty much look for a plastic cage that will be difficult to impossible for mice to chew through. I use CareFresh, Aspen, a mix of both, sometimes just kiln tried pine shavings. Never use cedar or pine/cedar mix. That stuff slowly poisons your mice because of the strong smell of cedar (the oils that cause the nice cedar smell).

For two mice, I used a 55l sterlite container. These are nice as they have no lips or ledges on them at all. The lid can be easily cut so a large hole can be put into it with screen stapled or duck taped over it, to prevent escapes. Mice can jump pretty high...I have seen them jump as high as 14" so having a screen lid is necessary.

For homes, hides, chew toys, etc. I use an assortment of dollar store finds, paper towel, toilet paper tubes, wrapping paper tubes cut down in size, PVC pipe sections (one foot straight lengths, elbows, T or Y junctions, etc. 1.5-2" diameter are fine for mice. If you can't fit a toilet paper tube into the pipe, its too small. A mouse probably can squeeze in anyway..but I rather they have extra room...so they don't get stuck. PVC is not easy to cut through, especially if there is a trapped mouse inside. Pet stores of course, have all kinds of chews, hides, toys etc but most I Find are too over priced and similar must cheaper and sometimes even better, chews toys etc can be found at a dollar store. Those white pine unpainted items people use to make crafts out of, great for chew toys for mice and rats...they are cheap, don't have dyes, paint and who knows what else in them, as the ones in the petstore do and well, why spend $6 for a couple apple shaped green pieces of pine when you can buy a wooden mini house, or other shapes for $1 each or 2-4 for a buck?

The paper boxes used for various crafts to make jewelry boxes, or other little storage boxes at dollar stores are good to. You can just cut a couple holes in it, and the mice will chew it and live in it quite nicely.

Below is a cage I made for a breeding group of mice I kept quite awhile ago. The rubbermaid container is about 30" long, 20" wide and I believe 15-17" tall. I didn't use a lid on it even though the mice could get to the edge of the cage (the netting guaranteed they could get to that top lip) but because mice don't like to jump down from heights..they never jumped out of the container..ran along the edge alot but never jumped out. If you have any cats or dogs, probably be a good ideal to keep the lid on so they don't get into the cage. Again, cut a large section out of the lid and cover with aluminum window screen (this you can buy at any home hardware store and its pretty cheap). Don't use nylon screen, as mice can chew through that.

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PHLdyPayne