Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It just looks sad when I look into the cages. Rodents are high functioning animals and they look really bored. The only things they can do in the tubs is copulate, eat, sleep, and raise young. Does anyone have any ideas on how to increase the fun in a 4" tall tub?
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0.1 Rubber Boa
1.1 Eastern Hognose Snakes
2.3 Western Hognose Snakes
1.0 Durango Mountain Kingsnake
1.1 Woma's (new!)
Spadefoot
Black Knobbed Sawback
Northern Diamondback
Florida Redbellied Slider
Western Painted
Southern Painted
1.0 African Hedgehog
1.0 Sulcata
2.1 Leopard (Babcocki) 1.0 borrowed (thanks Bobby)
2 Plecos
2 Silver Dollars
3 Bosemian Rainbows
1 African Dwarf Frog
1 Khuli Loach
1 Cory Cat
1 Upside Down Catfish
2.0 Fire Guramis

uhh... I think that is it.

QUOTE.... "The only things they can do in the tubs is copulate, eat, sleep, and raise young."

I just wish that the ONLY thing I had to do in my life was to, " copulate, eat, sleep, and raise young." I don't think that it gets much better than that !!

I would also need some football to watch (with pizza, chicken wings and beer) as well as a fishing hole to wet a line in.

The mice on the other hand seem to really stay busy with some shredded newspaper. After changing bedding I add a large handful of newspaper that I run through a paper shredder. They seem to do much with it.

Rich Hebron

Other than giving them a larger home to live in (in which case you can add a couple wheels, pipes, latters etc to play in) you can add paper towel or toilet paper tubes. I have also found just lining their cage with a sheet or two of newspaper will keep them amused for a long time as they shred it themselves and make their nest out of it. Tosing in the paper coffee cup holders (cut in half) you get at a donut shop doubles as both a home and something to chew on. (they also like to go in and out of the holes around where the cup sits in).

As the others mentioned, mice are happiest when they are busy reorganizing their environment. I tend to give them newspaper, hay, cotton, and pine as their bedding. Within a day they have the most elaborate little house built. ONce I used a rougher pine than normal. One group of mice (they have their own personalities you know) had methodically found all the large pieces of pine and shoved them out of their cage... looked like it had snowed. I often give them paper towel tubes also. One group recently, instead of just hiding in and chewing small holes in the tube, actually ripped it to shreds and used it as nesting material. I swear, if mice were "civilized" with colleges and everything, you would get half of them going to "architecture" school.

~Sasheena

I've noticed that with my rats too. I've given them shredded paper (of which my office produces tons of so it's free)which they are building nests with and have raided the bathrooms in our office building to find the empty cardboard toilet paper rolls (ya know the BIG commercial rolls they use) and my rats love running in and out of those and chewing on them (they are much thicker cardboard then regular toilet paper or paper towel rolls). Another thing i've noticed is that they love to pull in the beach towel that I have thrown over their cage to give them some privacy and have torn that all to hell(my cats would otherwise just sit and stare at them and I didn't think that was good for breeding purposes or stress). The females use the excercise wheel, the male could care less about it. He's rather a lazy guy, would rather sleep, eat and groom himself and the girls.
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Chantel a.k.a. sillygirl
"I came, I saw, I adopted"

2.4.0 green anoles (Stumpy (M)), and the rest remain nameless.
2.2.0 green tree frogs (Romeo & Juliet, Bonnie & Clyde)
0.0.3 D. tinctorius (Cobalt froglets)
0.0.1 Anerythristic 'B' (Charcoal)corn snake (Popcorn)
0.0.1 Snow Corn (KandyKorn)
0.2 Amel Corns (KornSilk & KornMuffin)
0.0.1 Giant African Millipede
2.4 Domestic house cats (Bad Boy (m), Bart(m),Sasha(F),Little Bit(F),Spirit(F)
1.0 Rottweiler (Jake)
1.2 Rats (new additions with no names yet)
1.0 Husband (David, who loves all my critters too)

I used to use toilet paper rolls till the brand I use started gluing the last sheet on. I was worried that the clue would hurt the mice. What do ya all think?

I LOVE these forums
MissHisssss

I honestly don't think it's going to hurt them unless ingested in large quantities. Almost any product commercially mander that comes in contact with the body is non-toxic (at least that's the theory). I'd be more worried about the scented toilet paper then the little bit of glue on the roll. I use those rolls all the time in my cricket cages and I don't have anything tragic happen to them.

But that's just my opinion
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Chantel a.k.a. sillygirl
"I came, I saw, I adopted"

2.4.0 green anoles (Stumpy (M)), and the rest remain nameless.
2.2.0 green tree frogs (Romeo & Juliet, Bonnie & Clyde)
0.0.3 D. tinctorius (Cobalt froglets)
0.0.1 Anerythristic 'B' (Charcoal)corn snake (Popcorn)
0.0.1 Snow Corn (KandyKorn)
0.2 Amel Corns (KornSilk & KornMuffin)
0.0.1 Giant African Millipede
2.4 Domestic house cats (Bad Boy (m), Bart(m),Sasha(F),Little Bit(F),Spirit(F)
1.0 Rottweiler (Jake)
1.2 Rats (new additions with no names yet)
1.0 Husband (David, who loves all my critters too)

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