Secure housing for captive wild mice

[Jamie MacKay]

Does anyone have suggestions for commercially available individual mouse housing that wild mice aren't going to be able to chew out of? I might need to keep some wild mice captive for a couple of weeks at a time next year. They may be living on my deck so to avoid the wrath of housemates they really do have to be secure! The cheaper the better so my PhD budget doesn't take too much of a dent...

Cheers,

Jamie MacKay
PhD Candidate
University of Auckland

[Dave Houston]

Pet shops sell cages that are probably suitable, but for a bargain have a look on TradeMe (they even have a mice and rats category!).  What might be more secure is the mesh-covered glass tank option (or the welded steel box)   

[Jamie MacKay]

I'm going to have a look round pet shops but I'm a little dubious. Back when i was working on rats I needed a rat cage to house a wild Norway rat. All the things offered in pet shops would have held the rat for about 20 minutes at best. I've had mice chew their way out of storage containers before so i thought i would ask around to see if anyone has experience in this area.

[Trevor Connolly]

Hi Jamie, I have a couple of pieces of Xcluder 6mm x 25mm stainless mesh you could have for free, sizes ~1000 x 500 and ~600 x 600. Could be made into a 100% mouse-proof cage pretty easily depending on size needed. Just knock together a timber frame, cut the mesh panels to size & staple the mesh to each side. This mesh is extremely strong. You could also try contacting Tim Day (Xcluder fencing/Wildland Consultants Rotorua) or Roger MacGibbon (Natural Logic Ltd) to get hold of some larger off-cuts. I built cages out of this stuff for MSc, installed them on the Maungatautari fence & cut holes in the fence to let the mice in... obviously mouse-proofness was pretty important. We used offcuts for holding rodents and others for experiments at Xcluder too, it'll do the job easily. Give me a yell if you need the mesh. Cheers, Trevor

[Tim Day]

Gidday Jamie,

I've housed wild mice/rats/mustelids/possums etc over a number of years in a variety of cages I have purpose built.

Not sure if you still need materials, but I have plenty of offcuts and bits to choose from that would suit a PhD student trying to build cages without breaking the budget. i.e. happy to give you the material.......

Let me know if you are still in need.

Cheers,
Tim Day

[Jamie MacKay]

Hi Tim,

Cheers for the offer. I went down the lab cage route and it seems to be working well.

Jamie