seen from China
seen from Ukraine
seen from Russia
seen from Czechia
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Yemen
seen from Russia
seen from United Arab Emirates
seen from Australia
seen from Italy
seen from United States
seen from Jordan
seen from Italy
seen from United States
seen from United States
We’ve already had our breakfast — how about you? 😉
Do you have any other recs for mouse/rat care books? I'm especially interested in the lab grade guides!
I do not! The Guide is what's been standardized across the entire US as far as I'm aware, it is what institutions all collectively use if they want to be accredited with AAALAC (and they all want that) and pass inspections from welfare agencies like the IACUC and OLAW (both groups that assess animal welfare in research settings). The Guide I linked before is not "a guide" as in "one of the guides available," it's THE Guide, as in "the singular guide we all agree to standardize to." Everyone agrees that that's what they're going to abide by, and the people who put it together, their whole job is just keeping up to date with research on animal care/welfare and making sure the standards they publish are appropriate and correct. There hasn't really been a reason for any other institute to pay to make an opposing guidebook.
The closest you might get for other lab resources, would be like the PHS policies from the NIH, which isn't really the same thing, but reading through can give some insight on what is NOT acceptable. There's also the OLAW guidebook, which again doesn't really have the exact care stuff that The Guide has, but does have some interesting welfare info- it mostly references The Guide and then talks about how to inspect to make sure people are following The Guide. Lastly, I mentioned IACUC (institutional animal care and use committee) above, and they also have a handbook but again it's more geared toward inspection than guiding care itself. I don't know if APHIS ever re-published a manual (they published one, but then later rescinded it and I didn't hear anything about them making a new one, and didn't see one when I looked), but I'm not sure they did much outside of farm animals. I think their oversight was mostly for the larger animals (cats, dogs, sheep, pigs, calves, etc). You'd have to look into that one on your own.
But yeah. Everyone just uses The Guide. Other stuff would be individual research papers done on specific subjects, and you'd be poking around as much as I would to find exactly what you want to know about.
New house for bramble to help keep him warm this winter
Cage layout for the bonded mouse trio that I'm picking up sometime this week, complete with double lidded maximum security anti-escape system weighed down by some invigorating material that will hopefully increase their maturity and intelligence so as to prepare them for the test..
Upgrading Lab-mouse cages
This topic goes close to me bc I work in a lab and have hours every day to think about what I can do for these tiny creatures
Lab mice are kept in these cages by standard:
The minimum legal enrichment (at least in germany) is a nest, something to climb, something to chew, and a way to socialize. This cage has a hut for a nest, the top bars for climbing and the hardened pellets for chewing
In my opinion that's both unfitting and not enough. There's some very simple changes and a lot of bigger/harder changes:
Simple changes:
Using wooden or paper huts. It's commonly believed that mice can't see red, but in reality they will always choose darker colours and more natural materials as hides
lowering the light in one part of the cage, eg simple cage sleeves, lowering the general room light, shading the rack
raising the temperature. Mouse are generally kept at 21 - 24°C, but really prefer 26 - 30°C
scanning the room for ultra sounds
scattering some grains for foraging (this is also perfect for training the mice to make health checks easier)
Other still very simple changes:
adding nesting materials. Mouse prefer paper scraps, paper towels, etc, but there's also cotton squares and wood wool commercially available
adding wood for chewing. Again there's many options ranging from wooden bricks over wooden huts to whole branches
adding a running plate or wheel (I know running plates are said to cause spinal deformity, but in my experience that is a very low chance as opposed to the negative effects no movement has)
adding more bedding so digging is easier
adding tubes, boxes, swings and climbing structures
Changes that get closer to pet keeping:
add diggable bedding for builing nests and tunnels
add more huts. More! Mooore! (seriously mouse love a cluttered space and feel most comfortable walking along walls)
add a second layer (most easy part is just wedging a wooden board in there) and raising the top bars (there's raised cage tops for more height)
adding a maze/labyrinth to allow the mice to compartimentalise their cage/hide from light, sounds, movement, etc
stopping to feed ad libitum. In comercial setting, this can be done with feeding machines, privately this can be done by feeding like any other pet (adding a bowl of fresh food twice a day and removing after an hour or two)
scatter feeding instead of having the food in a rack
adding a digging box
Changes for pet keeping:
Going at least one, better two sizes up with the cages
adding toys
adding more mice to the group (in research most mice are kept in groups of 2 to 5. Mice prefer bigger groups though (plus "two" is a pair, not a group))
adding a big, big layer of bedding (see previous category)
adding toys, including food toys, smell toys, etc
giving food treats like yogurt, comercial treats, varied food, dead or life insects (mice are good hunters!)
feeding grains and similar (if you're unsure about a balanced diet, feeding grains additionally to pellets is totally fine)
adding a bigger wheel or running plate (a wheel is better, if you can provide a good one with appropriate size)
offer a free run time. This could for example be in a bath tub. Lay it out with linen or carpets, fill the tub with toys, treats and cardboard boxes, and offer the mice to go there (eg by builing a stairwell, or by training them "taxi" with a travel box)
spend regular time with them to aclimate them to humans
Changes for a near perfect enclosure:
Upgrate to an aquarium with a grid top
add more climbing options. Like way more!
Put heavier huts on stilts
Add even more tunnels
provide fresh food
change up their enrichment (eg digging box, swimming pool, fresh plants, offer tea additionally to water)
All these images have good and bad items, and imo all enclosures can be adapted to the housed animals needs. I'll try to add credit, but please message me if you have questions about specific images
I was about to add sources but found some great in a single site: here
I also always recommend bin cages as they are cheap and very very customisable. The best example I found is this one
Hi
I was wondering if you have any sources for fancy mice care?
I'm preparing to get a group of four ladies next month, and while I've done tons of research I'm still looking for more sources or knowledge for odor control, food recipes and substrates!
I was also wondering, I have around +3 kg worth of unopened finch / canary seed leftover from my feathered friend who passed recently... I'd hate for them to go to waste, so is it okay to add them to the stable diet mix I'll be making? It's mostly tiny seeds like millet, grass-, hemp- and linseed. I think there's also small pieces of biscuit, but I can remove those. I'd be adding some nuts and sunflower seeds that you'd usually find in parakeet and other bird seed mixes, though in moderation since they can be too fatty in large quantities.
Currently I'm planning to serve the mix in the evening with some limited fruit&veg or other treats, after they've had their pellets in the morning. I am open to change my mind tho, the wellbeing of the girls is most important!!
Any bioactive enclosure info would be greatly appreciated as well! Thank you in advance and my apologies for the length :3
I’m super late in answering this, so I’m not sure how helpful I’ll be. My apologies!!
I believe this is the forum that I was given as a good resource before - https://www.petmousefanciers.com/
I haven’t done much research myself on diet & nutrition for mice, so I’m not sure if the finch food is a good idea or not. If you decide not to risk it, it should be okay to put out for wild birds to eat if you want it to go to good use!
And for bioactive enclosures, check out the Bioactive and Naturalistic Mammal Setups group on Facebook! The key point for mice is making sure you have a big enough enclosure - they’re very messy and produce a lot of waste, so you need plenty of space in order to spread that out and have enough CUC to work on it. They’ll also likely eat some of the CUC, so you’ll have to regularly add more, and you may need to scoop out heavily used areas as well, depending on how things go. But the group should have lots of posts to help steer you in the right direction if you decide to give it a try - I know there’s a good number of mouse owners in there!
Good luck with your new critters, I’m sure they’ll be tons of fun! :)
This was a good description, relatable description, of what it's like, and what kind of shit the pet shops tries to sell us as normal. *grumbles*
Hey tumblr! I wanna get pet rats or mice soon, and I’m trying to do research, but I know a lot of the stuff out there is false. I’d really appreciate some advice or trustworthy links from any rat or mice owners so I can be sure I’m giving my future furry friends the best care I can!
