What do you use in your mice home please?

[Micenewbie]

We have new mice coming. Nice cage set up and have the bedding for their houses sorted but what do you use on the bottom of the cage? They are coming from a charity who said newspaper and basically what is cut up cardboard… but surely this is going to stink very quickly?? I don’t want to use something that is mega expensive though… please tell me what you use??

Bumping

Must be someone who keeps mice??

@micenewbie - I volunteer for an animal rescue. I could see you wanted a response so I asked our Mouse expert (she really is an expert) and this was her reply.

" For me the best for keeping the smells down is a thick layer of back to nature pellets and then add in either Care Fresh or something similar. I also mix in Hay and ripped up plain unscented toilet roll sheets, which they take to their nests for nest building. I've recently tried Bedmax Shavings (recommended for Rats) and it's actually horse bedding and is kiln dried and dust extracted and is brilliant. The best tip I can give is to always keep some smelly bedding to put back in the cage on clean out day, it helps and this new combo has even stopped my husband moaning about the smell!"

Had you adopted from us that is the advice you would have been given. I hope that helps. Happy mouse-ing.

@Annabelle69 thanks for replying. Do you know if they use newspaper? I was told to put that at the bottom but no one I know gets newspaper and I have had to go to Tesco and spent loads on enough for one clean! Is there any kind of liner or something??

The Mouse Expert says she's never heard of using newspaper as a layer. Se says "You need to provide a thick layer of substrate, if you only use newspaper it will stink, and they can't properly dig about. If you clean too much they'll just over scent everything"

If that's not the answer you're looking for then this Facebook group is very good apparently. It's purely about pet mice (not breeders or reptile owners which is sadly the case with other forums) www.facebook.com/groups/FMCUK

@Annabelle69 thanks I meant newspaper at the bottom of the cage so underneath the substrate layer?