RatPalace.com - Pet Rat Care and Discussion

Tue Jan 20, 2004 5:22 am

Little lefty has recovered quite nicely from her ordeal with the girls. She's still not as active as the other mice, but I think that is due to both her disability and small size. I wonder if she's not a bit developementally stunted as she probably didn't compete as well as her sibling at the milk bar when she was nursing. She is pretty friendly and will sit and give herself a bath in my hand when I pick her up. Not nearly as skittish as the others.
Kate, do those Hagen mouse tubes come apart for cleaning? I know the old Habitrail tubes split in half, whereas the SAMS tubes don't. Also how easy is the cage itself to clean. I have one of those Crittertrail 1 cages (that Nick is in now) which is about the same size, but it is a pain since the whole thing sort of falls apart when you take the bottom off to clean.

Tue Jan 20, 2004 6:25 am

The Hagen tubes (and accessories) come apart for cleaning, and the cage itself is really easy to clean: pop off the bottom, wash bottom and rest of cage in sink in a couple minutes, dry with a hand towel and you're good to go.

I had originally got the Hagen cos it was the only one with mice-spaced bars, and the only clear one. The rest were all wild colors, rather annoying. Are you thinking of putting Lefty and a couple other babies in a Hagen like I have? Cos it's really too small for even one mouse. But if you put her in there with another disabled mouse, that would probably work, and get a few exrta tubes for the floor so they have something interesting to do without having to climb. But if she's in there all by herself for the rest of her life she'll be so lonely. Maybe after she grows a bit you could get her a baby, so Lefty will always be boss.

The Hagen was expensive, sort of: about $30 for the cage incl. the mushroom house, the ridiculous noisy wheel, a dish, and poronographic water dispenser. No tubes, had to buy those separately. I had to buy a Hamster Space Station H20 water bottle cos it was the only one with a tube small enough to fit through the bars, but then I got the smallest Lixit flat-back bottle which works MUCH better and mounts on the inside of the cage (the other one was very leaky). I couldn't imagine giving them the porn dispenser to drink from cos it's a gravity-feed well, and I could just picture their tiny lil heads getting stuck in the drinking wells, not to mention litter and poop landing in there. What a stupid design.

If you want to get that for Lefty, how long can you wait? Cos you can have mine and the one tube I have and the bottle for $15 plus whatever it costs to ship (probably less than $5). Thing is, I tossed the wheel, but it would have been a bad design for Lefty: it had slits in the bottom and I thought little feet might get caught in there. I'm waiting to hear back from a couple different cage wire suppliers so I can build a big cage, but until then the Hagen is still attached. It would probably be about a month. I had been considering keeping it for a sick bay, but I have a good-sized mouse carrier that will do. I also didn't like the loud sproinging noise the Hagen door makes and thought it would just annoy a sick mouse.

_________________
Kate & the M.O.U.S.
If you saw a man drowning and you could either save him or photograph the event ... what kind of film would you use?
~ Anonymous

Tue Jan 20, 2004 7:58 pm

Thnaks for the info. I'm still hoping to reintroduce Lefty to the to the other girls (and Nick, if he ever gets neutered), but wanted to wait 'til she was a bit stronger and Holly recovered from the babies. Since original intro went well on neutral territory, I think this time I'll plan on leaving them in a strange cage for a few days until they bond.
I was asking about the Hagen cage to attatch to their 15 gallon tank. When I had a hamster, I had the Critter trail cage attached to the tank, but he only used the tank as a restroom, so I only had to change the Critter trail once every couple of months. With the mice, this once or twice a week ordeal with that cage is a pain. Before I take you up on your offer, I may go back to PetCo and assemble one of the cages and study it a bit more to see if it is what I really want.
You are right about it being a bit expensive. It was $30 at PetCo, too. But I also notice that they sell the little add-on room for $15, whereas the exact same piece in the Space Station colors sells for $7.99. I think they are trying to exploit the mini critter niche.

Tue Jan 20, 2004 9:36 pm

The hamster Space Station and Mouse house DO NOT match up, tube-wise. The hamster tubes and mouse tubes are different sizes, and the hamster cage wires are spaced too far apart for small mice. It's not like the SAM or Critter stuff where all the bits are interchangeable. :/ Definitely exploitation if you ask me, they could at least have made the connecting bits of one size for several animals.

Maybe you could buy one the smallest Critter cages instead, since you already have critter accessories? Assemble a few in the store like you said; hopefully the one you have is maybe just a dud?

I believe that someone here had used a chinchilla bath house as an add-on to a rat cage, and I think the large tubes fit those, in case you already have some of the large tubes for rats. But those Chinchilla houses are sort of small.

_________________
Kate & the M.O.U.S.
If you saw a man drowning and you could either save him or photograph the event ... what kind of film would you use?
~ Anonymous

Tue Jan 20, 2004 11:05 pm

The chinchilla tubes are way too big. I thought the mouse and regular habitrail had the same size opening, but the mouse tubes just narrowed down to a smaller diameter. Glad you pointed out that they don't or I could have wasted time.

Tue Jan 20, 2004 11:58 pm

Um... err ... I could be wrong, perhaps they do just narrow down, but I could swear I compared them in the store and found that they wouldn't join up. Now I'm not sure... Embarassed

_________________
Kate & the M.O.U.S.
If you saw a man drowning and you could either save him or photograph the event ... what kind of film would you use?
~ Anonymous

Wed Jan 21, 2004 3:26 am

Guess I'll just have to make a field trip and find out!