# Mouse minimum cage size



## emma20 (Feb 7, 2012)

Can someone make sense of it for me please
http://www.rspca.org.uk/ImageLocator/LocateAsset?asset=document&assetId=1232712323170&mode=prd
It's on page 8, I can quite grasp it.


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## janecoram (Feb 14, 2014)

Hi Emma,

I'm not surprised you couldn't come to grips with it. Talk about make hard work of something simple! 

The figures given are in square centimetres. For instance, if it says that the cage should be 180cm, then it would have 180 cm of floor space. Really, though, the recommended sizes given by people like the RSPCA are the smallest acceptable to comply with the laws of the country, and they aren't ideal. They comply with the law, but won't be much fun for your poor mice to live in.

I would say go for the largest size you can afford and can fit into your room (or wherever you're keeping it) that's in excess of the minimum legal requirements. Mice love to scurry around and explore, so if you can put several levels in it, with lots of places for them to delve about in, it keeps them occupied and happy. They don't like large open spaces, so make sure that they have plenty of cover to hide in.

You can use an aquarium tank to keep them in, but they are quite expensive. We keep ours in very large cage so that he can talk to them and interact with them through the bars, when we don't take them out to play, but you need to make sure that you keep cages out of draughts as mice can suffer from lung problems. You can put clear plastic around the bars to keep out draughts  making sure you leave plenty of ventilation holes!

Basically, the bigger the cage the better.

Edit: Really those guidelines are more helpful for stockists, breeders and labs, and not so much for mice fanciers  they obviously do still apply, but I doubt that many owners would keep their mice in such small spaces. The table, although obviously necessary for mouse welfare, isn't a great way of judging what size cage to get for pet mice. It gives the mouse weight there and the required minimum size, but of course most mice are only a few weeks old when they go to their new homes and you really can't judge how big they are going to be full grown. We've bought several titchy hoppers that have turned into big fat mommas, so it's always better to err on the side of caution and provide ample space for them, just in case!


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