I would suggest a bin cage for a mouse. We use bin cages for our mice and hamsters. Here's the bin cage we made for our first four girl mice:
And brief instructions on how we made it:
Supplies:
- Large plastic bin (We got ours from Walmart)
- Heavy duty mesh screening called hardware cloth (bought a roll of it from Rona, got about 8 bin cages made with the one roll of the stuff)
- Bendy wire (um, not really the technical name for it.
We got ours from Rona, it's wire covered in green plastic that can be twisted and bent like a thick twist tie)
- Jigsaw or tin snips
- Drill or nail and hammer
Ben cut a large square out of the lid of the bin using a jigsaw. Tin snips will work as well if you don't have a jigsaw, but it's a pain to cut. He then drilled holes around the open square (four on each side at least). If you don't have a drill, you can use the nail and hammer to nail the holes but it's much more time consuming. (We've tried both ways and liked the jigsaw and drill method better but it can be done without them).
One word of caution, the plastic can crack easily so just be careful when you're cutting and drilling.
Here's a picture of it in progress:
Then he measured the mesh to fit the hole in the lid with it overlapping the holes drilled. He cut the wire mesh using the tin snips.
Then I cut long pieces of wire and wired the mesh on to the lid by putting one end of the wire through the pre-drilled hole and the other end through the mesh.
And voila, instant cage!! Just wash the bin out, add some bedding, toys, food and the water bottle, and meeces and you're done!
For the water bottle, I bought ones that were meant to be used in an aquarium, they came with a piece of wire that you could hook onto the side of the aquarium or the mesh. I found their wire wasn't long enough so I cut a piece of the wire that I bought at Rona and used it. I hooked it in the corner over the side of the bin and checked to make sure the lid would fit snugly over the wire. It did so we were good to go. However, friends of mine that we made a bin cage for their mice, used the same wire but hooked theirs to the mesh, the water bottle hangs down in the middle of the bin where mine hangs down in the corner, hooked over the side. Whichever you prefer really. I hooked mine on to the corner of the bin and not the mesh because I didn't want the water bottle banging around everytime I removed the lid.
I really recommend these bin cages. They're cheap to make, lightweight and super easy to clean and they have lots more room than the traditional mouse cages at stores. Plus, with a little imagination you can give them lots of things to climb on by wiring toys to the hardware cloth.
