cage cleaning question

[nickykci]

i got a quick question, i recently bought a pair of mice to breed to feed my corn... anyways they are nesting now, and i had a basic question, might be stupid, but i need to know lol

ok, when they do give birth, how do i clean the cage? do i have to remove the nest? i really dunno how eheh so any info will help...
thanks

[Auskan]

If you can avoid cleaning the cage completely to begin with, I would. With the first litter, they can sometimes be a little nervy and will use any excuse (like the disruption of a cage cleaning) to cannibalise their young). After they've had a few litters, they relax a lot and then you can pretty much clean whenever you like. If you know when they are bred, you know approximately when they are due, so try to clean a day or two before the due date, and then plan on only spot cleaning for the next 10 days or so.

[mykee]

I've never had any problems cleaning mouse litters even on their first day of life. If they're going to get eaten, cleaning their cages isn't going to make or break the deal. The whole "don't touch the babies because the parents will canibalize" myth is just that; a myth.

[sapphire_moon]

i don't find it to be a myth. I have had one mother that did just that. But you can't always prevent it.

So when you take them out, scoop out the entire nest (bloody nesting material and all) and clean the cage, when it is done, hollow out some nesting in the cornor, put the entire nest back into the hollow, and put the parents back, then leave them alone.

[Auskan]

I haven't found it to be a myth either. Sure, I can handle the babies from the first day without any problems, but the disruption of cleaning the cage can most certainly cause a nervous mother to cannibalize. I've even had one rat mother cannibalize her babies when I moved her from the cage she was in to the nursery a few hours after she gave birth, and rats are generally better at parenting than mice.