mice cages: plexiglas
I confirm that I suggest plexiglass cages. I've tried a friends' cage made out of glass: i don't suggest it because it is heavy and doesn't come with toys nor a water bottle. As an example, here is the cage I bought: (
http://www.mpsitalia.it/ - box - kleo)
It is typically good for 5 mice. Dimensions: 58 length x 32 width x 42 height (com).
I bought mice <30 euros. I'm planning to buy 2 other such cages (i have the room above my kitchen's cupboards).
I'm not using the top so it is more like this cage:
As posted previously, the cage has one drawback: the hole to insert the tip of the waterbottle is too wide in height. As a result mice put their nose through the hole and enlarge it. The way i found is to take one of the clips that keep the bootom and top parts of the cage together (you can see them on bothsides, they are not really usefull) and put it between the waterbottle and the cage in order to block the hole. If you buy such a cage you'll see in a few seconds what i mean.
While i'm on
http://www.mpsitalia.it/ i see 2 other cages that shoulnd't have that 'hole' issue (which isn't really an issue anymore) and might better fit on the top of your kitchen cupboards:
dimensions (cm): 50x40x34h and 42x30x25h. Typically for 5 and 4 mice
water
the small waterbottle lasts one week with 2 mice but it won't with 5 mice => buy a larger bottle at your local petstore. For the kleo box (the one i have) i checked: enlarging the hole (which had been started by the mice ;-) is easy a sufficient to put the larger bottle. Don't use a recipient with water: they would fill it with litter and food => food would rot.
litter
so-called 'vegetal' litter is supposed to be the best for healt therefore i'm planning to keep it. However i also tried straw (very cheap) and my mice liked it much because they can construct holes in it. wood chip is said to harm mice lungs in the long term.
foodgo to your local petstore, take the granulas for mice/rabbbits. don't take fancy ones. put the granulas directly on the top of litter (not within it: they won't find/take it). mice eat anything but avoid giving them your food because diarrhoea can kill them
vacationsif you can't bring them with you/give them to someone, use more litter to limit smell, enough food so that they won't lack it, wash well your big waterbottle and, exceptionally, put vinegar in the water (eg 20%). PS: i haven't tested it for more than 2 weeks...
experiment
i'm still quite hesitating wrt which experiment try.
- i think that CR is difficult for a first try, in terms of methodology.
- i'm now convinced that it is better if we are several to do the same tests (i started writting a program to test other strategies, see above post, but realized that if we play with parameters that don't impact lifespan much we may otherwise think it does and lose much time oin this).
-
either a mutant mouse or a special food or drink. Eg cancer-free mice. Eg granulas low in methionine. Eg a mixture of supplements in water (water+alcohol if needed; resveratrol, benagene, curcumin, lithium).
mice
i would suggest to start with one or two 3 euros mice bought at your local petstore, in order to test your installation and see that you can put your mouse as you want in your hand (or neck for fun) without any risk to be bitten. if the installation isn't correct and a mouse escape (which normally really doesn't happen), a piece of cheese in a toilet-paper-roll on the floor is sufficient to capture it.
Then you can call harlan (
http://harlan.com/co...t_us__Europe.hl http://harlan.com/co...orth_America.hl) to buy retired male C57BL6 breeders aged 18 months (14$ per mouse, + transportation cost)(
http://harlan.com/re..._mice/c57bl6.hl).