Apparently my mice like to bury their food AND water...

[mulder]

So, I expect mice to bury food. My previous mouse did, my hamsters did, my spiny mice did, my degus did, my rats did/do. Easy guess, right? Well my mice like to bury their water. And there's no getting around it.

When I got the girls they'd been at their home one year. The lady said they've always used a water dish, that they won't/can't use a water bottle. Well, I thanked her but of course I had other plans. Plans called "drink it or go thirsty" Of course I carefully observed them (which, being a Bio student, I am trained to do). Everything was fine. They figured out in 5 hours. All was well.

I also figured that having a water bottle would stop the "water burying", and thought nothing of it. Well, 2 days after I have them on the water bottle, I wake up and see that they've piled shavings and toilet paper under the nozzle, about 1.5 inches high. I thought maybe they were uncomfortable of the position of it, so I raised it a bit and watched them some more. I saw mystique come up and pile a little more up. Then I thought that it was too high, so I made it lower. She still came up and shuffled the pile, right up to under the nozzle. Drank. Shuffled the pile. Right away I KNEW she was still burying her water!! So I put it back up to what I consider normal height. About 1.5 inches higher.

But today, ahhh, today I woke up to a glorious sight! Overnight she not only buried the nozzle, but almost all visual of the bottle (from her perspective), so...6 inches up. So when you look in the cage at it the way she sees it, all you see is a wall of shavings, tp, and the silver dot of the nozzle.

When I came home from work this evening, I checked on everything like usual, and noticed their bottle was bone dry. I knew I filled it last night, so....somethings wrong. I rinsed it and checked for leaks but everything seemed fine. So I patted the nozzle ball with my finger, and a sliver of shavings came out! That silly critter not only buries her water, but she really jams it in there good! So, knowing this, I checked for wet shavings and removed them. I had to destroy her victorious snowdrift of shavings. Yeah...awwww...NOT! lol She doesn't care, she'll just do it again anyways Unless...

...I hang it from her ceiling!! Muahahaha!!

[Vanilla_Rat]

Hahahahaha!
Funny mice.I never had mice do that before,just the normal burying of food.

[mtmaughan]

LOL! Crazy little mice. That's a cute story!

[rat freak]

Thats very strange! lol

[laydeerodentzz]

awww *bless* ... Must be some good water! HAHA... your little story made me smile, and laugh hehe
What a funny thing to do! My hamster and my rats have never burried their food before, although Valentine my hamster will stash it in his little house so he doesn't have to get up to eat LOL, lazy critter, my hamster has decided to completly stuff his tubes with tissue paper before so it was impossible for him or anyone to get through them! LOL, Crazy lil'things.. but we love 'em for it lol
Thanks for sharing

[mulder]

lol Thanks guys! These girls mice always make me smile, I thought at least a few of you would find burying water entertaining I know I do!! No new snowbank as of this morning, but I'm watching mystique, as we speak, start building a new one. First she always shoves things through the bars (which she does anyways aside from water locale). BUT eventually some of it gets crammed in between the bars really well and then builds up and up and makes her snowbank. Once stuff stops falling out when she piles it, I scoop up all the bedding on my desk, and put it back in the cage. So it looks like a tornado went off in their cage, but there's really not a shred of evidence! lol. But yeah, she LOVES to just take bedding and actually get it out of her cage, no matter how fresh and clean the cage is. I think she just likes having a huge fortress LOL

[Padfoot]

LOL, silly mice!! I don't find it that amusing when they decide to pile shavings toward the water bottle cause it always means that I will have to clean that cage out of schedule. At least they didn't killed it like my gerbils used to do...

[Kendalle]

i think this calls for photos

[clairebee1]

Awww so funny !!

Mulder i want photos NOW!!!
Go snap some i wanna seeeeeeeee!!

[storminstaffs]

lol what a strange mouse only had this problem with my gerbil

[mulder]

lol no silly, no photos, I told you I had to destroy it to get all the wed shavings out. she still hasn't built a new one. there's a little lump an inch high, but it just looks like something I could have done. When it gets impressive I'll snap some shots for everyone

[laydeerodentzz]

YAY that will be good photos, photos, photos!!!

[clairebee1]

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
Cannot wait

She is so silly!!!

[Saosin]

From what I have heard from breeders and friends who own mice, they aren't suppose to have water dishes because it can cause problems.