How do you keep pet mice from pushing bedding into water bottle feeder and soaking their cage?

Answer 1

I had a similar problem! I solved it by raising the bottle- my cage has a high platform that is made of wire mesh so will not support litter. I hooked the bottle on there, so although they have to climb the ladder to drink, they at least have dry bedding. If you do not have this arrangement in the mouse home, maybe you could introduce an immovable box or platform that does the same job?

Have you moved the bottle to a different location in their home? My mice tend to chuck all their litter into one spot regardless of what is there. If you have a wheel you could move it close to that, or to another object, to distract them from burying it with litter. Bearing in mind, of course, they must have constant access. In fact, it may be that they are trying to create a 'runway' to the bottle so that they can slip there and back to their bed unseen. you could supply a ready made runway made from cardboard tubes or just move it nearer the bed?

Have you considered using a bird-cage water bottle? Instead of the roller-ball system, it has a tiny trough at the bottom from which they can lap water. Might this help?

If all else fails, try reducing their litter to a shallow covering. Instead of climbing through the litter (and therefore kicking it all up) you could give them lots of tubes to crawl through.

Hope this helps! x