How do you train a mouse to use a litter box?

Answer 1

It is URGENT that you gently rub the lower belly and anal area of the baby mouse to get it to poop. It cannot go on it's own (this is why mother animals lick their young in these areas, it stimulates them to go potty). If you do NOT do this, they can die from poisoning from their own feces and get backed up or bloated. Do this to them every time they eat (afterwards). If nothing happens, wait a few minutes and try again. Best to use a q-tip or your finger that is warm and damp. :)

Answer 2

Mice are intelligent for rodents, and although it's widely thought that they can't be toilet trained, it never hurts to try.

Edit: They CAN, but it takes awhile; I have two mice that can.

Rats on the other hand are toilet trained easily. This is how I toilet trained my rat.

Because a mouse or rat's life is largely focused on obtaining nutritious food, the best way to teach one anything is by giving it a very delicious, special treat it cannot get anywhere else. It's an even bigger motivation for them than breeding, because if you're a mouse and you don't know how to get the most awesome food, nobody wants to leave you in charge of feeding their babies. If you have other rodents, you might have noticed that the one you are training has gone up in status because the others can smell it on his breath, and they just don't know how he does it. He instantly becomes cooler, and this motivates him even more to try and get that special food. A good treat is a small bit of boiled or scrambled egg, chicken, tuna, salmon or something very fragrant and nutritious, and you should only give it to them when they go to the toilet where you want them to go. There are many sites you can go to to make sure you aren't giving something that you think is safe, such as avocado, which will poison your mouse.

Since rodents are sensitive, especially to respiratory problems, you should never use litter. Just give them a way to climb back into their cage and go there, and that should be enough.

Never scream at or strike your rodent. You will only frighten them. Focus on reward rather than punishment. If any accident happens, pick the mess up with a tissue and put it in the cage along with your mouse or rat. Speak in an annoyed tone, but don't punish your mouse or rat or put him away for long. Never make it seem like a bad experience to be toilet trained; only make it a good experience to do it correctly.

It's also very important for you to know that rats and mice, especially the boys, mark their territory by leaving small drops of urine once in a while as they walk. They cannot be trained out of this since to them it has no more to do with the toilet than email does to you, but you can at least train them not to completely empty their bladder all over your favorite pants. Training them where to do #2 usually trains them where #1 goes as well.

Because rodents are in their cage most of the time, just rewarding them whenever they go to the bathroom in their cage will only confuse them, and teach them that just going to the bathroom in general is an awesome thing to do. This can be a problem. Instead, focus on the journey back into the cage. While training, feed your mouse or rat and then watch their bottom for a while. They often need to go shortly after eating, and it's not hard to tell when they are starting to go. Quickly scoop them up, but instead of dumping him straight into his cage, drag his feet QUICKLY and lightly along the path you want him to take in getting to the cage. (DON'T drag him, or this will become an unpleasant experience that he will avoid. light traces of his feet will be enough.) Mice and other rodents have special greasy scent glands on their feet that remind them where to walk when they want to find a certain place. They are literally smelling their own footprints back to the food, home, or escape route. This helps him remember where to run when he wants to get somewhere. You can't complete toilet training without this step, because it's hard for him to remember where to go without being able to smell his footprints, and he'll have an accident before he figures it out.

Then, even if he has an accident before he gets there, give him a treat when he finishes his toilet, take him back out, and don't forget verbal praise. The rat I had loved being made a big deal over so much, I was able to train him to do some things on praise alone.

Continue training him this way every time you have him out, every day for about a week, allowing the footprint trail to get built up and the mouse or rat to build a routine and let it sink in. You need to stay on it. The more time you spend training, the less time he has to forget what he's learned. It's frustrating, takes time and is no fun spending all your time with your rat or mouse staring at his bottom, but it's very rewarding. Once you've gotten a week down, when your rat or mouse starts to go, instead of tracing the footprint trail with their feet, put them in front of the cage at the start of the footprint trail and watch to see if they go into it by themselves. At this point, my rat typically had no trouble scrambling up the book steps I built for him and finishing his business in his cage. If it doesn't work, go back to trailing their feet for another day or two. The first few times they climb into the cage on their own, give them more than one treat. That way, it becomes more rewarding to get to the cage themselves, and they don't hesitate. They'd rather go there themselves and have a BIG piece of egg than wait for you to pick them up and get ripped off with only a tiny chunk. Wouldn't you rather take the bus to school and be paid $50 than get a ride from your parents and get $2? The most important thing in a rodent's life is getting more food, and better food. After a while, you can gradually reduce the size of the reward back down to normal and he won't realize. In his mind, it will still be better to go by himself than waiting to be put in. Keep up with this, putting him at the start of the footprint trail when they start to go, making the distance longer and longer every day until he consistently does it on his own. After a while, he will come to you for his treat when he's done, and after an even longer while, he won't come for a treat at all and continue to go in his cage like it's no big deal.

Answer 3

Depends on what you are doing. If you are training it to get through a maze at the fastest time, you would allow it to get accustomed to the maze first, and then you would put a piece of food at the end of the maze. Let it practice, and then it will be better at it. Allow it to take faster routes.

Answer 4

Step 1. On cage clean-up day, notice where most of your rat's solid waste was deposited. With gloves on, pick up their solid droppings and put them aside.

Step 2. Prepare a corner ferret litter tray (available at any pet store) with a plastic lining and then fill to about an inch to two inches from the bottom with some ferret or kitty litter. Add the droppings.

Step 3. After cleaning the cage completely, place the prepared litter tray inside the same corner of the cage where your rats tend to leave droppings.

Step 4. When your rat gets the idea and begins to use the litter tray, sound a stimulus (a unique sound you make like cooing "good boy!" or "good girl!") and reward them profusely. Be sure to praise them with hugs and kisses, too.

Step 5. If you see your pet rat "missing the target" you can try to move them, or at the very least, move the dropping into the tray immediately.

Step 6. Take the time, at least once each day, to move fresh droppings into the litter tray. Eventually your quick-witted friend will notice how much cleaner and fresher the air stays when they poop in the right place.

Answer 5

This is a very hard thing to do, and I never tried it with my mouse.

What I suggest:

-Get a small box about 3 inches around and put it in your mouse's cage

-Fill the box with your mouse's dirty bedding and droppings so it knows where they are

-Whenever your mouse starts to go to the bathroom, put her in the litter box (do not use cat litter, if you need to use something clean then use newspaper)

Mice are hard to train with litter boxes, so best of luck!

Answer 6

There are many theories all pertaining to the best method for extracting urine from a baby mouse. In the Eastern hemisphere, it is often believed that a quick stroke of the rodent's belly will produce adequate stimulation from which it will begin to urinate. More Western beliefs dictate that anyone who tries to extract urine from a baby mouse is just a creep. What the hell is wrong with you?