# Suggestions for RUB alternatives.



## Fraction (Aug 29, 2011)

I'm currently toying with the idea of getting into mice breeding. I'd prefer to go with plastic cages but it'd be way too much expense/hassle to buy everything I need to make RUBs (hot glue gun, drill, mesh, a knife that could easily cut plastic without breaking it, etc).

So I'm looking into alternatives, preferably cheap alternatives, that I can get in the UK.

I've looked into lab cages, but they seem to be really expensive, and difficult to come buy singly (I'd only want to get 4-5 cages really). Any ideas/suggestions?

In another thread, PPValhunds posted this image:








Does anyone know what these plastic tanks are branded/how much they are/where I could get them? I looked on the Rosewood site but couldn't find them.

edit: Would the Large Flat versions of these Faunariums work? I'd be keeping a mf ratio of 1:2 per tub for three tubs, then another two tubs for growing on females pups.


----------



## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

I've had a few of the ones with the black lids you posted and the mice tended to chew holes in them. Mine are Marchioro Aquazoo 16s but were bought many years ago and are hard and expensive to come by now. Wight Isle Stud on this forum was making boxes to order (wooden or plastic) that could be posted or collected at shows - maybe try him.


----------



## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

I use the large flat faunariums with no issues at all.I also have marchioro and ferplast fauna boxes neither of which are available anymore and wooden breeding boxes.I've been using faunariums for about 4 years and I'm going to replace all my old cages with them.I've never used rubs other than the odd one I've been given.The faunariums I use are the branded ones,it might be that there are cheaper inferior look a like ones on the market.


----------



## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

I got mine from Wilkinson there £10 each for the flat ones, but none around her have anymore of the flat ones. I've had problems reasontly with water bottles for them. I've been cutting a hole in the roof and taping bottles up so they will fit and stay in the hole, use to be fine but now they have steered chewing the tape so bottles fall in. I tryed a large rabbit one as it perfectly fits in the hole but one annoying moise has chewed the bottle so the water pored out.

I like rubs I gave up trying to cut them to put mesh on, what I do is throw the lids and just bend mesh over the top of the whole box and I pick shallower boxes so I just poke the bottles mettle tube bit threw the mesh on top. I'll get a pic for you. My big under bed ones habe a piece of mesh I put on the floor to prevent chewing as they have little dents for frets they mice like to chew.

I've got a few wodden boxes but not too keen on them as they got chewed very fast bit I've solved that by meshing the sides.


----------



## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

Jo, try lying the bottles along the lid, with spout pointing down obviously, then using the piece of coated metal wire you get with bottles to loop round the middle and hook through the ventilation holes in the lid. Works well for me.


----------



## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

thanks cait I tried like that with the wodden ones when I went on holliday and it worked well. ill have to get a few small bottles and try it with the plastic ones, never thought to try it with them for some reason. this one mouse iv got has destroyed 3 water bottles but either chewing the bottle its self or chewing the plastic around the mettle tube!! its has escaped twice as well.


----------



## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

when making rubs I buy mesh on rolls its much cheaper than buying it in squairs like many places sell them in. I get my boxes form cheapy shops like home bargins and pound stretcher ext.

My current rubs (AKA my dangerously DIY lids) you just cut a bit so its bigger than the box and fold the edges over and squease it tight so the mice cant get out.
































a box I did when I was at the end of a roll of mesh so its not long enough so have the thing on top to hold it down

















How I have the bottles currently on those plastic tubs

















Big underbed lids done properly so I don't keep cutting myself on them









added mesh to sides and floor. The floor ones are lose so I can take them out to clean, the shavings hold it down and its cut so its tight fitting so no mice can get under it and ive found it keeps any dust from the shavings right at the bottom and keeps the mice off of the wet shavings in the pee cornors.


----------



## Fraction (Aug 29, 2011)

SarahC said:


> I use the large flat faunariums with no issues at all.I also have marchioro and ferplast fauna boxes neither of which are available anymore and wooden breeding boxes.I've been using faunariums for about 4 years and I'm going to replace all my old cages with them.I've never used rubs other than the odd one I've been given.The faunariums I use are the branded ones,it might be that there are cheaper inferior look a like ones on the market.


The large flat faunariums you use, are they the ones that don't have the hole you can push a water bottle through? When I picked up my mice, I was going to get a large flat exo terra faunarium from the reptile shop next door, but the shopkeeper said they were no good for mice because you can't put a water bottle in them or something?

The pet shop happily happened to have a rosewood tub from Wilkinsons, so I ended up getting that, but the flat faunariums would be much better for when I started breeding as they're much easier to stack.


----------



## Lyra (Mar 1, 2013)

I've had 2 large flat exo terra faunariums, but I decided not to use them anymore because 80% of my mice were making holes in the lids. 
The bottle was a problem for me at first, because I didn't want to damage the lids, but as the mice did that for me... Without making any adjustments for water bottles, I could place there only 75 ml ones.


----------



## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

You attach the bottles horizontally using cable ties.


----------



## Lyra (Mar 1, 2013)

Ah, true XD

I was always worried that they wouldn't work that way though, I guess I'm kind of oversensitive... Got a malfunctioning bottle once and I barely missed my mice dying of dehydration.
I use mostly the long, thin ones. They have to be tilted a little to work after there is less water in them, right?


----------



## Kayota (Dec 29, 2013)

I was using the wire mesh but it got kind of pricey even in rolls so I started burning holes in the plastic lids. I use water bowls and change them several times per day because i got sick of my water bottles getting clogged. I use plastic shoeboxes for the bucks and I am using an underbed box for one of my does and a 10 gallon tank for the rest. The underbed boxes are cheap and provide a ton of floor space.


----------

