# We would like advice! SHED



## kisha (Apr 8, 2011)

Just got the OK tonight. We are building a shed from the ground up for our rodents, we are moving them out of the house. We need any and ALL available advise, links, ...and so on to help us with this project. Pictures, step-by-step instructions, editing ideas... We are going to take pictures and video tape what we can each step of the way so that our experience may help others in a similar project ^^ So please offer us some helpful advice! Please and Thank you  We have a very limited amount of time to build this sucker... Must be done by mid February.


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## mousery_girl (Nov 13, 2011)

can't you buy a shed? you can make 4 pillars out of wood standing up, nail over lapping wood strips horizontal to these pillars, or get cheap flat pieces of wood. its actually quite easy you could do it in 2 days if its only 6 ft by 6ft by 6ft... get a felt roof make sure its at least 45 angle. get a light  get a heater. the mice must have light for about 12 hours a day for good breeding.


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## mouselover01 (Nov 1, 2011)

Check out my post in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9533


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## Velvet_Meece (Apr 20, 2009)

mousery_girl said:


> can't you buy a shed? you can make 4 pillars out of wood standing up, nail over lapping wood strips horizontal to these pillars, or get cheap flat pieces of wood. its actually quite easy you could do it in 2 days if its only 6 ft by 6ft by 6ft... get a felt roof make sure its at least 45 angle. get a light  get a heater. the mice must have light for about 12 hours a day for good breeding.


And to this i say....rubbish 

My shed light is on for 30mins to a few hours a day and my mice breed just fine.

Why does the roof have to be at least 45 degree angle? mines flat. Again no issues.

But i do have a tip of my own that i have done with my shed, and that is the roof is white, so it reflects the sun in the summer months


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## mousery_girl (Nov 13, 2011)

more likely to get leaks with a flat roof so it won't last as long... and light makes a big difference to ALL animals including humans... i advise 12-14 hours... my mice stopped breeding for 4 months because of this and they've picked up since my new bulb


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## SarahY (Nov 6, 2008)

> light makes a big difference to ALL animals including humans... i advise 12-14 hours...


Completely depends on the placement and size of the windows


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## Velvet_Meece (Apr 20, 2009)

and how well you build the roof, mine is covered with white plastic type roof material. Because in my experience, after so long in the sun and frost, felt material expands and contracts and eventually splits and falls apart unless you replace it every couple of years.


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## Velvet_Meece (Apr 20, 2009)

mousery_girl said:


> i advise 12-14 hours...


I think you should maybe start your sentence with 'In my experience' rather than trying to give advise that isn't even true for a majority of people


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## maddeh (Jul 14, 2011)

In relation to the hours of light needed, I just thought I would add my experience to the thread (perhaps mousery_girl has light sensitive mice for some reason or other). My mice do not seem to like light, they are kept in a room with a large window which provides them with natural light, and they appear to build up the side of their nest facing the window much higher and thicker (I'm assuming to block out the light). They also tend to be most active when I get up in the morning (before I draw the curtains so it is therefore quite dark) and in the evenings when I feed them and do health checks, etc. With this in mind, I would assume that light is not that important for them as they are rarely active during the daylight hours, and they try to find the darkest area in which to build their nests.
It is intriguing that the lack of light seemed to have an affect on the breeding of the mice... I wonder if there was some other factor that coincided with the replacement of the bulb.


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## Stina (Sep 24, 2010)

Length of day can have a huge effect on the breeding activity of animals...whether they prefer to be in the light or not. Many animals become sexually active in response to the change of length of day in the fall or spring.


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## Frizzle (Oct 6, 2011)

As a relatively newb mouse owner, I have to confess that I've come across reading that also recommended light/dark cycles. I can't remember where, or how many different places, but I also read that you can "help" your does come into heat by changing the light cycles to a certain timing. Idk what was recommended, I don't have breeding problems, so didn't look into it. It makes sense to me, chickens won't lay eggs unless they get a certain amount of light, but that's a little different... Its generally why you get less eggs during the winter months if you don't supply them with an additional light source to lengthen the day for them.


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## mousery_girl (Nov 13, 2011)

... i was assuming you wouldn't have a window in a shed, obviously a light prob wouldn't be needed with a large window although you may lose a lot of heat from it


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

Frizzle said:


> Its generally why you get less eggs during the winter months if you don't supply them with an additional light source to lengthen the day for them.


birds,fish and many other animals are reactive to light in relation to the seasons because their youngsters are reliant on food that is available at certain times of year,many chicks would perish in the wild during winter because there are no insects.Animals not reliant in this way will breed all year although obviously better in the good times.A lot of these are what we class as pests because they are so prolific when not handicapped by spring/summer breeding.Rats,mice,pigeons.I have blocked the window in my shed because in very sunny weather the shafts of light come through like a lazer and for the inhabitants of any cage those beams fall on it can rapidly prove fatal and of course the rays move around as the sun alters position.Then in the winter the heat is retained better if the glass is covered.They breed all year,no problems at all.


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## Viry (Oct 31, 2011)

Frizzle said:


> I have to confess that I've come across reading that also recommended light/dark cycles.


I've come across this too; in the reading I found it recommended having 14h dark or more. I think they claimed it was because the does normally are in heat at night. There was something else as well, but anyway, point is, they actually claimed it was better with less light, ot more.


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## tinyhartmouseries (Dec 30, 2010)

over-the-ponders have to remember that mousery-girl is in the US, I believe. Over here we have crummy weather and a lot more seasonal shift. I personally would feel most comfortable building a state of the art shed and really pulling out all the stops for my US mice.


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## kisha (Apr 8, 2011)

I've been away for awhile, but I thought I'd update and say that we ended up finding one heck of deal and pulled out a loan to get it. We bought a 12x20 foot portable building that had all electrical installed, fully insulated, 5 good sized windows and an A/C unit for just $4,500 and that also included a 2-hour free delivery, set-up, and leveling in the back yard. We had to replace the A/C unit, it broke on day 3 but it was old and we knew it probably needed replacing. It's used and older, but well worth the money and I love it out there. It's my own little rodent shed, all to myself with my critters. Everything fits, I have a venilation fan installed and the new A/C unit pumping in cool clean air. The windows allow for natural lighting and I do most of my work in the daylight hours anyway. The room never smells bad and I keep it set at 76 degrees. Mind you, we found this building AFTER we had started digging up the grass for the concrete we were planning to lay that weekend. I found it by chance online last second...


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## Loganberry (Oct 24, 2008)

tinyhartmouseries said:


> over-the-ponders have to remember that mousery-girl is in the US, I believe. Over here we have crummy weather and a lot more seasonal shift. I personally would feel most comfortable building a state of the art shed and really pulling out all the stops for my US mice.


HELLO! England?!


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## Frizzle (Oct 6, 2011)

haha, this varies by area over here in the US. Though I completely get where you're coming from Loganberry. :lol: I know you guys have like, 80% cloudy rainy weather, it must be so dreary!


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## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

When we say "crummy" weather, we don't mean rainy dreary. We mean the same location goes from 115F in the height of the summer to -15F in the worst of winter. Air conditioning in sheds for mice is a must, in locations of this type.


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## mousery_girl (Nov 13, 2011)

yeah in england we have almost 40C in summer and -20C in winter! (don't know what that is in F) but its pretty crazy too lol, anyway I think the reason my mice were affected by the light is because I kept them outside in a greenhouse with lots of glass missing and as it turned to winter even though it was very warm they stopped breeding like mice in the wild would, so it took them a while to come back into normal "season" when I brought them in, they're breeding normally now


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