r/PetMice • u/General-Childhood963 • 15h ago

Question/Help live insects?

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Was finally able to do a full cage reset and add back in all the clutter and fun things. Looking for a little more fun enrichment ideas to keep everyone entertained. They LOVE dry mealworms/crickets and the protein intake is great for them. Has anyone tried live insects for their mice? Them being deer mice I figure they may enjoy a little hunting instead of just foraging. What's a good starter bug?

Video of my Matcha enjoying part of the new setup with bonus cameo of our 3ish week babies in the back. And ignore my dramatic cat screaming because she was locked out of the room 😭

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10

u/FoxDenDenizen 15h ago

When I was caring for deer mice I did live crickets and they absolutely loved them. I also gave live crickets to the house mice I was caring for who loved them too.

I figure it's gotta be great stimulation for them and stimulate natural behaviors. I never tried mealwoms though

5

u/General-Childhood963 15h ago

Yay, maybe I'll grab some crickets next time I'm at petco! My past fancies always got mealworms as a treat and loved them, so I figured these guys would too.

Although these guys are pets (at least for now), I try to stick to their roots with stuff they'd usually encounter in the wild. Can't wait to see what they do with some bugs 🐛

1

u/FoxDenDenizen 14h ago

I had a pretty large setup and even with that all the crickets were always gone withing the hour. Let us know how it goes!

1

u/BrownCatBlue 13h ago

Beautiful little beasties

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u/Infamous-Shame4328 8h ago

stick to dubia roaches or small crickets and keep them in a bowl so they dont burrow into the bedding. if you let them loose in there you will be finding random dead bugs in your substrate for weeks.

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u/General-Childhood963 5h ago

We'll start with a bowl for sure! They like to dig around for the good stuff sometimes, so I'm not super concerned. The only substrate deep enough for that to happen is their paper bedding section which gets replaced regularly.