Why no mammals section?

[froggsong]

Perhaps.

[Klowne]

I recently bought one of those shiny metal and plastic cages for the mice we have, and it's annoying as piss. The bars are "chewproof" but that doesn't stop them from chewing on them at 3AM. Best thing it did is free up another aquarium for me to play with without me geting in trouble for buying one.

You could set up something more natural for a small mammal, but as others have said it would be torn up very quickly. A large tank would be easier to do this with, and lots of branches and rocks to climb on could look great. They will need places to burrow and hide and the substrate will get very nasty very quick. Just use your imagination, but you won't be able to do things like covering grout in styrofoam or using great stuff, the mammal will chew it up. Don't make anything nice for a small mammal, rodents will destroy everything you put in with them

[beckdg]

i'll have to disagree with the grout statement on the grounds that you can make it as thick and strong as you like with extra layers and polymers. as well you could easily put plenty of other items in the setup that they'd rather chew than concrete. if one were to just barely cover the g/s with a layer or 3 it could and most likely would be an issue though.

[Greg H.]

It is true, that you can make it thick, add additives, and give other things to chew on - but, it still is not going to stop them if they decide that they would rather to chew on the grout, than a twig - my rabbits chew on the wire of their cages even when they have other things to chew on.

Rodents are known to chew on bone in the wild even when other things were available to chew on, ( possibly for the calcium - possibly for other reasons ) I once have found old cow leg bone that was chewed in two by local rodents.

[beckdg]

it doesn't matter how much they chew on it if they can't get through it in a couple years.
bone is not fortified crete.
bone can be supplied as an alternative fairly easily if you're not a vegetarian. even then it's not difficult.
wood or twigs is far from the last thing i'd consider offering.
many rodents will chew on wire... i call it flossing... larger mammals do it too. stupid animals, lol.
their teeth need to be grinded down (rats and mice at least) provide them with something they prefer that will work for that... if you have to, flavor it until they get used to it.

given all the alternatives one certainly could make crete/mortar/even grout last quite some time with the proper application. if you find your guys are freaks that don't give up on your wall you could always add actual rock and grout between them. there's options that will work for you.

[rudukai13]

Alright so whether or not it can be done has been answered. Now I'm a bit curious...If you had to build a naturalistic enclosure for any type of small mammal, which species would you choose to build for?

[beckdg]

furry critters? i think a naturalistic chinchilla enclosure could be very interesting.

[froggsong]

Maybe spiny mice, or african soft furred rats.

[boabab95]

spiny mice, sugar glider, Galago (if you could get one), and ring-tailed lemurs.

Obviously, some of these require A LOT of space like the Galago and the lemurs.

[Auntbeast]

I've had hamsters and gerbils. As much as it seems like a neat idea, the problem is you are vastly underestimating the amount of urine these little creatures produce. No matter how big the enclosure I had, a week was about the longest I could stand before I had to ditch all the shavings and redo their enclosure. A vivarium by its very nature is a static thing, can't go ripping out everything every week. Not to mention it wouldn't just be the ground, everything they climbed on would be a urine soaked mess in no time.

Although, there are some folks that like the smell of ammonia...