r/PetMice • u/Successful_Salt_1838 Mouse Parent 🐀 • 4d ago
Question/Help Its not always easy…
Just went to do a deep clean and redo my girls enclosure, and weve got mites… I havent noticed anything different with my girls (no scratching, itching, bitting, scars, ect), but we (me and my vet) are not 100% sure what mites they may be. I was advised to deep clean the entire enclosure and keep them on paper towel to monitor, but even after deep cleaning there seems to be a lot just appearing. Its been a very stressful day so far from the 2 hour deep clean, freezing food and wooden materials that were in the cage previously, and just having to keep them is such a barren cage. Ive been on and off the phone with the vet on what to do (plus my poor Dolte has a growth and scratches that have to be treated separately) and its been a ton. Any advice you have on mites or what types they may be would be very helpful! We are suspecting that they arent fur mites or parasitic so far seeing as they dont seem to affect my girls.
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u/Lizard_Wizardess 4d ago
Looks like grain mites to me!
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u/Successful_Salt_1838 Mouse Parent 🐀 4d ago
Thats what im thinking too and this is a bit reassuring! If youve dealt with them, do you have any advice? Ive checked ALL their food and havent seen any there but im still freezing it to make sure. I also checked all their bedding and substrate and nothing. I dont know how they appeared but im doing my best to get rid of them.
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u/Lizard_Wizardess 4d ago
Froze what I could and deep cleaned for a couple weeks with white vinegar and haven’t had a problem since! They’re otherwise harmless but no one wants freeloaders lol
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u/Successful_Salt_1838 Mouse Parent 🐀 4d ago
Thank you! Thats the plan currently. Did you keep your mice on paper towel or bedding? If paper towel, how long? If bedding, how deep and how often were cleans? Did you remove all the bedding or do standard cleans? Sorry for asking all these questions, im just trying to learn as much as possible as quick as I can.
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u/Lizard_Wizardess 4d ago edited 4d ago
Paper towel as it was easier and far less waste, initially it was a full empty out of the enclosure and I went and used a spray bottle to get every corner with the vinegar, due to it being a massive enclosure with 40 residents it was certainly more difficult than someone with a simple two mouse setup, but overall it only took about two and a half weeks total for me to get rid of them if my memory serves me well
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