Monaro's Mouse Pages
Rotastak cage systems and suitable bedding
Rotastak is a small pet housing system made by Armitage in the UK, and has been around since at least the 1970s.
Whilst some parts of the designs have changed slightly over the decades, all components are backward and forward compatible, so that you can amass quite a collection of parts from ebay and know that they will fit together no matter how old or new they are.
Above: an example of most of the rotastak parts available, I have everything on the picture except for the bedroom pod mini-maze
Rotastak systems have been much maligned but I don't feel that the reputation is
fairly deserved. Most issues people have had appear to stem from incorrect use
of the components, not providing enough space, not using proper bedding (for
example using wood shavings which cause respiratory conditions), or using them
for pets they were never designed for. Generally problems stem from poor
petcare, not the container. I have 8 mice all in rotastak systems and have used
it for some time with no problems whatsoever. On the contrary my mice have all
LOVED having so much space and fun layouts to explore. It is infinitely
changeable to provide variety so your mice don't get bored.
Bedding.
First of all,
NEVER use wood shavings for mice, as they cause respiratory problems and can
cause permanent lung damage (if your mouse chatters, chirps and squeaks
excessively it is likely lung scarring – they only usually vocalise at a
frequency that humans can hear when they are squabbling with other mice.) I
prefer to use "Hemcore" or "Aubiose" hemp based horse bedding for my mice which
is hypoallergenic and designed for horses with respiratory problems.
When Monza arrived he had a respiratory infection and was left with lung
scarring. I changed him onto hemcore and his lungs immediately cleared up and
he never had a problem again.
For nesting material you can use hay, but I would not recommend it for a mouse
with a history of respiratory issues. It is better to use shredded paper or
shredded kitchen or toilet roll. Avoid cotton wool like hamster bedding as it
can wrap around limbs and cause damage.
Setups.
The typical rotastak starter home kit is NOT a suitable size for ANY pet, it is FAR too small. It can be bought to add to a larger complex however, which is what I did. I found a brand new one online as a bargain so bought it along with a LOT of second hand stuff to make a large complex. In addition, mice, unlike hamsters, are unable to "shimmy" up vertical tubes, so would be unable to reach the bed pod in the below setup - they need either sloping tubes or mouse ladders.
The setup below is NOT of a suitable size for ANY type of pet, it is set up here for illustration only - Monaro was in it for a couple of hours only whilst his proper complex was prepared.
The above starter kit is TOO SMALL FOR ANY PET TO LIVE IN!
To view examples of my own and other people's rotastak setups click here.
Rotastak is modular and all comes apart into it's component pieces for easy cleaning, making it very hygienic. You can wash it in hot soapy water or even put it in the dishwasher which will boil and disinfect it.
There is a criticism that
there may not be sufficient airflow but I have not found this to be a problem –
provided you do not block the ventilation holes or rings by plonking something
on top of them, or siting them in a stuffy corner of the room. Generally I
believe that "air" problems are actually respiratory issues caused by infrequent
cleaning or poor bedding choice (i.e. wood shavings/sawdust).
I keep a digital thermometer attached to my cages so that I can monitor the
temperature. Overheating is probably more dangerous than cold – mice can be
sensitive to too much heat and die, so in the heat wave this year I wedged ice
blocks underneath one of their bedroom pods so that they could cool down. If
they were too cold they could move to a different nest and be warmer. I also
supplied a plain ceramic tile in each cage for them to lie on if they wished to
keep cool, which Monaro certainly enjoyed making use of.
Above: Monaro my black eyed white buck lying on his tile to stay cool during the heatwave.
I wouldn't worry about cold too much in a home – if the humans aren't freezing odds are that the mice aren't either. Under 10 degrees C I would be worrying that their fur and nesting alone wouldn't be warm enough and if turning the heat up in the room is not possible then you could either place a heat pad underneath PART of the cage (not all of it, make sure the mouse can move away if he gets too warm), or move him to a different, warmer room.
Above: Monaro (left) and Monza (right) in their favourite bed pods, each with a small ice block wedged underneath during the heatwave. If they felt that they were too cool they moved to a different bed pod - it is important to give them a few different nesting options.
Here are my tips for getting the most out of your rotastak, along with some sample setup photos:
To get a mouse between levels keep all tubes sloping, or use mouse ladders.
If you don't have mouse ladders you can buy them on Ebay (search for Rotastak
you'll find lots of extras).
Above: a £30 ebay haul!
You can use another tactic
to get them between levels: use a short tube connected to a right angle corner
tube (elbow) at the bottom. They can hop into the elbow tube then reach up
through the short tube. They may not be able to reach up through a long tube
though.
Don't forget anti-gnaw rings on the ends of all pipes (they do fit straight onto
elbow joints, sometimes you have to be a bit firm with them though). Again you
can get extras on ebay.
Above: some of the basic units. On the left the yellow domes are dining rooms with pull out food trays. The greenish circles next to them are "rainbow runner" exercise wheels (removable in seconds for easy cleaning), the red and clear small pod at the front is a bedroom pod, the yellow ball on the left front is a 4-way junction for tubes. The blue-lidded unit is a kidney shaped unit, then there are two regular round "drum" units at the front right.
The basic units are:
• kidney unit (2 portholes on side, three on top of big end of lid on which you
can place a drum unit, and one on the opening end: I never use this one and
blank it off with a bung).
• drum unit, one side porthole, two top portholes and top hand hatch (except for on the very earliest 1970s tops, but tops can be changed and spares are available on their own. Available with & without fixed wheel.
• bedroom pod: small & round coming in 2 pieces which twist together, one porthole at the bottom. You can also use them sideways on the sides of big units if you like. Monaro had one on the side of his for a while in an earlier configuration. Occasionally you may find the top & bottom of a bed pod a tight fit. At first try swapping a few together if you have spares to find a better fitting pair, alternatively you could use a file to smooth down the lid, then finish by wiping the edge with a bit of kitchen towel dipped in a little lard or olive oil to prevent squeaks when fitting.
• travel box: 2 portholes and hand hatch on top. I use mine as dining rooms with a kitchen roll carpet instead of substrate so they don't put bedding in their food bowl. I also use them as muck out cages (for one mouse anyway), and have fitted an exercise wheel on one porthole and a water bottle to the other. The top and bottom come apart if you remove the circle clips from the portholes at either end.
Above: two
travel cages setup with exercise wheels to keep them entertained at one end, and
a water bottle at the other. Monza is running in the wheel on the left,
and Monaro is under the hand-hatch in the centre of the cage on the right.
They were content to stay in these whilst their main cages were being mucked
out, or for trips to the vet. I also supply a food bowl, and sometimes pop half
an egg box or other cardboard container in there for them to nest in.
• dining room (rarer
piece), domed unit a little smaller than a drum, with two slide out food trays,
and two portholes. I haven't added mine yet.
Above: two dining room units shown after cleaning ready to be put away, placed temporarily on top of a kidney unit for size comparison. I put other pieces inside them (eg an exercise wheel inside the one on the right) simply to make things more compact to pack away in a box.
• toblerone unit (I think it's called a space station, I can't remember), come in long and short versions, I have a three-long unit. Top metal connector clips are different to drum clips but you may be able to bend the regular clips to fit (this looks like what happened with mine). Three portholes each end, and hand hatch on side.
Above: a
toblerone unit (I'm afraid I can't recall it's proper name, possibly a space
station), although different in design to the drums and kidney units it is
compatible to be linked to them by the use of tube tunnels. I have added a
rainbow runner wheel on the left and water bottle on the right plus a couple of
toys. I do not use this for housing mice on it's own as I feel that it is
still too small, however as it is bigger than the travel cage I did pop Monaro
in it for a couple of hours whilst building work was going on in the lounge and
he had to go into the bedroom away from his main cage complex for a while. I
intend to link it into the main big complexes in future.
• finally a very rare and large mountain climber unit, like a large toblerone but with a plastic rocky climbing wall at the end and plastic rocky base. Probably designed for gerbils? I saw one on Ebay once but didn't buy it.
The basic connection
bits are:
• short straight tube
• long straight tube
• long straight tube with thick end
• elbow bend
• crossroads (there are also those green bubble bits available which are
effectively big crossroads instead of little ones, see them on Monaro's long
zigzag tube)
• male to female tube adaptors (red rings which mean you can change the
direction the tubes connect by joining two big ends together so they have little
ends pointing away, useful if you don't have the right number of right sized
gnaw rings to finish with)
• bungs for units (can be used to block unused bubble crossroads exits too)
• bungs for regular crossroads or (big) ends of tubes. These are a similar size
to short tubes.
• water bottle bungs for units (with a hole in)
• water bottle bungs for crossroads or tube ends (these are VERY difficult to
remove once fitted: be warned!)
• long curving tubes (constructed of a top & bottom half for each section to
allow easy cleaning, each section held together and joined to the next by a
flexible red ring. They need a thick ended straight tube at either end to be put
through a porthole.
Extras:
• "rainbow runner" external wheels. These fit into portholes and have the hub fixed to the unit by the porthole (don't forget gnaw ring), then the wheel itself which you slide over the axle, and secure with a little round hubcap which is pressure fit (push in, pull out). I grease the axle with some lard every now and then to keep it running quietly as the wheel itself covers the hub so the mice can't eat the grease, but in case they do manage to get any it won't harm them. I have spares so every day I take off the dirty wheel, give the hub a quick wipe with some cage disinfectant on a bit of tissue, then pop on a clean wheel. I then spray the dirty one with cage disinfectant and give it a clean with the wet mouse equipment sponge, rinse under hot water then leave to air dry for the next day. If you don't have spares pop a big bung in the hole while you clean & dry it, or clean it while the mouse is out.
• essential metal clips to hold drums together so the base doesn't come off if lifted. These come in small (base to drum) and large (for stacks: they clip the top of the bars of the drum below, over the base of the one above to the rim of the one above.) they can be difficult to tell apart until you put them next to each other. Small clips if forced to reach in a stack may ping off suddenly and launch off somewhere inaccessible (I'm due to find at least 5 when I move house and shift the sideboard lol!)
Above left: a drum clip. Above right: where they fit on the unit to hold the base to the clear plastic drum top. On the red bung which holds the water bottle you can see a thin wire sprung bung clip securing the bung to the drum so that it cannot be pushed out from inside.
• bung clips for drums: thin spring wire clips to hold bungs and water bottle bungs into drums or kidney units. The two base prongs fit into tiny holes at the edge of the porthole, then place the long bits across the bung and clip the top piece to a little protruding nub at the other side of the porthole. Now the bung cannot be pushed out.
• plastic circle clips for
portholes on bubble connectors, travel boxes and dining room units. These have
two prongs on them and serve a couple of purposes: holding the top & bottom of
the unit together, and holding in bungs. These can be seen on the
portholes of the yellow dining room units photo further up.
• anti gnaw rings, 2 sizes for big and little ends. These will not fit over the big ends of thick ended long straight tubes, so only use these tubes when they are in the middle of a tube section or connecting to a curly tube etc. You can see one in situ in the picture of the red roundabout unit further down.
• maze inserts : big green ones fit in the drums, I put down a kitchen roll carpet under them rather than substrate but its up to you. There are also much rarer small maze inserts for bedroom pods.
Above left: the typical green maze insert in a drum, and above
right: a rarer yellow maze insert in the top yellow drum.
• roundabout insert for drum units: very very rare: angled floor with spinning disc at one side. There is a porthole at the lower end to correspond with the one in the base of the drum. The wheel sits on a pin hub, which I greased with a bit of lard.
Above: the red "roundabout" insert is very rare, the disc in the floor at the back spins when the mouse runs on it. There is a porthole at the front for the mouse to go down to the next level. Because it is going into the green maze unit which they can easily climb onto, there is no need for a ladder. You can also see a metal anti-gnaw ring on the end of the tube on the right of the picture.
• water bottles. These are unique to the Rotastak range and smaller than normal
bottles, so I make sure they have at least two just in case. I have heard people
complain of them dripping, but I've got 8 of them and not a single one has ever
dripped, so I blame poor technique.
Fill the bottle, screw on nozzle, wipe drips from the outside, then invert so
the nozzle is downwards. Squeeze a bit of water out into the sink and then
allow the bubbles to come into the bottle: this creates the airlock that
prevents drips. Carry to cage still nozzle-down and try to fit without the
bubbles reaching the nozzle. Voilá.
When stacking drums on top of one another you will need to remove the top plate
of the drum(s) in the stack: that is the flat part on top of the metal ring,
which has the 2 portholes and hand hole in. It is held on by three metal prongs
from the metal ring. It takes a bit of wiggling and firmness but they are
designed to come off, just not easily.
Set the base of the next drum on top of the rings. You will notice on the
underside of the base there are three sections which correspond to the placement
of the three metal prongs: line these up and press together (they are purely
pressure fit). Finally fit the clear plastic drum over the base and secure to
the top of the metal ring below using long metal clips.
Above: blockage! Monaro managed to wedge his green chew cube into the bottom porthole leading to his maze unit. Fortunately there was more than one way for him to get up and down meaning that he could go around the obstruction instead. Remember to check your pets a minimum of twice a day to ensure that they have sufficient water, food, and to make sure that they have full access to all of their cage units as portholes can become blocked, ladders can be dislodged etc.
Sample setups: mine and other people's.
First, the evolution of Monaro's complex. This (below) is not big enough for a mouse to live in:
neither is this (below) :
NOW we're talking! Both the top and bottom systems are linked now, this is for a SINGLE mouse, and he loved it:
It then progressed to this:
And after Monza's complex
was added next door we ended up with this:
(The long blue tube was on Monaro's insistence. He looked all sad at me when he realised that his bottom dining room tube had gone, he kept putting his paws on the bung and looking confused, so I relented and came up with the zigzag tube with ball connectors which cheered him up again. Yes it looks a little ungainly but he loves it and that's the important thing. It's been in place for nearly a year now and I've never had any problems with it.)
Monaro has three bed pods (one is a second dining room), three regular drums, one wheel drum, two kidney units, one maze unit, one travel box dining room and one external rainbow runner wheel.
Monza's setups:
Now for Monza's cage
progression. After he had to be put to sleep due to a tumour, the new
rescue girls have moved into his complex and love it just as much:
The two on the left have wood shavings as they were taken in the first week that Monza was here, in but I then swapped them over onto hemcore bedding when I spotted that Monza had respiratory problems, which is the slightly darker substrate you can see in the third photo on the right hand side.
He has three bed pods (one is a second dining room), two regular drums, one maze unit, one deep burrow basement (with the wooden castle in it), one wheel drum (on top of the kidney unit), the kidney unit itself, an external rainbow runner wheel and a travel case dining room.
Above: Monaro and Monza's setups - this is for TWO individual mice! They are unneutered bucks (too old to risk operating on) so have to live seperately. Now that old Monza has gone after being put to sleep because of a tumour, my new rescue girls have moved into his old cage complex and have gained another drum level containing a roundabout wheel insert.
Other people's setups:
These have inspired my future plans after I move house, as I intend to have a set of corner shelves to arrange all my rotastak units on, on various levels linked by curling tubes and junctions.
The first one I still think is too small by far, however is a good concept for part of a larger system:
This person's system seems to have grown at a similar rate to mine and I love the variety:
Below is the system which I would like to emulate after the house move:
I hope that has inspired a few people, and if you are still unsure about how happy your mice might be in a rotastak system, take a look at my videos at www.youtube.com/farnfieldkirsty