Gravel or sand as a mouse substrate? Other ideas for substrate?

[plant16649]

hey there, this might be a bit of a niche question, but I was wondering if gravel or sand can be used as a more "natural" mouse substrate for fancy/pet mice.

At various zoos and around the internet I've seen sand and gravel used for zebra mice or harvest mice - but wondering if the same can be done for pets.

I'd quite like to get a naturalistic set up going (side note - is a mouse house or tank outside or in a greenhouse okay?) but the substrate has been the most difficult bit to sort out! I've tried soil before but it tends to dry out and get a bit dusty which is a recipe for respiratory infections.

hopefully these links work (my first post so sorry for formatting!), but this is kind of the look I'm going for.

Enclosure Harvest mice - ZooChat
Spiny mouse enclosure - ZooChat
New Barbary striped grass mouse enclosure - ZooChat
Cretan Spiny Mouse Enclosure at Krefeld, 15/06/19 - ZooChat

thanks!

 

[TinoPup]

Have you tried asking in fancy mice groups on facebook, especially ones for breeders? You can usually find people there who have tried many different methods to see what works best, there's sure to be some who have tried both sand and gravel.