a sneezing mouse.

[shlush408]

hello,
i just bought a mouse about two days ago from a pet store. he (his name's Disco) is just a white "feeder" mouse but i got him for a pet. I noticed yesterday that he was sneezing like crazy, so i went online to look for possible causes & saw that pine bedding can give mice allergies. I had pine bedding in his cage, but i imediately took it out & replaced it with shredded paper towels. This morning I checked on him again and he's still sneezing, but not as much as yesterday. other than the sneezing, he seems pretty normal. he eats a lot, & gets really excited when i put new food in. he's really friendly, doesn't bite at all, and he likes to explore when he's out of his cage. when he's in his cage however, i've noticed he does kind of sleep a lot. so should i be really worried about him? also, could the sneezing be caused by the air conditioner i have in my room? it's fairly chilly at night, so should i move him to a warmer room in my house? any help would be appreciated.

one more thing-- i have a water bowl in his cage instead of a bottle. i've yet to see him drink out of the bowl. so should i just assume he's drinking when i'm not looking? or replace it with a bottle?

[Padfoot]

When did you changed the bedding? I'd give him some time for the change of bedding to take effect. About the sleeping, mice are nocturnal, so it's normal that he's sleeping a lot during the day, but he'll be awake at night. He is probably drinking from the bowl, since the can't go more than a couple of hours without water, but I suggest that you change to a bowl, cause he can drown, or just fall into it, and get ill cause of the coldness. How cold is your AC? You should be careful cause a lone mouse can get cold very easily, since he doesn't has any cagemates to help him keep warm while sleeping.

[shlush408]

thank you for the reply. it's been a few days now since i changed the bedding. now i made the final change from paper towels to carefresh and that seems lovely. the sneezing has gotten MUCH better but hasn't stopped completely. is it normal for it to take this long to stop? i also got a water bottle for his cage. i didn't even consider the chance of him drowning, so thanks for bringing that to my attention.