Mystery fatty

[Micicle]

Hi all,

I've got 3 mice (all lovely!), the dominant one is normal sized, the middle one is small and slender and the submissive one is really quite fat! They're all girls and I've had them for about 10 weeks now. They're fed on rodent / hamster food (there's no specialist mouse food available over here) but I try to pick out most of the sunflower seeds as I've heard they can be fatty.

I cannot work out why the submissive mouse is so fat!! She's easily twice the size of the smaller one, and a lot fatter than the normal one. I'm sure she's not pregnant and she spends 99% of her time in the cage on the wheel. They've got a stimulating cage and I pay them a lot of attention.

Why would one of my mice be so fat and the others normal? She gets the same diet as the others and plenty of exercise... confused!

She seems perfectly happy though, I'm not worried about her, just curious if anyone else has had the same problem.

Thanks!

[Storyseeker]

Genetics is an amazing thing. Just like us, some mice are genetically predisposed to put on more weight. I had a fat mouse like that. Easily twice as big as the others. Quite the lard butt. She lived as long as the others easily and didn't lose weight until the end when her health started failing.

[Vladina]

Storyseeker said it all.

Some rodents are just predisposed to be lil fatties, no matter what you do. I have the exact same issue with my two rat boys. They both eat the same things, but Achilles, my fat pudgy boy, just seems to enjoy laying around and being a lap rat more and his brother zooms around all the time, burning off his calories. They both have their rat lab blocks to eat, but I think Achilles just likes eating a LOT more of his food than his brother.


Sounds like you are doing all you can, and good job about picking out the sunflower seeds from your food mix.


Those sunflower seeds ARE very fattening! I used to pick the sunflower seeds out of my gerbil boys' mix all the time, before I filled their food dish up.


Not sure what to tell you, but I feel for you! It is hard to try to feed less for one mouse and not have the other mouse (or mice) not have to be put on a diet so to speak. And it sounds like your fat mouse does enjoy exercise too! This is a hard one!

[lilspaz68]

I too had that issue, older fat mouse in with active thin one...strangely my fat Latte survived young smaller Shiro by a good month.

[Storyseeker]

Awww what a cutie long hair! She's even got that 'Chewbacca' part to her hair.

You know, now that I recall my fat rat Chewy (snicker...Chewbacca) lived well beyond her cage mates. She was robust in every way.

[Vladina]

Oooh, what a cutey!!

[Micicle]

Thanks for your replies everyone, looks like my little fat mouse was born that way and I love her the way she is

Another unrelated question - do you know of any (non-edible!) toys I can use to play with my mice to get them really interested? I've tried ripped up material for them to chase but they're not interested. I want to find something they enjoy so I can try and train them but I don't want it to be edible as one of my mice is quite fat, as I've mentioned.

Thanks

[Vladina]

Yikes, that is a hard one! I have not yet found a toy that my boys love that does not involved a treat or food attached to it. Of course my boys are rats and not mice, but hopefully someone on the forum will have some good ideas for fun mouse toys you can use that do not involve food.

[Storyseeker]

I have yet to find a rodent who wasn't exclusively food motivated. I've yet to be able to train mice. Not to say it can't be done, I just don't seem to have the patience or knack to bother with it. They just never seemed intelligent enough to do more than get them to come when food was offered or sit quietly in my hand without leaping to their doom.

[Talamos]

Back when I got my first mice, two females, one was HUGE in comparison to her buddy. D: Her buddy actually ended up being pregnant, but the fat one was still bigger than her.

[littlemousey]

heya!

ideas for good toys, i got my mousies a reed ball today, the moment it entered their cage they were nibbling on it (rather than the cage bars, thank god) and tumbling around on it... i also got them a reed teepee as their new little home, they love that too... but they'be been nudging the ball round ever since they got it....

also i made a little platform by slotting little lolly pop sticks together, they spent half an hour pulling that apart and chewing the **** out of it...

just a few ideas for you! ^_^

hope they help!

[Vladina]

Ahh, great toy ideas! Your kiddos sound like they LOVE that reed ball! Good for playing and chewing!