Sudden Obesity In A Male Mouse

[mousetopia]

For nearly 4 months now, my best friend and I have been breeding mice. We keep our males in cages on their own, with plenty to do.

One of the first mice we got was a tri colored male, who we named Forrest. Predominantly fawn, he has large white patches with black splashes all over.

He has NEVER been a fat mouse, large yes, but not fat. Though in the past few weeks, he's gone to being disgustingly fat. Strangely though, he doesn't eat all that much and he is constantly running on the wheel. It seems he gets fatter and lumpier every day. He's always been fairly slim though, for a large mouse, due to running on the wheel all the time.

Today, I was holding him in my hand, and my friend gently pressed against the sides of his belly to see how fat he really is, and he squeaked when she did so, then urinated all over my hand.
He has never peed on any of us before, so we think maybe its possible he might be in pain?

Could his large size be a tumour of some kind perhaps? I've read that mice can get tumours.

In these pix, you can't tell exactly how fat he is, but he really is fat!!!

[pinkie1205]

He's a pretty mouse and it does look like he has tumors, but I'm not vet. You should take him to the vet ASAP since it seems like he's in pain and he's not eating that much. You should stop breeding your mice because tumors can be genetic, and your other mice can be at risk. Why are you breeding anyway? What do you do with all your mice that are born? I don't want to bash you in anyway but genetics are a huge factor in breeding and you should know them on the mice you are breeding. I wouldn't breed anymore at all if I were you. You don't want to pass along mice that have the potential to have problems in the future.

[mousetopia]

I love the not bashing me in any way thing, especially since that is in effect exactly what you did...


We breed them for pets, mostly for ourselves, but for friends as well, who like mice. We don't breed often, only whenever we have need, such as when a friend asks us if they could get a baby from us. Sometimes also, the pet store buys mice from us. And while it may seem disgusting, if we have baby mice who aren't developing properly, we sell them to pet shops who use them for snake food. And YES they do it humanely. I find it gross, but the snakes need to eat too.


Anyway, Forrest has always been healthy, and the woman we bought him from said there was no genetic history of her mice having problems, as we bought him from a reputable mouse breeder.
He is the only one of our mice who has had any problems, and for the most part, he doesn't seem to actually be in pain. He still runs on the wheel, he plays in his cage, he does eat, but just not a LOT. Some of our mice are bottomless pits, it could just be that he isn't one of those mice. I only thought he MIGHT be in pain because of the way he squeaked a little bit and peed on my hand, but that could also have been because his bladder got squeezed and he peed, and I think if I was a mouse and someone gave me a squeeze, I'd squeak too...

I don't know what to think, but thanks for the non bashing of me, it made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside
(and that was really sarcastic sarcasm, if you missed it).

[pinkie1205]

For one you made it sound like you were breeding all the time. I'm sorry I misunderstood. If you think there is anything wrong with your mouse, you should really take it to the vet.

If you are having mice that aren't developing correctly then there could be a problem with the female that you are breeding with such as her being too old, or just having too many babies etc.

In my opinion breeding mice then taking half of them to the petshop because they're not "developing" properly isn't a good practice, and I think a lot of people would agree.

How long did it take your mouse to grow fatter? Can you actually feel any tumors in him? If he does grow fatter within the next couple of weeks or even days, it should be a cause for alarm, and I would see about a vet visit.

[mousetopia]

We don't often have mice that don't develop properly, and by not developing properly I mean mice that may have been born with a defect of some kind, such as on one occasion, we had a mouse give birth to a baby and its back legs wouldn't work.
We suspect the only reason that it happened was because it was her first litter and was quite large, we haven't bred with her since and don't intend to, simply for this reason. She is now a happy pet in our female mousery with other mice who we choose not to breed or who can't breed.

I think once again, you "misunderstood" when I said not developing properly. Because by that I mean mice that probably could not live out their lives properly because of their condition or defect. While this hasn't happened often, it can happen, and I'd wager we're not the only people in the entire universe who have this happen to their mice.

And I came on here to ask advice about my fat mouse, not for your opinion on whether I should be breeding or not. So how about sticking to the reason I came in here, instead of hassling me about what we choose to do as occasional breeders??

[pinkie1205]

The only reason why I brought it up was because you said you were breeding and I got worried that if in fact that mouse does have tumors, and if it is genetic, by breeding it could be passed onto future litters. That is what I am worried about. I said what I thought about the potential tumors and I think it might not hurt to take the mouse to a vet to get checked out.

[mousetopia]

well to add to the breeding conversation, as you're so worried, we have never actually USED this mouse for breeding. We've had him a long time, but haven't used him for breeding yet, as we only recently acquired a female who was big enough to accomodate him and she's not ready to breed with yet, as she's too young.
A lot of our mice are I guess normal sized, but Forrest and the new friend are both large mice.

[Padfoot]

Hi!

That mouse is not tri-colored. That mouse is broken-marked brindle. Brindle mice are very prone to obesity, it is usually reccomended that they are bred once or twice early in life because later they have sterility problems cause of obesity. This doesn't mean that it's 100% sure that that mouse is just obese. There's a probability that he has a tumor. Mice are very propense to tumors, since lots of the lines bred in laboratory (from which pet mice come from) are bred specifically to have tumors so scientists can study them. How old is that mouse? How fast did he grew in size? I still suggest a visit to the vet and not breeding this mouse. As Missy said, tumors are passed on genetically, plus is he is just obese, you'll have problems breeding him anyway. Is he the only brindle mouse you have? Brindle is a dominant trait, so if you breed a brindle mouse (male or female), you'll get a couple of brindles on the litter, no matter the color/genetics of the other parent.

[Oz_Mice]

I have a male alittle like yours but he's just a fawn but he does have a patch where its got black hairs on it. Anyway he's fat, very fat but he's fine so it could be that he is just fat.I've had mice with what looked like tumours and one of them was from my girl who was our best breeder, lucky for me she just had an absece, but I'd recommened taking him to the vet just to be on the safe side. Also I breed mice for pets and show, and I take some of my mice to the pet shop aswell, but for pets not snake food, also it shouldn't matter what your breeding your mice for, as long as your looking after them and treating them right, it should be fine. BUt once again he's a beautifully coloured mouse. If its found that he's just fat, if he's young enough try and breed him, I'd love to see what colours he produces although I too far away to get one if he did breed.
Anyway KInd Regards RHiannon

[mousetopia]

All of mice are I think very spoiled, we're always double checking them, and sometimes I think we might feed them a bit too much.

Mostly Forrests weight came about over the course of a 3 week period or so, which we found highly odd, since he's always active, he loves to run on his wheel (which is why we named him Forrest, so we can say "run, Forrest, run!" *LOL*)

My partner in crime just reported to me though that Forrest has been a father once to a little that is only 4 1/2 weeks at the moment. I didn't know that, I thought someone else was the father, but apparently he is. I don't know how that one happened though...

Every baby in the litter is super healthy (it was a litter of eleven!), with only 3 girls coming out in the litter.
Mum was a fawn, so most of the kits came out fawn, some with black patches. There are 2 clear brindles, dark with a few light splotches here and there (one of whom I have fallen in love with and am keeping, his name is Charlie).
All seem to be healthy and in good condition, not fat, not thin, not yet overweight.


BTW, where is West Cambawarra, I've never heard of it. I'm in a town called Morisset on the NSW Central Coast.

[mousetopia]

Sometimes though, I've found, when you take your mice to the pet shop, you don't really know whether they will end up as snake food or not, because some people buy live mice for their snakes.
A lot of people in this area buy mice for that very thing, which is why we only sell to people we know, and only usually we get enough money to cover feeding costs.

When we first started out, we were breeding all the time and selling our mice to the petshop, and it was covering their feeding and all that stuff, but then the owner of the petshop said that someone had come in earlier in the week and bought fifteen live mice for his snake. I decided not to sell them there anymore after that, now we only sell to them if its 100% necessary.
At one point, we had a mother give birth to eleven kits, and because she herself was a small mouse, all the babies ended up tiny and one of them was born with busted up back legs. The vet said it would never be able to live a normal life because it wouldn't be able to walk properly, so if it got hunted down, it would be eaten in seconds because it couldn't run.

He recommended a pet shop that takes in mice with problems like that, they put them to sleep humanely and freeze them for snake food, which I guess is better than letting the mouse live a horrid life and dying terribly, or selling live mice to a snake owner so that the poor thing can be hunted down by the snake. Yuk. I understand snakes have to eat too though.

[Oz_Mice]

The pet shop I go to, I'm fairly confident that they go to pet homes. I don't know many people who have snakes, so I doubt they really are going to snakes. As for where I live West Cambewarra isn't very known about, but the main town is Nowra and its on the South Coast its near Husskission and Jervis Bay, people who live in those places go and shop in Nowra. Its a tourist places which gets crowed during the holidays so I would hate to be on the road this weekend, when everyone goes back. Where do u come from? And what year are you in or have you left school?
KInd Regards Rhiannon

[mousetopia]

I'm actually an early college student, but I'm way behind on the times for college hood, because I'm actually 25 years old.
I live near to Newcastle on the Central Coast in a town called Morisset.
This is only the first time I've ever really had mice, but we've gotten into the whole thing pretty well advised in most instances, but about a super fat mouse none of us were sure.

He's such a lovely little boy. I can't even take him to the vet until Monday when I get paid.

[Angelnstuff]

You could prolly talk to your vet about paying him on monday, most vets will let you pay later. or pay in installments.