Haunched Mice

[unknownclown]

Hello :) I noticed 2 mice in one of my tanks that apear haunched like they have a spinal problem going on. I fed one off yesterday but I still have one left here is a pic you cant realy tell in the pic but maybe youll get the idea.

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1365mouse_001.jpg

There is hardly any spacing between her feet while she walks unlike the rest.

Ok so am I trippin? I did a search but I didnt come up with nothing that would apply to this. Has anyone else seen this before? Feeding times comming so any help would be spreciated. No sense in feeding off a healthy one if she isnt ;)

[XxRachxX]

i dont know whats wrong. but if your breeding them, i would change youre breeders, just incase its in the genes or something?? i really dont know much about mice though...

[vanderkm]

This appearance is non-specific in terms of what might be causing it, but it is definately a sick mouse and I would kill it off (whether you choose to use it as a feeder is another matter). Adult females will appear like this when they are nursed dry - emaciated and dehydrated from being the one female in a harem that spends more time nursing the pups.

This looks like a youngster and the posture may indicate abdominal pain which could relate to any internal organ. Intestinal twists and rotations are not uncommon in young mice and can produce this look - often these die rapidly, but some can be ongoing. Animals that are not competing well enough to get food, those that have just not weaned well can look the same - I would check body condition in these guys. Any infectious disease - pneumonia, diarrhea could produce this appearance, so hard to say what is the primary problem.

There might be some underlying spinal problem but that would be very unusual in two animals at the same time. I would expect more than a close stance while walking - likely dragging feet or partial paralysis, and it would likely become progressively worse.

As to whether you feed a potentially diseased animal, certainly predators in the wild cull the sick and injured, so they eat a lot of dying animals - but some people prefer not to feed pet reptiles anything other than healthy prey.

Hope that offers some possibilities based on what we have seen with our rodents,

mary v.

[unknownclown]

Hm that does help a little.. as far as I know she hasnt been bred yet and was totaly unrelated to the other one I had which happened to be a male. I bought her as a feeder at a Petco which means she is more than likely an inbred. I was going to use her as a breeder but that aint gonna happen. The wierd thing is she doesnt act sick at all no sneezing shes active )I had a hell of a time getting her to hold still for the pic!)and you can tell by the pic shes not starving ;)
Hm its kinda wierd that nobody so far has seen this. It couldnt be her diet or anything could it? I keep the cage very clean and there are only 3 others in a 30 gallon tank. Im just afraid that since Ive had 2 end up like this that maybe Im doin something wrong even though my mice in the 3 other tanks, which are kept the exact same, haven't shown anything like this.

[Linds]

I agree with everything Mary has said. In my experience, healthy mice don't hunch over like that... only the sick and/or dying. I wouldn't think her diet would be the cause... and often many of the chain store feeders are not raised in adequate conditions which can lead to disease.

[marisa]

I have seen it many times. Sick mice. Like everyone else said, I would feed that one off/ get rid of it.

All mice I have seen looking like that die eventually. It could be a million things wrong. When thousands of mice are shipped to pet stores all over teh country, you can expect a lot of them to be sick or weak for some reason or another.

Marisa

[jadegrasse]

Looks like a none feeding/drinking young sick mouse. Feed it away. I see them in cages were the watering nozzles are dry or were they have never learned to use the nozzle. I also see it when the nursing females die and babies waste away.

Don't worry about passing on anything to your snakes.

Alain

[reverendsterlin]

when I bred mice I always got mine from labratory supply companys, these are used but labs for testing so have no genetic defect in their lines and have been multi-generationally fed lab quality diet. If you have a college near you that uses mice they usually will have a local store stock their lab diet (spendy about $30USD for 25lbs). Pet quality mice are churned out like puppy mills with little regard for anything but mass production. I agree that the sick and weak are first eaten in the wild but good nutritionists will tell you quick "you are what you eat"

[unknownclown]

Yeah she was sick I didnt feed her off though my ball python decided it wasnt a good time to eat.
Im having hell of a time breeding mice, or rodents for that matter. I dont get it its supposed to be easy! Eh oh well maybe someday Ill find a good supplier of mice or mine will kick it in gear.
I cant wait till my snakes are big enough to eat rabbits life will be good then,it seems like they are the only thing breeding here. Ok Ill quit my whining now ;)

[Syst3m]

Make sure your mice are about 3 months old, and nature will take its course. Usually I find that people are trying to breed mice that are 6 weeks old because they are maturing sexually.
Just because the mice might breed at 6 weeks doesn't mean that can or will. Give it time to start a good colony. Or get some established breeders.

[marisa]

Unknownclown----

I noticed that you said you keep 3 in a 30 gallon...are all your breeders allowed this much room? If so this can be problem number 1 as to why they aren't breeding.

Mice like to be a bit crowded. Not overcrowded, but 3 in a 30 gallon will definitly put a hamper on breeding efforts. If you are using say a ten gallon, you can run 1 male and anywhere from 5-8 females. I know a couple people in the states run 1.9 in the ten gallons.

I myself have rubbermaid shoeboxes with 1.3-1.5 in them. I get "batches" of babies from my tanks anywhere from 40-70 every couple weeks/months.

Marisa

[unknownclown]

Actually in my bedroom I have 3 10 gallons with mice and the 30 gallon one in my living room with now only 2 adult mice in it but the female in there just had a litter hopefully they will make it her last litter was to say the least a failure.
Wow I didnt know I could put that many mice in there though. mine are about 1.3 cause I figured I should leave room for babies when and if they have them. I did start off with more but the ball pythons need to eat. Im trying to leave them alone now though since recently the feed store down the street is offering store credit for my baby bunnies in turn I get feeder mice.