Loosing fur

[AlexPan]

i got a colony of mice 1.4, and one of the females started loosing its fur on its nose about 2-3 weeks ago. Know hir whole nose is almost bold, but other ways she looks healthy. I feed them with cheese, fruits, and grains daly. Is there something i can do or the best thing would be to see a vet? i'l make some pics of hir later, cause she is giving birth at the moment. Also the other 4 females started eating one of the babe's tail and leg, so i separated them, does any one knoe why do the eat other mom's babes? Thanks.

[marisa]

Why are you feeding them fruits? Rodents have a hard time with fruits and I have found it does nothing but give them terrible feces. Although I doubt thats the reason for your problem.

Moms eat babies for LOTS of reasons. The mothers are new mothers and nervous, the baby had something wrong with it, the diet you are feeding them is not providing what they need, and like 12+ more reasons LOL.

If you really like the mouse then sure take it to the vet, but anyone that eats babies, or looses hair or shows any other sign of ill health at my house gets whacked.

Marisa

[mykee]

You might get more responses to your question if this thread is moved to the more appropriate Feeder Forum.

[Linds]

There can be a few reasons behind hair loss, ringworm, diet, mites, or cagemates can be the cause of it.

Originally posted by marisa
Why are you feeding them fruits? Rodents have a hard time with fruits and I have found it does nothing but give them terrible feces. Although I doubt thats the reason for your problem.


I wouldn't say all rodents have a hard time with them. My two pet rats are regularily fed fruit as part of their diet and they do quite well with it :) However if I gave the same diet to the spiny mice they would decelop diabetes in a heartbeat.

[AlexPan]

i do not think fruits are the proble, cause when i give some to them they seem to like it. It does not look like the mice got mites, and i clean their cage every 2nd day, and give them pure bottled water. I also dought that it is the diet caus i give them i think all of the vitamins every week. I'm gona get some vitaminst from the pet store but i have never being giving my rodents anything but pure healthy food. If they got ringworm, although i have no idea from where, is there some medicen i can get to cure them?

Marisa, the female that have given birth have give birth ones before, but the females which were trying to eat hir babes never yet have giver birth. Maby i have to waight till they all became pregnant and have the need to reproduce and survive, so then they might know not to eat other's babes?

[sapphire_moon]

Mice need grain based diet, fruits and cheese should be a snack or treat. If you have to give them supplements then they are obviously not getting something in their daily diet.

[marisa]

Really? I also do not think fruit is the reason but everytime I have tried with my rodents they get some really loose stools. Maybe I should try some different types! I normally only have things like melon on hand. And that's really watery.

Marisa

[Linds]

They get a lot of dried fruit such as raisins, apricots, apples, and dates. For fresh fruits I give them stuff like apples, grapes, cherry tomatoes, and strawberries. They also get veggies, grains, seeds, nuts, greens, and the occassional hardboiled egg or dog food :)

This is only my pet rat diet, the feeders get fed almost exclusively dog food with greens or whatnot occassionally, and I've never tried giving my feeder mice any fruit before so I cannot comment on that. When they do get extras it's usually greens or a bit of veggies.