# reocuring hypothermia!



## mousery_girl (Nov 13, 2011)

at 10C my mice can't seem to cope with it and start to shut down  first time was outside this november, one male got it. i moved them in, his 3 boys were separated and at 10C they got it, and today... i now have a radiator... but it happened again to a little girl whose with 4 other mice!what the hell


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## SarahY (Nov 6, 2008)

As I and a few others mentioned in another thread, mice usually do well in temperatures far below 10C. How do you know it's hypothermia? Can you describe the symptoms of the mice? Can you tell us the quantity of nesting material you give them and what you're feeding them?


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## Kallan (Aug 16, 2009)

My mice are housed in my sunroom, which is not heated and has fallen to 3 Celsius several times this year so far according to the Ma/Min thermometer, and so far no problems.

Can you describe what happens when your mcie are sick?


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## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

I've also had temperature-related issues with my mice. I think that while most of our UK breeders here haven't had that trouble, the distinction may be the mice themselves. Our American mice have not been bred for hardiness or in shed environments, in the large part. I know for one that my adults can't handle anything below 50F and my litters can't handle being below 60F. That translates to 10C and 16C, for reference. That's with them on an inch and a half of aspen shavings, and with oodles of cardpaper that they love to fluff into huge nest balls. Maybe with tons more bedding and nesting material, they could handle it some colder, but my guess is just that our mice aren't as large or hardy as yours.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

My experience is much the same. I have a few tanks of males in the room outside the mousery, which is in a big walk-in closet, and that room never goes above 60F or below 50F in the winter. They seem to be doing OK, but I notice they huddle together a lot more than other groups of males kept in the warmer mousery. When it warms up in there to 60F, they are a lot more combative...I've wondered if I may have found another factor to reduce fighting among males who are housed together.

Regardless, I think American mousies do better in warmer temps, and I aim for 70F to 75 F, as they seem most comfortable and most healthy. I've had meeces that developed head tilt and recovered overnight when moved from a cooler location on the bottom shelf to a warmer upper shelf.

I suspect that babies who are born and raised in cooler temps would endure a certain degree of chilliness than those raised in warmer environments. I cannot fathom how anyone could think of keeping meeces in temps below 50F and expect them to do well. Keeping them in 30 to 40F temps has to be risky, and below that just not humane.


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## SarahY (Nov 6, 2008)

> I cannot fathom how anyone could think of keeping meeces in temps below 50F and expect them to do well. Keeping them in 30 to 40F temps has to be risky, and below that just not humane.


They manage just fine. People here keep their mice in unheated or minimally heated sheds and they can breed and show them all year round 

I have mine indoors in the central heating, but that's purely for my benefit. I can't stand the cold!


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## WillowDragon (Jan 7, 2009)

I never once lost a mouse to the cold, and it has gotten COLD here in recent years... but I have lost mice to the heat in summer.


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## Stina (Sep 24, 2010)

I think you folks in the UK have more stable temperature and humidity levels then we do in most of the US...and I suspect rapidly changing temps and humidity levels are much more to blame for issues then the actual temperatures themselves.


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## mousery_girl (Nov 13, 2011)

i'm in the uk, the male in question was a lab mouse, so maybe he's meant to be warmer...? and the other were his babies. He got ill cos he didn't make a nest, he just sort of went into a ball of paper with a cardboard tube over him thats why. I don't think he's ever made a nest in his life lol. The babies had loads of paper bedding tho and i feed them mainly mouse food with scraps...

The signs are : difficulty moving, cold body, red ears and tail where they become dehydrated, almost lifeless. And magically are resurected once put on a radiator! lol I've now had 5 mice all with this and they're all ok now


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