# Not Eating?



## FeralWolf (Dec 28, 2010)

It doesn't look like my mice are eating anything. I put two different brands of food in their bowls, plus dry pasta and occasionally bread. But, it's not dissappearing... help!


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## tinyhartmouseries (Dec 30, 2010)

get a postal/gram scale and start weighing and keep track in a notebook. If you are really concerned I'd do it every day.


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## FeralWolf (Dec 28, 2010)

thx


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

You may just be putting in way too much stuff for their tiny stomachs. I give my meeces about a tablespoon each of the grain and seed mix that I make up for them, along with very small bits of treat. and I mean small like the size of your pinky fingernail. It would end up badly if they get too much high fat or high carb by eating the stuff they prefer, and that's what they will do given the option, just like kids who love desert but are not too wild about meat and vegetables.

80% of the diet I use is plain whole oats and wheat, with 20% added in oily seeds (I use safflower seeds), puppy kibble, and treats like dried bread or cereal or whatever I figure is good for them.


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## FeralWolf (Dec 28, 2010)

I'm thinking that I feed them too many treats, so they won't eat the normal diet. But, recently, when I give the treats, they won't even eat that.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

How do they look? Can you put up a picture?


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## FeralWolf (Dec 28, 2010)

I can take tons of photos, but I don't have the software to put it on my computer. Darn it. What do you do?


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Well, I guess I assumed you might have a digital camera, many or all of which come with a USB cable with an opposite end that fits the camera. Most systems will come with some kind of software that will facilitate uploading from camera to computer. Barring that, you can look online for software. Then you need a photo host site like Photo Bucket or Image Shack (there are a lot of different ones) and follow the directions given there.

If you don't have a digital camera, then you might be able to scan the photos into the computer if you have a scanner. If none of these things are possible, I guess we won't be seeing pix from you just yet.


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## racingmouse (Jan 12, 2011)

I would stop feeding them treats (just one a day perhaps in the shape of a sunflower seed or similar) and make sure they actually like the food you are offering. A good rat mix or even a rabbit mix that has a wide variety of grains in it like whole/rolled oats, barley, wheat and break up any large extruded biscuits as these can sometimes be ignored by mice if they are too big in size. Add in some bird seed/millet and little bits of brown bread, but bread can sometimes give them the runs so watch that they don`t react to this. If they do, stop feeding brown bread too much and just give as treat. Just give them their mix and nothing else. Your mix should have plenty of variety and not just a few grains and bread, although mice will eat that, you have to be sure they are getting good nutritional value from their food. I find mice don`t care for pasta, so maybe that`s why your mice don`t either?

Try and stick to mixes that are suited to a mouse. Grains and seeds.


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## geordiesmice (Oct 26, 2010)

Yes about a tablespoon of food too much and wasteage will occur at least a little food they will clear the lot.Mine get bread occasionally but I do feed the pregnant and nursing mothers scrambled egg they love it and meal worms as treats occasionally too dont give them too much food .Maybe you changed their diet from what they originally had and there just getting used to it they will eat if there hungry.


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## FeralWolf (Dec 28, 2010)

I did add in a new food recently, I made sure to mix it with the old food so they would eat at least something if they didn't like the new food. Moustress, I have a digital camera, but I lost the CD with the download software! Uhg, do you think I can buy a new CD without buying a whole new camera?


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## racingmouse (Jan 12, 2011)

What are the brand names of the foods you feed to them? This would help identify perhaps why they don`t like them? If your in the US, it would need to be US members who advise you on this because the brands can be very different to the ones sold here in the UK. Although the main grains should be the same, you may have other things added that UK/European brands don`t. Sometimes mice won`t take to certain things within a mix, but they will eat most of it. Lucerne/alfalfa for example is a `filler` and mice hate it. Someone once told me they can`t digest it either, which is probably why they never touch it! My rabbit food is free from alfalfa and locust beans (usually found in rat mixes). I always advise picking out the yellow corn/maize in these mixes because there are wories about corn sometimes carrying a fungus and being contaminated and can be detrimental to a small animal rather than a benefit, so I pick all the corn out. I don`t like feeding second rate corn to my mice anyway, which is usually what`s in pet mixes.


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

You can also try taking all the food out, clean out the cage and wait a few hours til they're nice and hungry, then put the food bowl back in and they should all come out to eat and investigate. If they don't and you have the time to wait a few more hours and try again to see if they are in fact NOT eating. Sometimes it doesn't look like my mice are eating because the food bowl stays full but then when I clean out the cage I find large stashes of their favorites hidden.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

You can probably download the software free at the company site. Have you tried hooking up to your computer as is? If the computer recognizes the camera then you probably have the program you need in there already. It wouldn't hurt to try.


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## FeralWolf (Dec 28, 2010)

I tried that, and it yelled at me. Mean computer.


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## FeralWolf (Dec 28, 2010)

I use Nutriphase (they use to love it!) and Fiesta Max.


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