Spiny Mouse Health Basics
General Health Info
Preventing Obesity
Fat Spinies
Spiny mice are generally very healthy little pets. They do not have any common diseases, there haven't even been ectoparasites or tumors detected. However, you should worm your spiny mice regularly.
Diseases & Parasites
Colds
Spiny mice have very fine coats, which do not protect them from drafts too well. After all, spiny mice do originate from rather hot climates. Young babies and also old spiny mice seem to be especially susceptible to getting a cold, while other individuals in the same tank can appear quite healthy. It could be, that these spinies are just asymptomatic carriers of the cold – or it is a question of something else than just a viral disease. Heat lamps can help with this problem, medication may also help.
Endoparasites
It pays to worm your spiny mice regularly, preferably twice a year. Spiny mice do get occasionally endoparasites, which can be fatal if left untended for. As with all ailments, the best method of action is prevention. Spiny mice can get endoparasites from other spiny mice or from food collected from outside (always wash carefully all grasses etc. collected from the nature) or from dirty conditions (always remove fresh food no later than the next day). If a spiny mouse has worms, the symptoms are quite easy to detect; the coat becomes coarse and dull, and the mouse loses weight even if it eats properly. Sometimes the spinie gets a pot belly – the stomach is so full of worms the poor spiny mouse looks fat even though it is malnourished.
Information on how to do that, as well as the right medicines can be obtained from a vet. Always consult a vet before de-worming a pregnant doe. Does should be wormed before mating them.
Tooth Problems
Some aging spiny mice can get problems with over-growing teeth. As a prevention (and a great help later on as well) is making sure your spiny mice have something hard to gnaw on. Dog bisquits or dried bread are great. If the teeth have grown long enough to cause eating difficulties, take the spiny mouse to a vet as soon as possible and have the teeth cut to a proper length.
A healthy spiny mouse is lively and lacks all symptoms of disease. |
Accidents
Tail accidents are most common mishaps with spiny mice. The tail is fragile and can get easily broken if the mouse is lifted or even held by the tail. If the tail brakes off, it will never grow back! Falling down may be dangerous for a spiny mouse, so you should be very careful when handling them. Never try to catch an escaped spiny mouse with a show box - the animal is very quick and may, to its own misfortune and the owners great sorrow, get crushed under the box and die.
Best cure with accidents is preventing them. Right handling and preventing the mice to escape are best ways of action for the owner and spiny mouse alike.
Behavioral Disorders
Postpartum Psychosis
Postpartum psychosis is a psychological disorder, triggered by giving birth. It shows as aggressive behavior towards the babies. This kind of behavior has been seen with Egyptian spiny mouse females. They chew bold spots in their babies' coat and may even chew on their ears and tails.
Reasons for this disorder aren't known, but it may be hereditary. You should always monitor how the spiny mice you use for breeding take care of their young. The psychosis may be triggered by constant pregnancies or overpopulation of the cage, which are both very stressful for the animals. For cure, leave the affected mouse out of the breeding program for awhile. When the female has rested for long enough, it may get babies without any troubles. As the problem is psychological, you may never be completely certain about the female being fully cured. Therefore it would be better to leave the original females suffering from the psychosis out of your breeding programmed.
In addition to being hereditary, the psychosis may be learned, as some young females copy the behavior. However, you may use females with learned behavior for breeding, as the period of psychosis-like behavior will pass when the female is moved to a group with normally behaving females.
Jumping in Loops
A lonely spiny mouse may act like an caged wild animal, doing one set of moves repeatedly. The mouse jumps up in the air and touches the top of its tank with its feet. There have not been reported cases of this kind of behavior in spiny mice living in a group. Spiny mouse, that jumps in loops when alone, may end it when introduced to a group.
On to Preventing Obesity.
Text mostly by: Tiina Andersin, Lotta Ahlfors, Kaisa Kattilakoski, Sanna Mäki-Tuuri.