When a Spiny Mouse is Fat
General Health Info
Preventing Obesity
Fat Spinies
Is this situation familiar to you? Ha-ha, fat spiny mouse... No, never! Especially not older males. So, should you do something about it? Furthermore, aren't they just adorable a little chubby?!
Get Rid of the Fat!
Cute or not, overweight is very dangerous for health. Even a spinie's old ticker can't take everything, so go on and leave the most fattening delicacies out of the spinie's food bowl!
"But it loves fattening seeds!" says someone now. Right. This is exactly why spiny mice are chubby, they love eating. It is like a hobby to them! However, there are risky hobbies and this is one of them.
In foreign studies it has become evident that the kidneys of spiny mice work in a very special manner. This is partly a reason for the occurrence of outbreak of diabetes in over fed spiny mice! What do you say about that? They found out in the same lab that even 15% of all over fed spiny mice develop diabetes. So, hurry up and check your spiny tank, if there are any nuts left to save in the food bowl... (We do think that all of your spinies are going to hate us soon...)
Be Sensible
Exactly! Do not over feed the spinies, but leave hysteria out. You see, soon enough someone will come forward and tell how she doesn't give her spinies anything but few odd seeds a day in fear of diabetes. There you are, with your poor spiny getting all too few nutrients in its diet! Therefore it is enough to keep the normal diet normal, but refrain of giving extra and fatty treats and such. Expecially older animals should be protected, as we all know how the bodily functions of elderly creatures are weaker than those of youngsters. This happens with all of us, both with humans and our animals.
A chubby spiny mouse... |
What Can Be Considered as Fat?
We would classify a spiny mouse with greasy fur, folds of extra skin in the armpits and under the chin, as well as a lump of fat in the neck, as fat. This kind of spiny mouse can be classified as being over weight simply by looking at it. It needs lots and lots of exercise and no treats of any kind! We do know how lovely it is to give treats to spiny mice, but every fancy things has its price. As the saying goes: "you have to suffer for your beauty", but this time we are more concerned about health than looks.
Spiny mice are beautiful, when they have just perfect amount of SOLID bulk around their bodies. This means that the spiny mouse is still lean, but it does have the spiny-like round and solid figure. Fat and muscle are not the same thing, even though some people seem to think so. In these occasions edcessive fat replaces good type. This means that when a spiny mouse with a poor type gets fattened up so the poor structure is masked. Wrong, wrong!!
Showing a Fatty
When an over weight spiny mouse is being shown, it is the responsibility of the judge to mention about the excess weight. Up until now everyone has done this, which is great - we have good judges! It would be good to warn about beginning over weight as well.
In our opinion older spiny mice are a different matter. Getting slightly or even a bit more than slightly rounder is a part of natural aging process. The coat gets a bit greasy as well, but that isn't actually a fault. Look at older humans. They too get a bit rounder and then start to lose weight. This is what happens with spiny mice as well and the longer the mouse lives in the rounder state, the longer is may live as a whole. So, let us forgive a little rounder shape with old spinies! With an old spiny mouse a desperate attempt to lose weight may even be more dangerous than slight over weight. However, do notice the word "slight" in front of over weight. "It is over a year old, so I'll fatten the mouse up so it will live longer!" is not a real reason. If you understood it this way, you don't understand written text very well and need to read the above text again.
Spiny mouse in good shape |
How to Prevent Getting Fat?
This is a good question! We wish we knew the answer. At least we recommend that spiny mice should be fed solely and thorough their whole life with lab blocks, as this way you can be certain no fattening seeds end up in wrong paws and get eaten. Excercise has an important role as well - with excercise metabolism works better. Without a doubt mates of the same species are important; lonely spiny mice can easily start eating to fill up the need for a friend! Other stimuli are important as well, as bored spiny mice start to eat to pass on time. Think like a spiny mouse; use psychology!
What About Inheritage?!
This is a factor that people think about. Even mice do have, unless we have understood it wrong, strains or even colours which are prone to obesity. Could genes have their part in the obesity of spiny mice as well?
Thinking about our own animals, during the years we have had skinny individuals who won't gain weight what ever we try and we have had spiny mice who won't loose weight no matter what... We could name one fat strain with certainty - spinies with a dude called Oberon in their pedigree. However, we have managed to keep their weight in normal levels with strickt lab block diet. They still did feel a bit fatter than the rest. This does make showing more difficult, believe it or not. We don't have the nerve to bring some spiny elephants for the judges... With all respect towards the fine line of spiny mice, but you are a bit chubby... This was just one of the things that needed to be brought up, so that spiny mouse owners would know to take away the first and last pleasure from all spiny mice - eating!
Text: Lotta Ahlfors & Kaisa Kattilakoski.