Can a mouse sense a storm?

Question
QUESTION: Dear Natasha,
For the past 3 or 4 days, my 1 year old mouse Edgar has been acting strangely. He has never been too fond of hands (I don't know if mine are too cold/shaky for his liking, or if he has had bad hand-related experiences in the pet store I got him; they breed mice to be snake food, so I believe he went through some bad times before I got him), but he would get in mine if I were patient enough; and he would jump into any available limbs within tiny legs range (I was surprised too many times by tiny nails scratching my ankles, or even the sight of a little white ball staring at me from the top of my knees!). Now, he never gets into my hands by his own will, and climbed my legs only to look and sniff around, the ran back to his cage. He lives free in my bedroom, and loves to run around at night exploring -- lately, he has not left the cage at all. I was sad, because it seemed like he didn't love me anymore. I know it's silly, and he wouldn't just stop liking me out of nowhere, so I started trying to pin down what was bothering him.
My first action was to pick up him for a quick exam: nothing wrong with his fur or skin, no lumps, no problem with nose, ears, eyes, paws, tail or genitalia. No squeaks or any indicative of pain as well.
Then I observed him for a long time, to see if he's eating, peeing and pooping normally (check, check, check), and noticed a few odd behaviors: he's been chewing cardboard a lot, which is extremely unusual. I've only see him nibbling on the edges of his cardboard toys or wooden blocks, never chewing like that. He's ripping fabric from his blanket and grooming a lot more the usual. To me, that screamed of stress, but still no clue why. Nothing has changed for the past days, I haven't done any changes in his cages or my bedroom. I was worried.
Yesterday (which was his birthday, poor thing), the world fell apart. A weak subtropical cyclone caused some major storms in my region, lots of wind, rain and cold. He spent the whole afternoon awake and startled. At night, as the storm got worse, so did his weird behavior. After the storm calmed down, I tried to "re-tame" him slowly, with some results. The weirdness is still there (so is the cyclone, apparently we can expect more rain today), but he seems a little calmer, and less prone to flee to his tubes at any louder noise.
Now, to the bottomline (sorry for the book!): is it possible that the later stress was caused by the storm? My dogs used to get startled days before and after heavy rain, so I guessed it would be the same with mice (and I've never seen a storm like that!). Will my baby be fine? Does he still love me? (I'm kidding, you don't need to answer that one :D)
Thank you very much for your time and attention <:3 )~~~
Squeaks!

ANSWER: Dear Isabele,

If dogs can sense a storm days before then it wouldn't surprise me at all if mice can. They are very sensitive little critters. However, mice do sometimes simply undergo a personality change. I've definitely had mice become less friendly for no reason at all. It's kind of disappointing for us, but the mouse is fine.

Mice can also have psychological difficulties.

Are you sure he's a boy? He almost seems like he is nesting. It would not be surprising if you have a wild mouse around that you haven't met yet. This link will help you be sure:

http://www.thefunmouse.com/info/sexing.cfm

Do watch him carefully for signs of but he may simply have a different personality. I bet he still loves you. He just wants to do different things.

Squeaks,

Natasha
<:3  )--~



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello, hello :3
I'm pretty sure he's a he, the scrotum is quite visible and I've seen his penis a couple of times. Maybe the nest is because of the weather? It's usually really hot in here, this cold front caught us all off guard.
In fact, it's so cold I was wearing gloves yesterday, which I rarely do. I was giving him a sunflower seed treat with the gloved hand and, much to my surprise, he hoped on my hand hith little hesitation. He wouldn't go to the other (gloveless) hand, but felt quite comfortable in the first. I was over the moon! He's still quite startled, with all the grooming and chewing and ripping, doesn't come out of the cage etc... I'll keep watching him, but it's good to know that mice change just like that. I'm less worried for sure! As long as my baby is fine, I can adjust to any weirdness of his part :)
Thank you a lot!
Squeaks <:3 )~~~

Answer
Thanks so much for the update. Female mice have a piece that looks like a penis too, but they don't have the scrotum.

Have fun!

<:3  )--~

>update<

PS I have decided it would be cool to be Facebook friends with some of my questioners. If you would like to friend me, I am the only Natasha Millikan on Facebook. And you will get to see my mice... and more so, my rats, including mouse-sized rats! Be sure to attach a message or I might not accept. But if you have questions do continue to use this site, so that other people can benefit from the answers.

Preview:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150091824234803