Hungry Hungry Mice

Question
Hi,
I have four female mice and as of recently they have started eating A LOT more than usual. I have to refill their food bowls at least once a day sometimes more because they are completely empty. At first I thought they were removing it from the bowls and it was at the bottom of their cage but when cleaning the cage there were only empty shells from seeds and nothing more. I also thought it might be because it is winter time here and they are eating more to stay warm so i removed them from my room and put them in the living room where it is warmer at nights and on really cold nights i will put blankets around their cage and move them as far away as I can from the doors and windows but this still hasn't lowered their appetite.
Along with their increased appetite they have started to become "stinky" I guess you could say. I used to clean their cage once a week but now i find that the odor coming from it makes me want to clean it about every 3 days. I don't know if this could have come from their new food which is an advances nutrition blend or because they were on tetracycline and were no longer taking it about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I dont mind having to change their cage more often but I dont know if this is normal or okay for the cage to start to smell after such a short time. I also thought it might be because they were marking their territory more often but they do not seem to have territorial issues they are all together almost all the time except one like to be out during the day a lot more than the others and one is strictly a night owl.

Answer
Hi Sar,

Since you say they've started a new food, that would be the first thing I would suspect.  Try switching them back to what they used to be on (over the course of several days) and see if it makes any improvement.  If the new food had more "junk" in it, nutritionally speaking, they may need to eat more of it to get the nutrients they need, therefore producing more waste due to the ingredients they don't.

Boy mice are usually the ones more interested in marking territory in smelly ways, so if they are all girls, I wouldn't think that was the cause.  To my knowledge, tetracycline doesn't cause overeating, either.  Hopefully switching back their food will fix it, if not, feel free to write me back and we'll figure it out.  :)

-Tam