Messy mouse

Question
QUESTION: Ginny is a red eyed fawn and white fancy mouse that is crawling all over my arms while I'm typing this. :-) (I tried to put a picture of her in here but its not a .gth or somtin like that so no luck with that one. I was wondering if she is a somewhat rare mouse (being part albino and being FAWN and white instead of black and white or just white.

If so, and if she has offspring that get her traits, would her pups be worth extra in pet stores?  

Also when she sits she looks oddly hamster like, unlike my old mouse, do you think she may have a bit of hamster blood in her, or is it because she is a fancy mouse while my old mouse was a common mouse.  Also she looks a bit like a rat, is this how all fancy mice look like?

Also I can't put her on my shoulder and read without putting a piece of paper towel under her first IF you know what I mean. It took me about 30 minutes so far to write this because I had to wash my hands seven times already (YUCK YUCK YUCK EWW EWW EWW). Could this be a sign of a bladder dis-function or is this normal?  

Please answer as much as you can, you have been lodes of help in the past.

~Jenn  

PS Make that eight(ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww)

ANSWER: Dear Jenn,

I'm sorry to say that Ginny isn't an unusual mouse these days.  When I was a kid, there weren't any colored mice with red eyes in the pet stores at all, and all the white mice had red eyes.  My first colored mouse with red eyes I named Mutant!  But nowadays they have made all sorts of advances in mouse breeding and it seems anything is possible.  Thus her pups are unlikely to have any special value.  Of course, Ginny has infinite value to you.

Mice do vary a lot in body shape, nose length and shape, ear and tail size, profile, and behavior.  Mice and hamsters don't cross-breed, and neither do rats and mice, so your mouse is definitely all Mouse.  Each mouse has its own very individual personality and behavior.  

I'm not sure if she is peeing on you or making other nasty messes.  If she is peeing on you continually either she has bad habits (I have a sweet mouse who kind of dribbles..) or a possible bladder infection.  Touch around her tummy and privates to make sure she doesn't squeak in pain.  If her feces are gross, something is not quite right, though it's not necessarily a real problem.  Only give her rat and mouse food with no treats for a month and see if the situation betters.  If that doesn't do it, try just the blocks or pellets that they sell.  It's boring as heck but I'll do it sometimes if my mice are making me wash too many sets of pajamas!  Then you can give occasional treats, noting which ones cause a problem.

Something I would do in either situation is to put on an old or dirty shirt/sweatshirt when holding the messy mouse.  Then she can sit on my shoulder or climb on the shirt.  Doing this just before taking a shower is even better!  You can also keep a wet washcloth next to you so you don't have to keep getting up to wash your hands.  

Have fun with her!

squeaks n giggles,

Natasha



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

QUESTION: All that I have been feeding her is mouse food from the pet store.  Also Ginny did not squeak in pain when I checked her out.  Is it possible that she is making a mess because she is nervous?  If so, how can I comfort her?

~Jenn

Answer
Dear Jenn,

I have had mice who had that problem, and the only thing that helped was using the extremely boring rat and mouse pellets/blocks.  Sometimes the mice are picky and only eat certain kinds of seeds from the mix.  If they then run out of those, they will only eat the other kind; at both times, they are not getting a balanced diet.  

Mice do poop when they are nervous.  They also poop when you wake them up-- which means anytime during the day!  In fact, they poop simply because you have taken them out of the cage and gotten their systems going a little.  However, it is most pleasant when they stop pooping after ten minutes, though some mice don't.  If you are handling her carefully and not scaring her, in an environment which is not loud or smelly, you can't do much else to keep her from being a little nervous.  

As a last resort there is a product called Pet Pectillin.  It is like the human Kaopectate (you will notice its ingredients are Kaolin and Pectin!), which we used to use for diarrhea.  Now we humans have much more pleasant things-- it was basically like swallowing clay, which is how it worked!  But nobody has developed nice little mouse sized tablets of diarrhea medicine, so we use this product.  You can get that from That Pet Place:

http://www.thatpetplace.com/

It's very cheap.  If it's liquid, Just take a dab and wipe it around her whiskers, nose, head-- wherever she lets you-- she is going to have to lick it off. If it's a tablet, crush it (between two nesting spoons works well) and then mix in a teeny bit of water to form a paste that will stick to her.  There are ways to stuff it into their mouths but it's not pleasant for you or the mouse, so I let them wash it off.  I hope you do not have to do this every day because no medicine is really good every day, but find out what works.  I have also been told that arrowroot, which you can find as a powder, helps as well; because people give arrowroot biscuits to babies, it should be safe, but I can't vouch for its efficacy as I have not tried it yet.  

Good luck!

squeaks n giggles,

Natasha