Now im even more confused!

Question
QUESTION: My sister has mice. One is yellow and over weight. Will this shorten her life expectancy? The other is gray, poops a LOT, active, and a hunch in her back. I read that that is REALLY bad.  True, or not? Both, mostly the gray one, sneeze- a lot. Grim, or mild? I have rats. One is smaller, active, black/white,assertive, and very intelligent. The other, is larger(in more ways than one,) more shy, cream/white( like a ferret! Tee hee!), cuddlier, the hudini of rat escapes from hands, barely comes out of his log to drink/eat, and makes more noises. Both guys sneeze. Both grind their teeth. Should I hear them sniffing? Why do they grind their teeth? Is nibbling your fingers an act of affection? Sorry I had so many questions. These have been piling up in my head.

Sincerely connor.

P.S. I prefer dawn, but she is on vacae till February. I recommend her.

ANSWER: Dear Connor,
thank you for your question.
Neither rats nor mice should sneeze or sniffle at all, you need to see a rodent vets with them as soon as possible. It's a sign of a respiratory infection which needs to be treated with antibiotics  or maybe an allergy, they are susceptible to both. www.tmca.org/Vets has a list of good vets for mice and rats.

Being overweight can shorten the lifespan, it may cause organ and bone problems. Check their food for fatty stuff like sunflower and pumpkin seeds, corn, raisins and other dried fruit ect. That can be given as a treat, but not as part of the daily portion of food. A good mouse food shuld contain different types of millet and other small seeds and some types of grain (wheat, barley, oats ect.). You can add dried flowers and herbs and maybe animal protein (they do need that, but it can also be given as a treat). With that kind of food (1 teaspoon per mice per day) and plenty of climbing toys and a wheel, the mouse should loose at least some weight. But some mice are fat for genetic reasons and there's not much you can do about that.
A hunched back can be a sign of old age or a sign of illness. That#s also something the vet should be able to tell you.
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer

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

QUESTION: So should my rats be grinding their teeth? Removing corn, sunflowers, pumpkin, andother stuff from the food options leaves it down to, oh say, nothing! And if you are Jenifer, how come your under the name jedediah?

Once more,
Connor

Answer
Dear Connor,
thank you for your question.
If the food you offer your mice contains no small seeds and only corn, sunflower/pumpkin seeds, popped grains ect., then it's not really suitable for mice. A good mouse food should look like this:
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r294/jedediah667/hamster/IMG_3145.jpg
You can take a commercial food or a grain mixture (can be bought for example in health/organic food stores) and mix it with parakeet/canary food (2 parts parakeet food : 1 part commercial mouse food/grain mix). I prefer to mix my own food from scratch without using commercial food because so far I haven't found a commercial food I find acceptable. They always contain way too many fatty seeds or even stuff totally unsuitable for mice as part of their daily diet (not to mention preservative agents that may be harmful for the mice).

Teeth grinding with rats can have several meanings. It can be a sign of fear or anger, but it may also mean that the rat is feeling content, for example when you are petting it. It really depends on the situation.

Jedediah is my screen name I use almost everywhere online. It's a roleplaying character of mine.

I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer