Why are my mice so fat?

Let the cats provide daily exercise units for them. A brief chase through the living room or up and down stairs?

When i bred mice and rats i only gave them the commercial foods as a snack once a day , the rest of the day was fruit and veg and the odd scrap of chicken .
I would reduce the intake of the Fiesta food and start them with more fruit, veg and even cooked meats like chicken .
Even tho commercial foods are ” best for ” pets they are the worst for pets , full of fattening, addictive things whenever possible for any animal i have had i try my best to not feed commercial pet foods foods .

@sandystrachan‘s experience mirrors mine with our two boys. When they were on commercial they plumped up fast. Seems commercial food has too much protien and fat.

Just like in humans – more calories in (eating) vs. calories out (exercising). Make a small change in their daily food ration. 10% is a good place to start. (Do you have a accurate scale?)
And take the TV remote away from them.

@lupin You are joking, right?

@tinyfaery Do what i said and in no time atall you will see a difference if not i will personally buy you more mice

@sandy No thanx. I have these due to one of my partner’s students. Not that I don’t dig them. I’m just not looking for any more.

I will try your diet though.

@tinyfaery – One hopes that it is actually fat and not pregnancy, especially if you aren’t looking for any more mice.

Mice are only pregnant for a couple weeks and the female would shy away from the male and nest .
Use old toilet roll tubes as playtoys this is better exercise than a wheel , wheels are soo dangerous .

No. They are both girls.

You could still have phantom pregnancies i had them alot when i had more than one female in a cage . For how long have they been noticeably fat ?

@tinyfaery I was kidding about the TV remote of course. I was suggesting the food is a little more than they needed or they can use a little more exercise but it is hard to encourage that. The food quantity is important and smething you can control. I have a Mettler PC4400 scale which is perfect for measuring mice and their food precisely. 1/100 gram resolution. I bought it for $175 on ebay. You can make changes and see if it makes a difference within days.
I know your mice don’t watch TV. They’re surfing the ‘net all day.

I’ve had both the mice for over a year. They have been very fat for about 3–6 months.

@Lupin Actually, they are reading Shakespeare.

Too many words make fat mice .
Did you change anything about there daily routine ?

@tinyfaery: If they’ve gotten to Henry V part ii, they will have read this and they will be ashamed.

Hostess Quickly:
He hath eaten me out of house and home, he hath
put all my substance into that fat belly of his: but I will have some
of it out again, or I will ride thee a-nights like the mare.

Falstaff:
I think I am as like to ride the mare if I have any vantage of
ground to get up.

Or on a lighter note, from The Taming of the Shrew: Act I, scene i:

Tanio:
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.

I moved in December. Don’t get me wrong, they were chunky before I moved, but they have gotten really fat. They are still up high where the cats cannot get to them.

long shot is it possible for you to weigh them, measure there body length so i can see how much weight they are over and work out a proper balanced diet based on them ?

Now I want to see pictures of cute fat mice.

I want to see pix of fat mice reading Shakespear.

To truly tell if they are getting a balanced diet, you should test their urine .
I hope they are treating your copy of Shakespeare with the reverence it deserves. To maintain proper cleanliness they should always read it while using a mouse pad.

Feeding guidelines on bags are almost always skewed to the “too much” side – that way, they get to sell more food. As with people, your choices are more exercise or less food. Is it possible to house them in a larger home? Be careful to reduce food amounts gradually (Lupin’s 10% is a good target) and make sure that you don’t go too far in the other extreme.

(Of course, if your mice are escapees from a research lab, they could contain the fat gene)

I want to see pix of cute fat mice in costume as Hostess Quickly and Falstaff!

Unfortunately, the mice are not cute fat, they are sad fat. It makes me feel like a horrible pet owner when I see them.