Problem?

by Snowfall47 Tue 19 Apr 2022, 10:43 am

I have two female mice that I've had for around a year now. Martin has always been fat (I thought she might have been pregnant at first) and Jon was a normal weight. Over the months, Martin kept getting fatter and Jon looked pretty normal. A few days ago I came in and Jon was in the corner of the cage shaking when I picked her up she was basically skin and bones and kinda unresponsive. I hand fed her a bit and she perked up. I think this has been going on for a while and her made it not obvious. I separated them and in just a few days Jon is doing a lot better. I know they should have each other for company but I'm kinda worried about putting them back together if the same thing is going to happen. What should I do?

by j.n379 Wed 27 Apr 2022, 4:32 pm

Unless you saw fighting or blood/wounds on her body, it's highly unlikely that this was due to fighting. They hide when they're sick because they don't want to die near their friends and bring predators with the smell. Unless there is something very wrong with one of them, they wouldn't start fighting at this stage of being bonded. If you did see them fighting, I would think that either the aggressor has a new hormonal issue (can come from tumors if they are very inconveniently located near certain glands) or the victim could be sick and was unwilling to leave the nest and needed to be forced out. But if you just saw her skinny and sickly and no wounds and no obvious fighting, it's best to assume she left voluntarily and is safe to return now that her health is better.

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