Posted by:
xerxesbunny
at Sat Jul 6 01:55:55 2013 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by xerxesbunny ]
Thanks Bob! According to my records from last year, he should have gotten back into the swing of eating by late May. He didn't brumate last year, but he still had "mating distraction".
There were complications in this year's brumation. After going for a few months, I tried warming him up gradually, but when I let him out, he found the coldest darkest place in my efficiency apt. I let him stay there a bit, which was a bad idea. To my surprise he got too cold. I took temp readings. He was limp and I lost it. (This also coincided with finding out that my father unexpectedly passed away. So, I had to warm him up faster than I wanted to, but still did my best to do it gradually.) He came to at room temp. And I don't think I used a heat lamp while I was away with family, maybe just undertank heat on one side, so that he wasn't too challenged too quickly. I'm worried this mishap is what's caused the switch off from frozen mice somehow. Nerve damage? Gut floral/faunal imbalance?
Even when I do feed him live fuzzies, it's a challenge. He tends to ignore them. Or if he does kill them, he'll ignore the rest after he eats the first one. I end up having to point his head at them to get him to eat them. He needs to put on weight; he must be hungry. He even tracked a bird's nest near the air conditioner on the floor, and was pressing his nose against the wall trying to get at it. But if he's hungry, why is he sometimes ignoring even live food?
I can't stun mice. I haven't been taught, and my nerves would probably make me mess up and injure them. I'm already a mess over the live fuzzies. When I first took him in (I'm his 3rd owner), I knew I wouldn't be able to handle bonking adult mice, so I tried live fuzzies (and realized just once was enough; it was awful for me) until I figured out the frozen situation. When he took frozen, I was elated, and that's what he's been eating for 8 years. But his change has totally toppled me and I don't know what to do.
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