Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone ever dealt with a diabetic mouse? I'm getting worried about my mouse Schubert. He's very overweight (red) and despite my efforts he won't lose any weight. His diet is a mix of grains, pasta, cereal, and various other low-fat things. I got him a ball and he runs in it a while each day. I've noticed he's drinking over twice what any of the other mice are drinking. I read that that can be a sign of diabetes. What else is there to look for? What else do I do for him? Thanks for any help.
-----
Kadee Sedtal

home of old lady Lucy (boxer/lab/garbage disposal), pretty girl Fancy (beagle), the rats-Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Pachebel, Fillmore, and Norbert, the mice- Vivaldi, Brahms, Schubert, Bartok, Rasputin, Johann, Chaminade, Dorothy, Glenda, and Em, and the *adorable* winter white dwarf hamster- Feather
"I wish I had a dollar for every time I spent a dollar, because then, yahoo! I'd have all my money back." -Jack Handey

>>Anyone ever dealt with a diabetic mouse? I'm getting worried about my mouse Schubert. He's very overweight (red) and despite my efforts he won't lose any weight. His diet is a mix of grains, pasta, cereal, and various other low-fat things. I got him a ball and he runs in it a while each day. I've noticed he's drinking over twice what any of the other mice are drinking. I read that that can be a sign of diabetes. What else is there to look for? What else do I do for him? Thanks for any help.
>>-----
>>Kadee Sedtal

It's not a low fat diet you should concern yourself with but a low carb/low glycemic type diet. If the mouse is diabetic then feeding things like pasta and many cereals is not good for them. They are high on sugar based carbs which cause fast sugar highs and crashes because of the glycemic load being so high. You want stuff with complex carbs that don't break down as fast as simple (sugar) carbs.
-----
____

Wyvern