84 PET RABBITS, CAVIES, AND MICE. 



mice do not get fed at a show. Oats and seeiis should 

 be put in. Put a piece of soft food say bread soaked in 

 milk and the milk squeezed out again in the cage when 

 starting the mouse out to a show. You will want a 

 travelling box made to take say two, four, six, eight, or 

 more cages; and this box must be well ventilated, but 

 so as to avoid draught. Be sure that the travelling box 

 is securely fastened, and the labels placed right. A 

 great point with reference to exhibition stock is con<li- 

 tion. It is throwing money away to exhibit mice when 

 out of coat or low in. flesh, or unwell. What is wanted 

 is a short, sleek, shiny, flying coat. By this latter is 

 meant a coat that will, if turned back the wrong way, 

 fly into its place instantly, and look as smooth and sleek 

 again as if it had never been ruffled. This ^an only be 

 secured by keeping the stock in health and well and 

 properly fed. 



DISEASES. 

 ASTHMA. 



Mice, like all other animals, are subject to disease. 

 A great deal of this springs from overcrowding or over- 

 feeding. If these conditions are absent, they are gener- 

 ally pretty free from disease. One of their diseases is 

 denoted by the presence of a kind of whistling or sing- 

 ing. This is in reality Asthma. It is miserable to the 

 breeder to hear it, and almost impossible to cope success- 

 fully with it. The disease will often be set up by reason 

 of the mice being kept in a draughty place. If they do 

 start wheezing, take the matter in hand in time. Re- 

 move the affected ones from out all draughts, keep them 

 warm and cosy, and give them a pinch or two of linseed, 

 and possibly a little hemp would do them no harm. 

 You may thus be able to check it, but if they get very 

 bad it is best to destroy the sufferers. Mice are very 

 hard to doctor for this or, indeed, any disease, but for 

 Asthma it may be found beneficial to sprinkle a few 

 drops of the oil of eucalyptus on the bottom of the cage, 

 and add a little glycerine to the bread and milk. There 

 is a recipe for colds which is held by Mr. H. J. Spiers, 

 of Brighton Road, Birmingham, which is very effica- 

 cious in the case of colds in rabbits, cats and even dogs. 



