OK so I’m about to start some art but first since it’s Munday I’m going to take this as a time and go off-topic to talk ...
Fat mice.
To be clear, you should not INTEND to have fat mice, But in some cases, there are some genetic issues that effect mice. Specifically, certain domestic mouse color genes also come with a genetic link to obesity, such as the agouti yellow which carries a mutation for it and other issues:
Look at these fat lil mutants!
Another coat color that comes paw-in-paw with pudge is the brindle gene, at least in America. All the brindle mice bred in the United States inherit a defect that will make them anywhere from chubby to obese. It’s prevalent to the point that mouse shows (yes, there are mouse shows) relax the standards on body type for brindle mouse entries because they know there’s no way 90% of brindles can meet said standards no matter what the mouse or own does.
They may be big chonk or just a lil chonk, but they gon be chonk. This was my brindle, a chinchilla brindle named Jabez. He was a big chonk.
And as I mentioned, it’s only the American-bred ones; the British brindle lines don’t have this issue in their genes.
Similarly, there are Zucker rats. Zucker rats were bred in labs specifically to study obesity, but some of them ended up in pet strains, as lab types always inevitably do. They’re just basically uber-chonkers and all you can do is give ‘em the best life possible. I’ve never had one of them myself though. Just regular chonky rats who were like, healthy-chonk. You actually want rodents to be a little chubby, but you shouldn’t try to deliberately fatten them up either (unless they’re medically underweight/sick/etc) but also if they’re too fat to groom themselves or be properly mobile, you want to make them diet. Unless you’ve got one of these guys!
