# My New Breeding Colony



## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

I've talked about going into PEWs before, but I've finally done it. I picked up 16 pews recently from a few different stores, hoping to spread the genetics around. There is definitely a wide range of type and size on all of them. Ironically, the biggest, most typey ones come from Petco. They're all on the small side though, and I spent the morning sorting them according to size. I have 12 does and 4 bucks. The bucks are all in their individual homes right now, as the does are no where big enough to breed. Unfortunately one of the smallest does appears to be blind, as she has a bright silver dot in the center of each eye. The smallest doe was 12 grams, which quite alarmed me. Tomorrow I'm making a powdered lab block, peanut butter and oatmeal mixture for them, hoping to put some weight on them. The largest doe barely tipped the scale at 27g, and the bucks were all in the 18-23g range. Ideally I'd like the does to be 30+ grams before breeding them, however there is the distinct possibility of several of them being pregnant, as two of the stores kept bucks and does together in one cage. Over the next month I plan to monitor health and weight. My plans for the first couple generations is to heavily cull the litters, hoping to bulk up the mice before I start becoming selective for type. Occasionally my other lines throw PE babies, which I used to cull right away, but now I'll be keeping those and if they're PEW, I'll move them into my new PEW colony.

Right now they occupy the bottom shelf of my new rack system. I hope to get a couple pics soon, but my camera disappeared six months ago, so I need to get a new one. A couple of the males are very flighty, and the smaller does are jumpier than the larger ones, but overall there has been no fighting or biting. All the mice let me handle them and are actively curious about their new homes, so I'm quite pleased with them. I look forward to posting my updates and progress!


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## Miceandmore64 (Jul 16, 2013)

Sounds great!


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## Lyra (Mar 1, 2013)

Wow, great project - I can't wait to see your progress! 
I was always wondering how fast I could improve type of my mice without having to look at their varieties. Good luck!


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## Serena (Dec 29, 2011)

Sound like a fun project  I hope everthing goes as planned.

If it's not too much trouble, could you perhaps take a few pictures every now and then and document the progress?


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

That's exactly what I intend to do! I think being able to have feedback from other people and visual references is important. My main goal is not so much to produce typey mice, as it is to produce large, healthy ones. So long as they are of good size and healthy, I may as well work toward type, but my primary goal is their health. Of course, if someone were to give me a beautiful pair of huge English PEWs, I wouldn't turn them down! I think every generation, I'm going to raise the minimum breeding weight by maybe 3g. I know some English top the scales at over 70g. While that sounds wonderful, I also know that was the work of a century of selective breeding. I don't plan to get there overnight, but I do think, with heavy culling and lots of suppliments, that early on they should gain good weight. These mice have been taken from a bare junk-yard situation, and placed in luxury accomodations. Each trio of does (grouped according to weight) is now housed in a large lab tub, which is about the size of what 20+ mice were kept in at the store. They have overturned bowls as homes, flying saucers to run on, and weekly toilet paper rolls to chew.


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## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

My first feeder bred pet mice weighed 19-25g, I had one who was 30g but was was realy fat. After a few generations the weight shot up to 40g average, so id imagin you would habe no problem getting the average weights up. Good luck.

I would think that doe with the blue eye spots is blind, it could be from an accident or a birth defect.


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## brokenpete (Sep 29, 2013)

good luck with your project. it is good to hear of a breeding plan that has patience built in. i have some beautiful p.e.ws but i dont think you are allowed to import them! what supplements will you be using?


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

My suppliments aren't anything special, I use the powder left at the bottom of a bag of lab blocks, mixed with peanut butter, oatmeal, a little sugar and water. Sometimes a little kmr if I can. It makes a thick paste I put in a bowl for them, and they seem to like it.


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## Onyx (May 2, 2010)

I love PEWs and remember seeing you post about them a few times. Wish you lots of luck with them! x


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## Kayota (Dec 29, 2013)

Can we see some pics? I love PEWs!


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

I'm hoping to get some pics on maybe Thursday? I start school this week, so for my next three consecutive days I leave the house at 7AM and won't be back until midnight, between school and work. I just got a new camera, so hopefully I can get some decent pics now.


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

One of my new does died unexpectedly. It was one of the ones in the 2nd smallest cage. I am planning on replacing her, so I'm on the lookout for large PEW does. So far it doesn't seem like the mice have been gaining much weight. The smallest ones, in the 12-16 range, have put on the most weight, and now average 17-20 grams. Everyone else seems to be hovering around the 22-25 range. I'm wondering if I should treat them with Ivermectin. I haven't seen signs of worms or mites, but it's probably not a bad preventive measure. I'm giving the does the rest of this month to put on as much weight as they can, and then I'll resort according to weight and start introducing males to the largest does. Sorry I haven't got any pictures yet. It's hard to find the time to take them, and then when I tried to put my SD card into my new laptop, I discovered a rubber packing bead embedded deep in the slot. :evil: Until I get a fix for that, I can't even transfer the pictures I have taken. I'm thinking of taking my laptop in to the tech store tomorrow, but I also had plans with my mom, so I might not have a chance to do it this weekend.


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

Finally got a couple pictures. I had a packing bead stuck in my computer's SD card slot, preventing me from putting any card in. Well, I got the bead out, but now the slot isn't working (possibly as a result of the super glue I used to get the bead out) and when I took it to the store, they wanted 135$ to send it out to their repair store, just to look at it and not including the cost of the parts. Since my couch has yet to cough up that much money between the cushions, I'm not about to get it done anytime soon. Not to mention, I can't afford to lose my laptop for the 2-3 plus weeks it would take, since I use it for school and such. I'm going to try to contact some local computer stores instead (I went to Best Buy) and see what they see. Maybe during the summer when I'm not in school I can get it done.

ANYWAY.... So here's a pic of my mousery and one of my rats. Please excuse the mess, I'm still in the middle of construction and I have tools and stuff everywhere.










The wooden structure on the right is the rack system I'm working on. Eventually all the large tubs on the left will fit onto that rack.

And here's my rats:









When I first put the slings in, they weren't too sure of them, but now every morning I see a big rat pile on the top hammock. At first I got actual "rat hammocks" from the pet store for them, but now I just get a couple of dish towels from the dollar store on the corner. It's cheaper, and the rats don't mind! I can afford to replace these when the rats chew through them. And yes, that is an empty jar of peanut butter on the bottom. I always save the containers after we're done with them, the rats love it. That jar was completely clean a couple days later, and I now have a handy storage container with a lid!


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## Miceandmore64 (Jul 16, 2013)

Great setup you lucky thing XD wish I had a BETTER set up


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