# in complete shock!



## Mark

theres not a cat in hells chance im paying around £40 for a mouse ( 50 euro ), was looking around for merle and tri coloured i didnt plan on having a heart attack at the same time tho lol


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## SarahY

:shock:

How come someone is charging £40 for a mouse?!

Sarah xxx


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## Mark

Its from Germany and i havent a clue probly due to demand or something to that effect but i aint paying that im lucky that ill push for £5 for a mouse if its something i really want


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## SarahY

Lol 

Sarah xxx


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## Mark

Id love some merle and tri mice too but its not going to happen until i win the lotto or come into some major cash


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## Jack Garcia

Or until I win the lottery and ship you some (for free)!  

Merle and tri are nice varieties but they're not all their cracked up to be by a lot of people. I've had them and I'd much rather work with the larger pale selfs any day.


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## laoshu

£40 is a lot for one mouse but if i could get that gene into a group of mice at my place i would fork it out :O)
(after i have saved for it  )


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## moustress

The most I ever spent was the gas for the trip on Mother's Day 2007 when I went to pick up the trangenic meeces that were hand carried from New York City, trading hands at RodentFest, to Janesville, Wisconsin by Barb of FunMouse fame. I never really thought about how much that cost me until just now. Yikes! 550 to 600 miles round trip...when gas was near it's highest price ever! Double yikes!! It 's the greatest Mother's Day present I ever got, though. Thanks, Pedro!

I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It's been a thrill and also quite educational working with those little weirdos.


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## Jack Garcia

The US is different from the UK in that we routinely have to travel thousands of miles to obtain animals, and that raises the cost significantly. Unless I'm mistaken, there aren't thousands of miles to travel in the UK.


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## SarahY

Only if you go round and round :lol:

Sarah xxx


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## Jack Garcia

Hah!


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## Cait

Is £40 just for the mouse, i.e. you'd have to pay extra to transport them from Germany to the UK?


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## julieszoo

It doesn't seem that extortionate, depends how badly you want them I suppose. I've happily travelled all over the country for various animals, and into europe to get particular things.


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## scatterbrain

Just think Mark, a pedigree kitten is £400, often going up to £600 for breeding quality!!----I keep pointing out to OH how cheap mice are but he still won't let me have any  ! Can you go into partnership with another breeder and split the cost and use of the mouse?


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## Cait

I could be tempted but I expect the actual cost and practicalities will be a lot more than expected


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## itsasilverspoon

Wow, that is a lot. Since I'm back and forth between England and the US, I have genes on either side of the pond i wish i could merge. You don't know how many times i've been tempted to hide a tri mouse or two in my bra to sneak them through airport security haha. Ohh how I wish there was cheaper shipping.


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## jo65

I should imagine shipping would be difficult anyway. How do you get the little one to sit still long enough for the regulatory passport photo and then there is the problem of him/her wanting to travel in first class. It could really push the cost up (heh heh heh). Seriously though, good luck with your search.


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## Megzilla

Wait, is it £40 per mouse, or for a bunch?
(still though, omg lol)


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## Megzilla

OOO I JUST REMEMBERED! Theres a company that breed for petshops and people who want to buy mice off them directly, and i think they have some tricoloured mice (according to them).The only thing is that you have to buy anything off them via a pet shop in their area.

http://www.simonsrodents.co.uk/html/latest_news1.php


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## Jack Garcia

I know the breeder of those mice, and I expect (as does he) the prices to come down in the next three or four years as the tricolor mice (c-dilute Splashed marked) become more common in Europe and the UK. He got his original mice imported from a friend of mine and has improved their size and type using European mice. Tricolors are really neat-looking but like any marked variety I don't think I could stand to breed them!


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## moustress

Very interesting; I'd love to see some pix of those.


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## Jack Garcia

There are pictures on Roland's website: http://drofi.repage7.de/


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## Megzilla

do you breed selfs then? i'd love to be part of a breeding project with someone, like house them and then hand over the litter when they're ready, but i suppose that he/she has enough room to breed them lol

Also do you know what colours they have? when i asked in inquiries, they just said that they have the usual colours.. doesnt realllyyy help haha


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## Jack Garcia

I breed selfs and agouti but I live in the US. Roland keeps tricolors and a few self varieties (recessive red, PEW). He also has merle and a few different C-locus dilutes. A lot of these he imported from a friend of mine a couple years ago. He is a friendly, really knowledgeable guy whom I consider an excellent mouse breeder. English is not his first language which is why his emails may have seemed curt, but he's a really nice guy, I promise.


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## Megzilla

Jack Garcia said:


> I breed selfs and agouti but I live in the US. Roland keeps tricolors and a few self varieties (recessive red, PEW). He also has merle and a few different C-locus dilutes. A lot of these he imported from a friend of mine a couple years ago. He is a friendly, really knowledgeable guy whom I consider an excellent mouse breeder. English is not his first language which is why his emails may have seemed curt, but he's a really nice guy, I promise.


could you possibly ask him if i could have his personal (basically not through enquiries-they're rubbish!)email? i would like to ask him a few things.
so does he sell his merles as part of the busines? or does he just breed them for him self?

sorry if i'm asking to much


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## Jack Garcia

I'm not sure exactly what he's selling at this point. I will pass along your information.


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## julieszoo

megzilla92 said:


> OOO I JUST REMEMBERED! Theres a company that breed for petshops and people who want to buy mice off them directly, and i think they have some tricoloured mice (according to them).The only thing is that you have to buy anything off them via a pet shop in their area.
> 
> http://www.simonsrodents.co.uk/html/latest_news1.php


I bet they are marked tans  Not sure I would trust a rodent farm to know its arse from its elbow.


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## WillowDragon

Yep... probably white marked tans LOL

There is a way to make tricolours though apparently... which I am determined to experiment with as soon as I can get hold of some sables and broken mice! Hehee

Willow xx


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## Megzilla

wow! no they actually are tricolour!
oh how pretty!! ^^


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## Roland

Hi, here is an update of some of my mice, which will be kept for breeding.










































































Two new litters, the older babies are from selecting Splashed with big and dark dots, selection works well!

















The following pics show Pink eyed Splashed Creams, they are no Argente Creams, just Creams! Splashed Argente Creams are darker and better! There will be dark Pink Eyed Tricolors available soon.

























Best regards, Roland
Chilloutarea Mousery - Tricolor , Splashed , Merle , Recessive Red


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## SarahY

Hi Roland!!! It's lovely to see you on here!

Beautiful mice, I especially like the pink eyed splashed :love1

Sarah xxx


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## windyhill

I love the pink eyed splashed as well


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## nuedaimice

Hi Roland!

Lovely mice, again!


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## moustress

Very nice! :mrgreen: It's just as well you don't list what city you live in....I would love to acquire a couple of your tris; they are superb.


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## WoodWitch

moustress said:


> Very nice! :mrgreen: It's just as well you don't list what city you live in....I would love to acquire a couple of your tris; they are superb.


Moustress....you'd have *quite* a journey to get em :lol:

Hi Roland, it's Naomi. 
SarahY and I spent a lovely day with you in Swindon a few months back on your visit to England.
It is, indeed, nice to see you and your lovely mice here


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## Cait

Can I ask why you don't sell bucks? Unfortunately this has stopped a number of people in the UK importing mice from you.


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## Mymouse

Wow, amazing colours Roland, so beautiful!


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## Roland

Hi Sarah, Hi Naomi,

it is nice to have a face in mind, while writing. The English mice from my visit do well here. I crossed the best dove girly from Sarah Y with a satin splashed buck who is P/p and found out that she carries satin as well. Nice surprise! Since splashed has an influence on pink eyed without c-dilution too (yes, it has!) I got very nice satin splashed doves with very good ears. The splashes shown on pinkeyed are lost when the mice get their adult fur, but I know whow is who and can use them for further breeding. These will be backcrossed to the UK mice to fix the nice ears. The ears of my Tricolor lines are already very good, but the ears of Sarah's line are better.

MB, you asked why I do not sell bucks? I dont want my mice to be inbred by greedy people. If I would sell sisters and brothers some people would not even wait a single day and would put even babies together to multiply them. These things can be avoided by selling females only. Inbreeding is more difficult from females. People have to cross out and even better, they really have to think about the genetics behind the mice. Selling them for a fair price (40 Euro) is another hurdle against greedy multipliers. There are several enthusiast around in Europe who are willing to pay more for a good mouse than for a Hamburger menue at MacDonalds and some are so happy with the mice they got, that they ordered mice again. 
With the airline ticket and papers I had costs of more than 150 €uro for each mouse from the US, and have done a lot of breeding to get typey tricolors from the splashed original mice, but it was worth each single Cent and each minute of my time. Therefore I prefer breeders who are similar enthusiastic, and there are more requests than mice at the moment. 
People who have very good (!) mice in exchange and are willing to visit me in 58675 Hemer (Germany) are welcome to pick up some mice without paying anything for them.

Best regards, Roland
Chilloutarea Mousery - Tricolor , Splashed , Merle , Recessive Red


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## sarahsnake

the tricolours are just stunning, shame i dont have a passport or i`d be over to get two girlies!


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## Jack Garcia

MouseBreeder said:


> I could be tempted but I expect the actual cost and practicalities will be a lot more than expected


Would you keep tricolor as an additional variety or would you replace one of your current varieties? I think you do such an excellent job on your current mice that I'd hate to see you "switch" to tricolor. 

That's what has happened in the US. Many people decided to breed tricolor instead of other varieties and over time there are fewer people breeding other varieties as a consequence. I have splashed pop up from time to time because it's "hiding under" some of my PEWs, but other than that I am one of only 2 or 3 show breeders in this country who does _not_ actively breed tricolor. When you think about it, it's kind of crazy that so many people would try to breed marked mice (which are inherently more difficult)!


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## Cait

I suppose I'd run it alongside the others at first and see how it went. I don't think there's much danger of all the serious exhibitors adopting it in favour of the varieties we already have - the mouse fancy is great but they're not quick to accept new or novel varieties in the UK!


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## Wight Isle Stud

It doesn't matter that the animal is merely a mouse, its the breeding thats gone on for 200 years behind it. £40-50 for a unique animal is absolutely chicken feed ! If I could find the mouse I am looking for at the moment, then it would be open cheque ! what price is pleasure . Agree though that high quality outcrosses etc should be reasonably priced..


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## Jack Garcia

That's good to hear. I get the impression a lot of the fanciers in the UK take things more seriously than a lot of people do here in the US.

I've paid upwards of USD $100+ per mouse by the time you factor in all the costs.


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## zany_toon

I just like all mice  So any mouse no matter the colour is just as likely to get a home. Although it's highly probable that I'd need a bigger house. IN terms of pet lines (most of my mice are pet shop or home bred) it seems to be that more of the ones the pet shop sell are marked, I've only got four self coloured mice for that reason (dove satin, yellow satin, a black self and an agouti of some description.) Just the luck of the draw that most of mine are marked! I'd love some more selfs  I'd love to arrange a courier to get some nice mice from further afield or get them imported but I spend too much on toys and cages for my monsters to do so :lol:


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## Wight Isle Stud

lets get things in perspective, te wonderful thing about mice is that once in the fancy, all mice are genrally given- a newcommer may be charged a few pounds but thats only expenses really.Not only that they would be the same mice given away as any that high prices were offered for. With departing with stock, 99% of it is wasted- the member drifts away and the stock just disappears, we should charge new members but amongst ourselves keep swoppin !! 
Tell you a funny story, a very close friend of mine in the fancy, passed away now, and I used to have an agreement. It was that he could turn up unanounced, walk into my shed and pick any two mice he wanted, and vice versa. This was a maximum of once a year. It never happened, because we just used to raid each others maxys at shows !


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## Roland

Hi,

I will be a visitor (not exhibitor) at the Terraristika in Hamm next Saturday (http://www.terraristikahamm.de/index.php#main) and will meet some people from different countries there, who will pick up their mice. If other mouse enthusiasts from this forum are there too, it would be an easy way to meet each other, just contact me by normal email or the contact page of my homepage.

Best regards, Roland
Chilloutarea Mousery - Tricolor , Splashed , Merle , Recessive Red


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## Lizzle

*moustress*, how on EARTH did you obtain transgenic meese? :shock: :shock: :shock:

I would buy a plane ticket for hundreds of dollars just to get my hands on a few.. Yeah, I'm really that crazy.

Question: Do transgenic meeses always pass down the particular transgenic gene(s)? I thought they didn't, but not sure.


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