# Different strokes for different folks



## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

I started posting this as a reply in someone else's thread, got carried away, pm'ed it to the person I was answering, as it really didn't belong in the thread, and since I did carry on at length, I decided to post it here as well. Here goes:

Feeder breeders have colonies that remain together through more than two generations; of course, the most of the boys go to become mousicles and a lot of the girls too, but the does breed back to back. One of the interesting things about this forum is the fact that we have feeder breeders who are not afraid to talk about how they raise their meeces, and that is a valuable source of information all by itself. Once you have breeding mousies of a known line and known quality as far as lack of harmful recessives go, it benefits a breeder of any purpose to do some sort of line breeding to maintain the quality of the line.

A good example is the pair of albino mousies I picked up at a reptile store while stopping by to get aspen bedding. The doe died in the accident I had in my mousery, but Berg, the buck is just about full grown now. He is very long and lean, with a strong tail, wide set ears, and wonder of wonders, has a very friendly personality. He came out of a plastic tray that held about fifty very young males, it was right next to an identical bin of very young does. They were all destined to be lunch or dinner, but were of a very high quality as far as breeding and health were considered. They were so nice and healthy looking that I couldn't resist getting a couple to help maintain the diversity and size and other qualities I try to breed for.

You might think you'd find really awful, scroungy, unhealthy meeces being sold for reptile food, but it doesn't make sense for any breeder to compromise the health of their line, whether you breed for fun, for show, or for feeding. I used to bring surplus meeces to a local store that pts's and freezes...and I bought some of her mousies. As a matter of fact, the founding buck for my satin line came from one of her feeder bins!! I'd been going through hell with defective satins that were so unhealthy that many of them died before they were five weeks old.

Breeding back to back litters can be detrimental if the doe does not get very consistent dietary support to make sure she can carry and nurse young at the same time. Both my breeding does and the young live for the most part for about 2 yrs. with is a good long lifespan for a mousie. I don't breed for show, just for the love of meeces, and I wouldn't do anything that I thought was harmful to them.

One of the reasons it is frowned upon is that many pet breeders will not be able to take care of the sexing, housing, and all the other things necessary. Even two litters back to back can give you a couple of dozen meeces to sex, house and tame. It can be just too much for the average pet owner. If you don't want to keep them, you have to decide what to do with them. Most people don't want a couple of dozen mousies in their living space. You'd be appalled to hear of some of the solutions that are found to be 'expedient'. Another aspect as far as protesting back to back litters is the prejudice against breeders who have pet quality stock; many of the breeders who have English show stock can see no use for or reason to create more of pet quality fancy meeces. For most folks, one litter a year or so is enough to satisfy the desire to experience the miracle of pregnancy, birth, and growth of mousies. I guess it all depends on the ability and understanding of the individual.

I hope that the other breeders in this forum do not feel like I'm dumping on them for talking about being prejudiced about pet quality meeces, or any other thing I may have said. I don't mean to try to raise bad feelings. but I have stated before and will continue to be plain about standing up for ALL the kinds of breeders be they show, pet, or feeder breeders. I believe that each of us has the right to do with our mousies as we wish, as long as they are treated humanely.

And I'm sorry if I've gone on way beyond whatever concern you may have on the subject of back to back litters. I hope I have made sense and been fair.


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## MouseHeaven (Oct 25, 2010)

What a well written essay! Haha, I loved it


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Thanks! 

I like to write to write, as you can probably tell.


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## firestarter (Jun 30, 2010)

well said moustress!

also im not sure but i dont think most show/pet mice breeders use more than one female together but i find it really helps them if they got a sister/sisters to share looking after the babies with... also its really cute to watch!!


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

You could be right, firestarter. It is probably mostly the ones that breed meeces for sale to snake owners that keep harems with a single male. I've bred two or three does to the same buck in my current breeding cycle, but then, I'm trying to recover from losing 200 to the mousery accident with the space heater. I lost all my best breeding stock except for four young yellow satin bucks, so I need to get a lot of new stock inorder to extract a genome as good as the ones I lost.

Two of the does are showing! The birth of new mousie babies means more to me than I can say!


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