# Lit'le Tails Mousery



## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

That's what I call my mousery. Lit'le Tails Mousery. The apostrophe t is very important. It's not LIT_TELL, but LIT_ELL. I know, sounds crazy, but I like it. Anyway, I'm just rambling about mice to whoever cares to read. My family, friends and coworkers have banned all mice talk, and I'm getting desperate for people who actually understands me when I say, "But the chocolate carries blue! I know he does!"

Anyway, I have had 2 small disasters this last week. The first being, I let my two rats out to play. They run around, steal the mouse food, and eventually curl up in my scrap material pile to sleep. Normally that's not a problem, but on that particular day, my satin RYs also decided to chew a hole in their cage and get out. As I result, I come out to the mousery after refilling the water jug to find that nearly all my satin RY does are dead. Not just dead, but rather mutilated as well. Sorry, not for the faint of heart. The only ones I have left is one doe that stayed in her cage instead of running off, and 4 others that were in with males at the time. I lost pretty much half of my RY does. I'm grateful for the ones I have left, but I need to get them breeding before I lose the line.

The second disaster was that my ac filter needed cleaning. No problem, I take it out, wash it off and set it on the counter to dry over night. I leave the shed door open with a fan on overnight. I meant to put the filter in and turn the ac on again in the morning, but I forgot to. My mom had surgery the day before this, and so I was helping take care of her. I didn't get out to the mousery at all that day, or the next. I figured the mice will be fine because they have full water bottles and a fresh bin of food. Unfortunately, we had a heat wave those two days, and when I saw the filter on the counter, I realized I'd forgotten to turn the ac on. I go out there, and I lost many mice. At least one dead in nearly every cage, including my satin chocolate buck, my chocolate tan buck, a mom and her entire litter of hoppers, one of my pregnant satin RY does, and several others. Ants had gotten to the dead mice too, and it was a gruesome day cleaning out cages. And ant bites hurt worse than mouse bites, let me tell you.

On the other hand, for some good news, I have at least 4 pregnant does, 2 of them by the recently deceased chocolate tan buck. All 4 are really good litters I'm looking forward to. One is a satin cinnamon tan by a satin cinnamon, one is a satin chocolate to a satin cinnamon, and a satin chocolate and a dove(US) tan to the same chocolate tan satin carrier buck. There's a chance that more does are pregnant, but those were the ones that were noticeably preggers.

All things considered, a bit of bad news, a bit of good news. Just have to roll with the punches.


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## besty74 (May 26, 2012)

sorry to hear about your losses, but the pairings in your good news sound great, can't wait to see the results.


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## Seafolly (Mar 13, 2012)

Ohhh my gosh.

I'm getting a couple of rats soon (they're only a couple of weeks old now) so I'll be sure to keep them on separate floors. Though I've had rats for years I've never had both rats and mice at the same time. I'm sorry for all your mice that died!


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

Thanks for your kind words!

Things have continued to be a mixed bag of news here. All four does have given birth, unfortunately, ants got into 2 of the litters and destroyed them. And the two that got destroyed: of course the two from the buck that passed away. But I have 13 babies from the other 2 litters. I actually didn't have to cull any of the babies, because with 4 moms having babies at the same time, but 2 of them losing litters, I was able to foster them with other moms. More boys than girls, of course, but since I lost so many mice, I'm looking to pick out a couple new males.

Personally, I jammed my finger late at night at work, thought nothing of it, and went to bed. Next morning, finger is swollen, stiff and painful. I go to urgent care, they take xrays, and say its fine. So I go to work. At work, they tell me I have to file Worker's Comp since it happened at work, even though I was already clocked out for the night. Well, it's a good thing they did, because they took more xrays, and tell me my finger is broken. Well, isn't that special? So now I'm in this awkward splint that makes typing and life in general difficult. Of course it is my right hand, and I'm right handed, so I can't write either.

Ah well, things have got to start getting better, right?


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## besty74 (May 26, 2012)

oh dear, how long did it take you to type that message?!
Shame about the ants you must have aggressive ants over there, at least we have two litters to look forward to pictures of.
lets hope things start going your way.


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

It took a while! Yeah, the ants are horrible here, I hate them! I've laid down poison before. It only works for a few weeks and then the ants are back again. I fear applying poison too often, for fear of the fumes or exposure to poison will affect the mice. Also, my rats run around the mousery when I let them out to play, so I try to be careful.

For once I have some very good news! I went to the doctor's today, and he put a different splint on my finger. It's much smaller, and it's on the top of my finger, not the bottom. That means I have the use of my palm back again (my last splint was a six inch padded bar that was strapped to my hand by an entire ace bandage....) and I can bend the top and bottom joints of the finger, just not the middle. It still hurts, even more today because now that I have partial use of my hand back I think I overused it trying to get caught up.

As for the babies, these are some of the prettiest babies that have ever been born here! I have a couple chocolate tan satins, which was my goal for these breedings! I also have some absolutely gorgeous satin cinnamons! Some are darker, some are lighter, and I can't decide which shade I love more!

Also, I briefly experimented with a couple merles I found in the store 2 years ago. Due to a series of bad luck, the merle coloring was lost, though one or two of my mice probably carry it. Well, I have a cinnamon satin doe that is overly marked. The only color she has is a patch that covers part of her hind legs and her tail. You could hide it with one finger and she looks BEW. On this patch of color, there have always been faint silvery markings that I thought were suspect, but I always put them down to an oddness of her spots. Well, she was bred to my chocolate satin boy, who I know is a merle carrier. My goal wasn't to get merles, but to get more satin cinnamons and chocolates. In truth, I had complete forgotten the boy was a carrier.

And then the babies started to get fur. She only had three girls. One looks to be a solid chocolate, one looks like the mom with only a rump blanket, and one has a face streak with the rest of her being colored. Well, the two marked ones are showing very clear merle patterns! I'm pretty sure they're both chocolates, though the shadows are still early days yet. I'll probably breed them back to the father again, hoping to preserve that merle.


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## besty74 (May 26, 2012)

are you going to take photos? i would love to see a satin cinnamon.


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

Ok, you asked for pictures, and I got them!

Here are my "two" litters of satin cinnamons (which I call goldens, so if I drop that word, it means satin cinnamon) and chocolates.

Here are some fuzzy pics:

























And here are some from yesterday morning:

































As for the merles.... I think that gene is cursed in my mousery. Not only did the mom eat the two merle babies, but when I removed the last self girl to save her from being eaten, the mom died not a day later. She wasn't that old, only 4-6 months, so it was very unusual. The remaining girl is fostered with the litters above, but she remains small and timid. I don't know if that's a health issue, or just the result of being the only one in a litter and then thrust into a bigger, more active litter. I'll keep an eye on her, and hope I get a chance to breed her back to her father since she is a carrier, if my guess about the mother is right. She has a little streak of white on her belly, so she's easy to tell apart.

The "darker" little had been consistently larger though less active than the "lighter" litter, which is odd since those were the ones fostered with the mother that lost her babies to the ants. The ones left with their mother have been both more jumpy and smaller, even though both have 5 babies exactly. This is the first litter for both moms, though the foster mother is a couple weeks older than the real mother. Both are 14-16 weeks old, so I know I didn't breed them too early. I guess one doe is just more maternal than the other?

I have a hard time deciding which ones to keep. There are only 3 girls in the litters (4 if you count the merle carrier) and I can't keep 6 boys. But they're all pretty! I really like the one golden boy that is so bright he almost looks RY. He is an almost for sure keeper. There is also a chocolate tan which is another for sure keeper. The rest I'm not sure about. I recently lost my pied black tan satin buck, John, so I do have a boy cage opened up. John was 11 months old to the day, poor thing, and a great buck. Strangely his mother is still in good health, though with a slight eye discharge that does not bother her.

The problem I'm having is that I have a hard time telling the sexes at this age. I'm much better at pinkie sexing. The nipples are covered up with fur, and the balls haven't descended yet. I'm reluctant to definitely choose my keepers, for fear of culling my elusive girls. Also, some of the goldens are tans, and I want to choose the tans over the solids, but between the shiny satin and their wiggly-ness, I'm having a hard time telling which ones are tan and which are not.

Well, that's what's going on in my mousery lately! I got some decisions to make!


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## besty74 (May 26, 2012)

They look lovely, very cute.


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

Not everything is bad news, honest! I have 5 pregnant does. I got pics of them to show you:

Chocolate self x black satin 63g (the 2nd weight was a lie, I was holding her)
Hoping for chocolate satins, but this is more of a test litter to see if the doe carries satin and if the buck carries chocolate. 

















Blue RY satin X chocolate satin carrying RY 63g
Hoping for chocolate RY, but most likely will get blacks and black RYs, unless the doe carries chocolate and/or the buck carries blue.









Golden (satin cinnamon) x golden 52g
This girl did NOT want her picture taken... out adventures are posted else where under photo fails. Hoping for goldens and satin chocolates. This litter will be a win no matter what. Now just be mostly girls!









Pied chocolate satin x golden 57g
She is such a beautiful poser. Again, hoping for goldens and chocolate satins. Cross your fingers for girls!









Blue agouti x blue 93g!
No, your do not deceive you! At 93g this girl is huge! She is a full English I got from another breeder, and her UNpregnant weight averaged about 68-72g. Hoping for lots of blues! She was bred to a blue buck I got from sys15 here. I plan to weed out the agouti and keep just the blue.









I brought all the girls inside the house to give birth, so no ants getting to them! Looking forward to when they all pop!


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## Kaz115836 (Feb 20, 2012)

Congrats on all your pregnancies and litters! If you get your blue line going strong, i'll definitely be interested in a few of those lovelies come summertime!!


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## andypandy29us (Aug 10, 2012)

cant wait to see litters from all your girls ... i love looking at the pics


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