# My meece, this and that



## Paziqi (Feb 10, 2010)

Thanks to the holiday's I spent the day cleaning out my mouse room yesterday. I hadn't realized how much stuff had accumulated that I don't use anymore. I don't think the mice care one bit, and I know the cats' weren't happy about it. I removed the hiding places they like to use when they sneak in after me, so now it's easier to grab them, and toss them back out. :lol:

I think my mice are currently on strike. I have 12 does paired up with boys right now, and they have been with their mates anywhere from 2 weeks now to 5 weeks. 3 of the newer pairs maybe, just maybe are pregnant, based on today's weigh in. Everyone else is holding out on me. I've never had so much trouble as this. I think I'm going to separate everyone this weekend and give them all a week off. I've been working off of three theories; 1) winter daylight is not enough for them, so I switched the bulb in the mouse room and have been turning it on before I leave for work in the morning, 2) Temperature in the mouse room is too cold. With the door closed, the room is generally chillier than the rest of the house. So, I turned the temp up (and now I do not want to see my propane bill next year), and it is definitely warmer in there now. 3) I made a full switch to lab blocks (as the main base, pregnant and nursing get supplements) from a homemade diet about 6 weeks ago. I haven't yet, but I think I'm going to switch back to the homemade.

So, hopefully they will all start breeding again.

Part of the reason I cleaned out the mouse room is that I needed a spot to put this:










Based off of pictures of Jadeguppy's set-up. Thanks for the idea jadeguppy! My father made it for me, and I am tickled with it. Very easy to clean and keep looking nice. This is a buck set-up. My father will be doing one more of these, and a larger set up for does for me, as time permits.

I think I have narrowed down my breeding goals. I find this to be the hardest part of breeding mice, because there are so many varieties, and everytime I see a new one crop up, I think I want it. But, I'm going to try and be firm this time. So, my goals are to breed Pied Doves, Pied Blues, Pied Black Tans and Tricolors. The typier the better, but at the moment the tans and the tricolors all have petshop stock in them, so it'll be a long range goal. And I seem to have been losing the pied gene and/or modifiers over the last couple breedings, so I'm going to have to concentrate on trying to keep that while keeping type in everyone. Should be fun.

If they ever breed again.

Along with that, sort of, I have these two girls:










They are 6 weeks old now. Mom is a pied black, dad is a self blue. Mom carries blue. And both mom and dad have champagne and tri-color way, way back in their pedigrees. I've been debating with myself whether I have a chocolate and a lilac (I've never seen a lilac, so I really wouldn't know), or a mock-chocolate and some wierd c-diluted thing.  I'd really prefer the mock/c-diluted option, since that would help with my own dreams of creating tri-colors. And I really don't need to be tempted into starting a pied chocolate line.


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## mousery_girl (Nov 13, 2011)

wow what a fantastic set up!


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

Nice rack! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

...errrr....yeah! :roll:

Seriously, that set-up prodides for good ventilation. Is the wood finished? It'll absorb odor and stains if it isn't. I have some unfinished wooden shelving I used to have in the mousery (for like 8 years) and I've been moving it outside to sit in the sun every now and then, scrubbed it with bleach, and after most of a year, it stills carries the odor of mousage.

A lot of it was from wildies that liked to play on them; icky icky icky.


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## Paziqi (Feb 10, 2010)

Thanks.  I can't really take much credit, I didn't build it or design it. But I do love it.



> Is the wood finished? It'll absorb odor and stains if it isn't. I have some unfinished wooden shelving I used to have in the mousery (for like 8 years) and I've been moving it outside to sit in the sun every now and then, scrubbed it with bleach, and after most of a year, it stills carries the odor of mousage.


It is not stained; we weren't thinking of that. I'll see how this one goes. If it gets stinky, I'll stain the next one we make. I already disposed of most of my old buck cages, so I don't have the option to move these guys back while staining this rack.


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## peztree3 (Dec 20, 2011)

It's a nice set up and the two girls in the picture are beautiful.


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