# Hi from Mousekateers



## Mousekateers (Jan 16, 2010)

Hi, my name is Sharon and along with my daughter Claire we have been breeding fancy mice for 3 years.

We are a small family living in Lake Macquarie, a city situated around the edge of the largest saltwater lake in Australia, 15 minutes from Newcastle in the beautiful Hunter Valley - a renowned wine region, and just under 2 hours north of Sydney. Our family includes a Bearded Collie (showdog), a cat and a couple of goldfish and currently 50+ mice.

In August, 2006 we came across a litter of longhair mice at our local pet and produce store. We didn't know about the huge varieties available in fancy mice and were fascinated by the colours and coats. The pets I had as a child were all pew.
Our first mouse was a baby black banded standard mouse who stood out alone amongst the longcoat litter. We decided we wanted two mice but as we couldn't tell the genders we took one and went back the next day for another after some quick internet research on the sexing of mice (thank you Cait McKeown, your website was invaluable).

I have taken an interest in the shaded varieties particularly siamese, whilst Claire has been keen on brindles (mainly snowtigers) and longcoat rex manx fox/tan. You can view our website here:- http://www.freewebs.com/mousekateers and we are also members of the Sydney based Rodent Fanciers Society of which I am one of two vice presidents  We have had considerable success at Club shows and we are interested in all facets of the fancy.

I look forward to exploring this forum as at times we find it very hard in the Aussie fancy to find the answers we seek; and also to drool over the conformation and colours we can only dream of at the moment. My wishlist includes extreme black and those ears!


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## WoodWitch (Oct 18, 2009)

Hi and welcome 

I did a tour of Oz 10 years ago.....visited Port Macquarie. Is that near you? 
I suspect that it is.

Enjoy the forum 
xx


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## julieszoo (May 27, 2009)

Welcome to the forum  You certainly have a lot of pretty mice, I enjoyed looking at your website


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## Mousekateers (Jan 16, 2010)

Thank you for your welcomes, our mice give us a lot of pleasure and fun.
Port Macquarie is about 3 hours north of us, so not too far away, it's a very popular holiday spot.


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## WillowDragon (Jan 7, 2009)

You really do have some gorgeous mice... I want to steal Willow, I should be allowed, she has my name! hehee

I find it fasinating the difference between type and confirmation of your mice in Oz to ours in Britain, especially in the ears!

Willow xx


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## Oakelm (Oct 17, 2009)

Welcome, love your mice
Especially cinders, looks like a stuffed toy mouse without a tail, so cute. Havent seen rex and manx in one mouse before.


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## harlequin stud (Dec 20, 2009)

hi there

welcome to the forum hope you gain many friends
and enjoy the forum

harlequin stud


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## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

Mousekateers said:


> We decided we wanted two mice but as we couldn't tell the genders we took one and went back the next day for another after some quick internet research on the sexing of mice (thank you Cait McKeown, your website was invaluable).


No problem, glad it helped  Nice to meet you and look forward to hearing about your mice.


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## Mousekateers (Jan 16, 2010)

Willow and Cinders are mother and daughter. We are very happy with Cinders and hope that she emulates her mother at future shows. Longcoat rex manx are a favourite with us.

As other Aussie breeders have probably mentioned, our type has a loooonng way to go to get anywhere near what is available in UK/Europe or the USA, and sadly, you'll notice the poor, washed out colouring, especially in tans. Our isolation and strict quarantine laws mean that it's a slow race in the selection criteria to improve colouring etc. Our himalayans rarely show colour on their feet compared to what you see and our siamese are only a little better than that.

Cait, your website is still one of the most informative and we reference it a lot. I do look forward to broadening our knowledge and seeing and hearing more from overseas breeders.


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## mouseling (Jan 10, 2010)

nice to see you here on a UK forum


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## Kallan (Aug 16, 2009)

Welcome, welcome!


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