# scottish mouse show/meet



## firestarter

just to get an idea of numbers... how many people would come to a scottish mouse show/meet? and where abouts in scotland would you be able/willing to travel too?


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## SarahC

there did used to be a Scottish club. It folded when the founder passed on but prior to that had reasonable support.I'm sure you could do well ,I really hope so and wish you very good luck.


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## Kallan

I don't have any mice for showing, I tend to breed mine all for pets, but if I find a self colour I like enough I may start breeding for shows. I'm in the central belt.


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## Lou-Fraser

im the same as kallan i just have mouse pets but i dare say the i would probably come to gatherings for a wee nose  i live in galashiels


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## firestarter

well im mainly a 'feeder breeder' tho i have lots of pet mice too.... im not sure i could personally be bothered with showing my mice! but i think having a scottish meet would be really good as i personally never seem to manage to get down the the ones in england, and id love to see some other peoples mice and get some feedback on my own!


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## webzdebs

it would be a perfect place to meet for collecting mice and we could do a "pet" category as well as the standards too for anyone who breeds pet mice rather than the standards.

theres a glasgow rodeo thing on every year at the vet school which im sure we could have a stand or two at, i went to a hamster society show there years back but i dont know the ins and outs of costings etc.

I'm very up for it and can travel to in or around edinburgh or glasgow


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## zany_toon

mine are only pets but i would love to meet more mousie people    I'm in the central belt but could travel to glasgow (with a map and a few hours ), Edinburgh or Dundee


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## Kallan

the GUVMA Rodeo is run by vet students every year - I will try and get in touch with this years organisers as they'll be sorting tents and stuff soon. I would be up for bringing some mice to it, even for display, to get people interested, as I go every year anyway


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## webzdebs

cool that'd be great Laura, even if this year we do it to 1. drum up interest and spread the word of how awesome mice are as pets and 2. use it to judge some light categories (rather than focusing on standards do a novice and junior pet in both doe and buck) then once we see how that goes we could plan further shows/meets and see where we go from there?


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## firestarter

all sounds very promising... i like the idea of pet mouse category cos really i think thats what most of us are about... were prob never gona have the same competition as the english shows but we will still have the same dedication and love of our meeces... hopefully this thread will reach more scottish mouse lovers and breeders!!


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## webzdebs

that's it, if we start off with pet category get some interest and then build up


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## racingmouse

I would`nt attend a `show` as such as I`m not that interested in the show bench side of things. I just keep mice solely as companions and friends and prefer to rehome/rescue mice when I have the space to take on a few. I would like to see more mouse breeders in Scotland as a whole, but not so much the larger show mice, just the smaller fancy mice.  Bred compassionately and not so much for colour or show, but for health and longevity.

To date, I`ve had two show sized mice. Lola was a black satin female and died well before her first birthday from heart failure. I was gutted to lose such a beautiful girl. Lulu was a black eyed white show mouse and died young from a tumour on her neck and a bad skin infection. I also took on a hairless female who died from horrible epileptic seizures. So given that I`ve had three mice who you could say were `different` from your normal pet shop sized mice, I can honestly say the smaller mice are by far the best. In my opinion anyway!

I live near Stirling by the way, so I rarely travel outside of this area. Glasgow and Edinburgh are just a train or bus ride away, but they may aswell be 100 miles away!


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## zany_toon

As far as I know RM none of the breeders in scotland that have posted on this thread have any show mice, just pet fancies that they are breeding to make beautiful healthy mousie pets (if I'm wrong sorry everyone!!) 
Mine wouldn't ever be able to show and it would be pointless anyway seeing as I don't breed  but I would really enjoy a day of meeting other mousie enthusiasts in person to talk mouse  I think one of the breeders on here lives pretty close to you RM - Quadrapop is in Glenrothes. She hasn't been on for a while now though


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## webzdebs

Quadrapop isn't breeding anymore as far as I know Zany, I certainly am breeding for health, tempremants and good quality mice first and foremost but trying to select for the standard types as ruled out in the NMC handbook.

I see the shows that we are trying to organise as just that, a fun day out to meet other mice lovers, pick up mice and educate people on their care and how great they are as pets. I would like to first and foremost see the shows as a fun way to exhibit our "pets" and then if theres a need for standard categories add them in 

I'm working on creating a website and Kallan is trying to see if theres a chance of getting some space at the vet schools rodeo so fingers crossed for it all to go ahead


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## Kallan

Can't see why there wouldn't be - I remember our year organised it in 2006 and as far as I can remember there was no shortage of space.


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## Lou-Fraser

it all sound like good stuff guys, im defo still interested it could be a good day, plus play have a wee hold peoples mousies


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## webzdebs

heres the website so far, if anyone has any suggestions on anything else that they'd like to see added to it please pm me  also if any breeders want added to the links page give me a pm with your mousery contact details/website link and location and what it is you are breeding - have already added myself and kallan  (hope you don't mind kallan)

http://thescottishmouseclub.webs.com


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## Wight Isle Stud

I am as far south as you are north, you have a a right mix of interests in the people who have added posts,typical cross section of a succesful club. I would most certainly contribute stock for you all as would other members, within a year or sooner you could all have show breeds, NMC support and be on the map !- why not have pet mice that you can also put in a maxey? all my mice are of exhibition standard, but every one is a pet. My stock is free to NMC members, as is that of other breeders, so those of you not in the best club in the world, get joined up .


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## webzdebs

maxey?

I definitely have intentions to join the NMC this year and hopefully encourage NMC to back this club with standard guides and encouraging members to be actively involved in both clubs (as I feel the NMC has really outlined what a great club should be) just as the SRC has backing from the NFRS and often does a joint show once a year.

I'm still trying to figure out what an approriate membership fee should be and when to ask for it as everything is very much still in the planning stages but obviously if we want more venues etc we need some funding. Any thoughts?


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## geordiesmice

Im going to join too as soon as im finnished work end of the month.Im guessing webzdebs you might have to be a member of the NMC a while before you could expect them to support a new club.


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## webzdebs

certainly, I think support was maybe the wrong word as i would hope we could arrange stuff ourselves and fund things ourselves. Affiliate is a better term I think.

I'm really getting quite excited about the whole thing, thinking about cool games to play, prizes to give out so its really fun for everyone to get involved in and of course doing a judging for adult owned and junior owned pet buck and doe along with Best pet with rosettes


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## The Village Mousery

oh so how you going to judge pets then? oh thats cute, so is that so is that .... bar if a mouse bites a judge they all make good pets lol one judge may like blue mice the other may like black hardly fair is it lol.


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## webzdebs

the pets would be judged upon temperment, and the judges own opinion.

obviously with it being a category such as "pets" theres no standards to judge upon but even in standard categories different judges favour different mice for colour, size or whatever.

Of course whoever would be judging could not exhibit as that would be unfair.

Do we have anyone who would like to judge either the bucks or the does? that way they could enter the opposite sex and not feel completely left out. I don't mind putting my name forward for judging one or the other.


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## unicorn

I am the secretary of the Caithness rabbit fanciers' association and we hold an open mouse show alongside our rabbit show twice a year. I breed show mice. There are plans within a branch of the Scottish rabbit fancy to open up to mouse shows also. We have been aiming to hold a mouse show in the central belt alongside the Belhaven show in Dunbar in August but that is still being looked into.


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## SarahC

unicorn said:


> I am the secretary of the Caithness rabbit fanciers' association and we hold an open mouse show alongside our rabbit show twice a year. I breed show mice. There are plans within a branch of the Scottish rabbit fancy to open up to mouse shows also. We have been aiming to hold a mouse show in the central belt alongside the Belhaven show in Dunbar in August but that is still being looked into.


That sounds good,what criteria out of interest do you judge the mice by,exhibition or pet standard?


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## unicorn

This is the schedule I use http://www.fancymice.info/schedules.htm and at the moment I have Dave Sim judging normally, he used to keep mice many moons ago and is a good all round judge, he is very successful with his rabbits and cavies, you may possibly have met him at Harrogate show as he is always there, we very much judge to show standard. I do put on pet classes where I feel there is call for them. At the moment we have open rabbit, open cavy, open mouse and pet rabbit and cavy, which makes for a lot of hard paperwork :lol: 
The main issue I have up here is the cost of judges as you can imagine it is not cheap to pay travelling expenses for individual judges so as much as possible I try to get others who will be attending the show anyway but not showing those animals to judge another section, providing they are competent.
I also try to encourage youngsters who are attending the show to give judging a shot with the help of a judge over seeing them. 
I see the biggest benefit of affiliation to any of the overseeing bodies as the fact that you get public liability insurance which these days really is important.
I have not affiliated with the NMC yet as there is only a couple of us showing and it is really a push at the moment to get mice out there locally and let people learn about them.
We do not have access to maxi cages yet either so just use small plastic tanks. All thse things will be looked into for the future.


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## unicorn

Just to add our membership is £2 adult and £1 junior. I was dithering on putting it up but I feel everything is already so expensive and the British rabbit council have just lobbed up all the prices this year quite heftily so I have left it for now.


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## unicorn

Who was the man who ran the club in Scotland, was it Peter Forbes. Dave Sim is a trustee of the Bellhaven trust and I am in talks with him at the moment to see if we can get space at Bellhaven on August the 20th if you are all interested.


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## Kallan

Got a reply from the Rodeo people!



> Thanks very much for your email; as the organiser of this years small animal tent we'd be very to have you along on the day!
> Can you let me know your requirements, and how many mice you're hoping to bring etc.?


I was going to bring a couple of meeces of different colours, to demonstrate the varieties. And educate people about mice and drum up interest! There's usually a small pet show, where people bring their own animals - so maybe we could have a 'best pet mouse' category in that?


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## Sizzlea89

firestarter said:


> well im mainly a 'feeder breeder' tho i have lots of pet mice too.... im not sure i could personally be bothered with showing my mice! but i think having a scottish meet would be really good as i personally never seem to manage to get down the the ones in england, and id love to see some other peoples mice and get some feedback on my own!


I hope Hugo is safe seeing as he was hand reared and i was gutted when you bought him haha but I didn't have the extra space for him what with downsizing, even though I bought 3 more females from a breeder today! I have 4 snakes and I don't know how you can breed for feeders, I get too attached!

A Scotland meet would be awesome!

I know the may and June agricultural shows down my side of Glasgow have small animal shows, iv seen hamsters and gerbils in it before and they have a full section for mice but not many people show them, mainly the pet shops having competitions for who has the best bred mouse and what not!


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## salemsparklys

We were planning a little pet mouse show for this summer in Midlothian


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## Nadeyjambo1

salemsparklys said:


> We were planning a little pet mouse show for this summer in Midlothian


im in Midlothian and that sounds great!


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