# breeding records



## rigger67 (Jan 30, 2010)

HI
Can anyone reccomend a good programe for keeping breeding records etc.


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## Fantasia Mousery (Jul 16, 2011)

Kintraks / Animal Breeder is what I use (kintraks.com)


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## rigger67 (Jan 30, 2010)

Thanks for the reply , I will check this out.


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## Amtma Mousery (Jan 29, 2015)

Great record software, best in the world, highly recommended... Microsoft Word

You'll love it.


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## rigger67 (Jan 30, 2010)

Thanks for the recommendation will deffinately look into this.


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## Amtma Mousery (Jan 29, 2015)

Lol. I was being sarcastic. Here is a serious answer...

I keep records through Windows folders.

Coat Variation -> Line -> Strain -> Substrain -> Generations -> Breeding session/pairing -> Selected bucks/does

Example:
seal_point_siamese -> sps_1 -> s_sz -> ss_3 -> g_10 -> p_5 -> .txt file and .jpeg images

Translation:
Seal Point Siamese (SPS) Line 1, Strain size, Substrain 3, Generation 10, Pairing 5, the text file will have brief information regarding the litter size and necessary information about the bucks and does. I also photograph them in containers before pairings so I can look back upon their appearance. So mice are categorized based on what coat variation and line, strain, substrain they belong to. I may breed 3 bucks to 3 does at the same time, thus 3 pairings within the same generation.

My definitions for mice breeding:
Line- Line is a large group of mice that are relatively similar due to inbreeding within every 4 generations.
Strain- A group of mice that are bred for a specific trait within a line.
Substrain- Various groups that are divided up within each strain to increase genetic diversity.
Pairing/breeding session- I take the best bucks for each substrain and divide the does within that substrain among those specific bucks. Some generations, I may have 1 stud, others I may have 4 studs. It is solely dependent upon how many 'best' bucks within each situation.

Example:
Line- I have two Seal Point Siamese lines, that originate from separate founding parents. They are both Seal Point Siamese, but they rarely, if ever cross.
Line 1, Line 2

Strain- I have four strains within each line. Each strain is designated for a specific characteristic, consisting of: color, ears, type, size.
Newly weaned mice are assigned new strains based upon their best characteristic. For instance, I may have a 5 week old buck that was born within the ears strain. However, he is the largest buck in that whole line and he has average ears. In result, I move him to the size strain.

sz = size
cl = color
er = ears
tp = type

Substrain- Substrains are smaller breeding groups within each strain. I designate 1-3 substrains within each strain. The amount of substrains are dependent upon the success of that specific strain. If I am receiving healthy and good quality mice, I increase the substrains to increase the frequency of their genes. If a strain is doing bad, I decrease the substrains to 1 to initiate genetic purging. If the substrain crashes/becomes extinct, I bring in new blood from a different line or a different strain.

If you use studs frequently, I implement an additional organization method. I create an individual folder for each stud. All my studs receive identification tags.
Example:
roa_01202017a
Translation:
Roan buck born on January 20, 2017.

By writing the coat variation first, your stud folders will be ordered based upon coats then by date of birth. Studs that are siblings receive a letter after their date of birth to differentiate their folders. Each stud folder will contain information about their rated characteristics, progress/pictures, what generation and line they were born from, and what does did they mate to. Connecting back to the original record keeping, within each .txt file for each generation, I include the stud's ID so that I can find his file.

This file recording method is heaven in Linux.


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