# Newbie Alert!!!



## flutterbybutterfly (May 31, 2010)

Hi all

My name is Gemma and I am in Bedfordshire, UK. I used to keep and breed mice (fancies, harvest, pygmy and zebras) not to mention all the hamsters, rats, gerbils, short tailed opossums and so on.

Unfortunately due to a sudden change in circumstances I had to rehome all but one of my hamsters (thank god for the London Championship show!!) and now recently, my other half and I have purchased a shop that we have/are in the process of setting up as an Aquatic and Pet shop (Dunstable Aquatics). Aquatics are what we are most focused on hence the name but we will also havea good selection of high end pet products for rodents and some home bred stock. Having the shop has allowed me a huge well lit and heated room with kitchen facilities and everything above the shop to let me get back into my hobby.

I would love to get into showing though cant promise it as my past experiance with the Mouse Fancy Club at the London Champs 3-4 years running has been awful, the people were rude to myself and others who didnt belong to the club at the time and we werent allowed to look at the mice (which were not being judged at the time). If its going to be like that, i want nothing to do with it. I have shown Syrian hamsters before and that group is lovely and in my first show with four hamsters i got Best in Colour twice, And a Second in Class and a Reserve in Class and my beloved male Black Eyed Cream got Best in Show as well and the grand old age of 2 (he died recently aged 6!) and that was my only real showing experience as im not a confident enough driver to travel far, i can get to Thame and London Champs.

There are so many colours to choose from so I am unsure as to where i will start, I know I would like a group of blue and black broken marked mice as they are waaay too cute but for showing I want self colours, would love Stones again, I managed to breed a Stunning Stone Fox ages ago, she was a beauty. Though I also have a soft spot for Chocolate Foxes and Rump Whites and Herefords.

I should be able to get some herefords in a month or two but am desperately seeking nice quality start up stock, the bigger the ears the better as that is one thing i found was harder to breed into the line without starting with fairly big eared mice!

That aside, I will also be keeping guinea pigs, gerbils, hamsters etc as well as my snakes at home  shock horror!! I can be a soppy rodent owner and still be realistic about having to feed my snakes, I dont cull my own mice as It is ridiculously easy to find homes, especially when you have a pet shop and a lot of space (i have 1700 square feet of rodent room!) and a reptile shop next door, i supply him with fish food and he supplies me with frozen mice for my snakes.

I hope no one objects to me being here because I own snakes but I wont be rubbing it in anyones face, i respect everyones opinions so long as people respect mine. I am more than happy to answer questions regarding my ethics or methods 

Hope to speak to you all soon!

Gemma


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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

Hello and welcome!

There are a few people here who own snakes. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only person who doesn't. 

Please stick around!


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## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

Hi

I don't know who you spoke to at London Champs but it is actually a rule that no mice can be removed from the Maxeys if they are still to be judged. That was not someone being rude; the mouse could be disqualified. If you do want to show mice then I'm afraid you'll need to address the issue of culling - you could then feed the best to your snakes not the mass farmed rubbish from wholesalers.


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## flutterbybutterfly (May 31, 2010)

Glad to hear you aren't all going to go mad about culling, realistically i was having to sound you all out, guess people have grown some common sense in the few years i've been out of the hobby!! I'd have been hounded out of the country fror mentioning it a few years ago!!

Of course I am ok about culling, generally it would be the excess stock of males that would have to go, would make my life much easier and cheaper to feed my snakes! Resent paying £1.20 per mouse per snake per week!! I've got enough quick methods up my sleeve for culling humanely, you have to when breeding rodents because eventually, you will end up seeing sickness, old age and tumors etc when you have hundreds of animals and a £50 vet bill per animal is madness!

Will sell what I can, keep what I want and cull the rest to be honest. God its so nice not to have to hide the idea of excess stock!! and culling!!

REALLY want your little radar eared mousey in your signature!!

EDIT: At london champs, i didnt want to see the mice out of their wooden show boxes, i wouldnt like it if it was my animals for safetys sake and for not stressing them out but seeing as the show was open to the public, the guy behind the next shouted at me for peering into the mouse box and refused to answer some very sensible questions and was generally really unhelpful. Didnt bother getting his name, wish i had now! He gave the club a bad name because he upset a fair few people!

It was also just my experience with other show goers on forums, cant for the life of me remember or find the forum now but it had a pink background and they were all 100% against cullingand every mouse must have a huge mansion of a cage and never use shavings and so on.


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## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

You don't have to worry about culling/snake talk on this forum. All successful NMC show breeders cull one way or another so you have nothing to fear from mentioning it. In fact if you approached someone at a show they would try and explain why they think it's essential  Marked mice mean keeping a larger stud to have any success and a lot more culling too. You would also produce fewer showable specimens. Other varieties, such as selfs for example, are more consistent and do not require such high numbers. My best advice would be to look at the NMC website and visit a show or two to see which is variety for you - you'll have to look at it every day for a few years!


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## flutterbybutterfly (May 31, 2010)

Yup, the marked mice would be purely for my amusement, i love the 'moo moo mice' as I call them! Same with the Foxes, Rump White (Wump Rights lol) and the Herefords, marked mice sell much better in the pet shop circle and i really would like to see a lot more mice as pets, they make far better pets than hamsters for younger children, easier to tame and less likely to bite and they have a better sense of balance!

As for the selfs, staring at pictures for hours is only going to make it far far worse!! LOL. I always said that the agoutis dont do much for me until my housemate came back with a trio from holland and they were the most stunning agoutis i have seen! They didnt have great ears but were far larger and better coloured than a lot of the ones i've seen on show benches. That line we had going for so many generations until we just couldnt get our hands on high enough quality stock to outcross further without joining the NMC which didnt seem worth it at the time as i couldnt get to shows.

Im pretty sure i will stick to paler selfs, BEWs, Creams and Stones (by and... i generally will stick to one or t'other) but would like to have blues as well but might just stickto the blues in the marked variety.

(edited my previous post by the way)


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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

flutterbybutterfly said:


> ...they make far better pets than hamsters for younger children, easier to tame and less likely to bite and they have a better sense of balance!


Yes! That's really an understatement. I wish more people would realize this point, though. They buy their kids hamsters and it ends terribly with the hamster being returned (or worse, abandoned) and the kid being traumatized if not by all the biting then by the "You have a hamster, now you don't" cycle. Mice (and rats) make much better pets for children!


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## windyhill (Jan 19, 2010)

Welcome to the forum!
I dont own a snake,but I want one


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## zany_toon (Apr 3, 2010)

It's a little belated but welcome to the forum!!!


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