Wild mice

[Kingofspades]

Has anyone tried catching wild mice alive, treating them with antibiotics (to kill parasites) and then mixing them with captive mice?
I was debating trying this to see if I could create some insanely hard mice.

I had heard of one guy who had this happen by accident. I guess a wild mouse got into his mouse barn and mated with some females...so I thought doing it on purpose would be an interesting experiment.

[deathadder1069]

ive had wild mice get into my rat building but since all i had was rat there was no matting that took place, eventually i covered every hole i could find to keep them out and havnt seen them since. As for trying to get them on the breeding stuff...ill pass, i have one male mouse thats done 4 females and hes doing a good job so far hehe

[dr del]

Hi,

Just to say it isn't a given that you would produce better mice as a result.

A lot of work was done in the mice we have today to weed out undesirable genes and to select for larger litters, better health and size or various other traits.

You might find all you do is make smaller mice with smaller litters.

It's far from a certainty and you might, indeed, make healthier mice. I just thought I should give the other side of the coin.


dr del

[jasbus]

Thinking that antibiotics won't help with any parasites....

[Rhasputin]

This has been discussed many times on the mouse forums. New people come on and think that adding in wild mice will help with genetic diseases or make stronger mice.

But it's simply un-true. Like Dr.Del said, a LOT (as in 300+ years) has been put into domesticating mice, and breeding them for show, breeding them for pets, and breeding them to have large litters for feeders. Adding in wild mice would just add in un-knowns, and set back all that hard work.

Also, any mice with wild genes in them, tend to be extremely skittish, flighty, and bitey. It just ruins domestication.

Also, antibiotics will not kill parasites.

[Kara]

This has been discussed many times on the mouse forums. New people come on and think that adding in wild mice will help with genetic diseases or make stronger mice.

But it's simply un-true. Like Dr.Del said, a LOT (as in 300+ years) has been put into domesticating mice, and breeding them for show, breeding them for pets, and breeding them to have large litters for feeders. Adding in wild mice would just add in un-knowns, and set back all that hard work.

Also, any mice with wild genes in them, tend to be extremely skittish, flighty, and bitey. It just ruins domestication.

Also, antibiotics will not kill parasites.

This. Plus there's that little bitty icky nasty possibility of hantavirus to take into consideration.

[Kingofspades]

Yeah ok, I didn't think too much into it. It was just an idea.
(Plus I posted it while at work last night, 3rd shift and quite tired)

I'll stick with holding back large litter babies.

[deathadder1069]

Forgot about hantavirus...wasnt it pretty bad in New Mexico and Arizona at one point. Either way id stay away from anything wild, especially since we as snake owners/breeders worry about our snakes or mice being parasite/disease free and introducing something from the wild we dont know what might be wrong with it or what they have been through that just might effect our pets/feeders.

BTW, i too was reading your post during my 3rd shift...and was extremely tired since i stayed up to watch the MAVS take down the heat hehehe

[tomfromtheshade]

Domestic rodent reproduce at a much younger age and with much more frequency than their wild counterparts.

While you may indeed create a more vigorous strain of mouse I doubt that it will in any way outperform it's domestic counterpart.

$0.02