A tiny Agouti

Months ago I bought a little feeder mouse from a pet store because he was an agouti. I had no agouti colors, and I wanted some.

The little guy was the only agouti mouse that I've ever seen in a pet store. Usually its just PEWs and the occasional black in the feeder section and then "fancy" colors for the pet section.

I had thought the little guy was just young, but he is still a tiny little mouse today.

I have already bred him with four females, and now I have him with a group of 7 females. I'm debating if I want to cull him and just use his offspring for my goals or if I want to wait..

I'm aiming for my mice to one day become show quality, or at least close. So I feel like I'm taking a step backwards with this boy. Right. Now one of the females that I'm breeding him to is one of my best. She is very large with fine ears.

He doesn't carry any known recessives. All of his babies have been solid agouti.

I just can't decide if I want to keep him any longer or cull him now..

Well i don't know if this helps your descision or not, but pet store mice are not going to help you reach your goals ever. It's taken around 400 years or work to get show mice to where they are today, so starting from scratch won't do a thing. :P

What you want to do for show mice, is get show mice to work with. You can start with some less than perfect show mice, and breed the colours you want to try to improve on their type and colour, but you need show mice to begin with. You'll probably have to do some traveling, but there are a lot of people on the east coast who have very lovely mice. I wish I was closer, cause I'd give you some for sure, I'm about to have a ton of extras.


I think I have a photo in my computer somewhere that will help illustrate how much work has gone into show mice...

Aha! Here it is:

http://i.imgur.com/nQLCakF.jpg

Same age, same sex. Practically different species.

I know what show mice look like. It will take a while, but I know it is somewhat possible. I know breeders who are also doing this and one is actually very close to actual show mice.

I am wanting to get actual show mice though. I just haven't been able to get any yet. I was going to go to the mouse show this weekend, but now I'm not able to go.. I'm not sure if there are expos that have show mice, but I've been looking at small animal expos.

Mostly the shows aren't worth going to, and I'll tell you why. 90% of the mice going to the show, are reserved before hand. So the money you put into traveling to the show, isn't worth it. If you were going to travel to the 'show' in the hamptons, they don't even allow trading or selling inside the venue at that show. But if you're willing to travel that far, that's close to me, and a little further in southern Maryland there are a ton of good breeders. :)
You might even be able to plan with us, we usually have little fun happy mouse meetings where we all get together and play with mice and trade mice, and then go out to dinner. It's something like 4-5 breeders in our little 'club' and anyone is welcome to join one of our mouse parties!

If someone started with pet store mice, and is anywhere near show mouse quality, then they mixed show mice into their lines. I'm not meaning to sound discouraging, but it is literally impossible for one person to take pet store mice, and turn them into show mice in their entire lifetime.

I have a ton of mice about to get laid in my mouse room, a bunch belong to my friend Denise, who is breeding them to only pick 2-3 out of like 5 litters to keep for herself. So there will be a ton of leftovers from that. I'm also breeding some black tans, blacks, red, red sable, hairless, and who knows what else. Denise's litters should have tri-colours, brindles, brindle tri-colours, piebald, and some other random thingies too. :)

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you get the mice you want!
I've got connections yo. :P

Oh and hey. You're in South Carolina. So if you were ever planning on coming up this way for mice, there's a place in south Carolina that sells mutations of deer mice, and a bunch of us were intersted in getting a few of them. So maybe we can actually pay you to come up here, bring some deer mice, and get mice one day. :D

I'd love that. I don't mnd travelling as long as I know in advance so I can prepare money-wise for it.

I'm not picky with color. I love a variety. I really love any color with tan,, fox and tri-colors. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rhasputin

Oh and hey. You're in South Carolina. So if you were ever planning on coming up this way for mice, there's a place in south Carolina that sells mutations of deer mice, and a bunch of us were intersted in getting a few of them. So maybe we can actually pay you to come up here, bring some deer mice, and get mice one day. :D

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That would be fine. :)

Neat-o. I'll be sure to post a thread when all the litters here start popping. You can pick some out if you want, when they're posted, and I'll hold onto them for you until you can make it up here. ;)