Tailess Mice

[Asherah]

So, I've had something interesting crop up in my feeder tubs. I typically do not out-cross for several generations, so I can sometimes have neat things crop up. I've currently got a nice line of brindle that does not appear to be prone to obesity or the health problems often associated with them. I had a line of long haired mice, but they did not seem to be as hardy as my short haired line, so they were culled. Both mutations randomly popped up in my stock. Now it appears that I have a third.
The first oddness was noticed in a litter from about 2 months ago. It was a pairing between my main male and a distantly related female. The litter had one mouse with a normally developed tail, the rest consisted of offspring with tails of varying lengths. I thought that perhaps the female had been stressed at some point and had chewed on the tails. However, no scaring or partially healed patches were noticed on examination. The parents themselves do not exhibit any traits of a shortened tail. I feel that it is a possibility of the mutation being a recessive trait.

This is the only offspring left from that litter. A male. He had one litter mate that had a shorter tail, but otherwise his was the shortest of the litter.


The next odd litter resulted in only two offspring. The same male with a half sibling. One with a normal tail, the second with a mere nub. I believe a female, but the lack of a tail makes her a bit difficult to sex/handle at this stage.








I haven't been able to find much about them. It seems they are often plagued with back, hip and reproductive problems. The health of my stock is paramount, but I would really like to keep these two to see if this really is a genetic trait. My hang up is, of course, I don't want to breed anything with health problems. At this point she appears to be formed normally, other than the missing tail, and moves normally. The male with the slightly shortened tail has no movement or spinal issues. Anyone have any input, thoughts or ideas?