Another Newbie

Hello all!

Erm, is this where I spew everything about myself? Okay! I live in the US (Illinois to be exact) and almost a year ago I found myself being given a mouse that a friend had no time or money for. The mouse, I'm pretty sure, was of the feeder variety (skinny, thin tail; small ears, er...blah) but seemed to be in good health.

She had a 10-gallon tank, some tubing, a house, plastic water bottle and a plastic dish. I was also given bedding and a large bag of hamster food. It showed that the owner had tried to take care of her animals (there had been two, but one had been killed) but just hadn't done the research before buying on impulse. Some people are just not meant to own animals though...

So! I had my mouse er... my Orange mouse (The other one came later and I have to get to her part) moved to my dorm with me and started doing some research on the little rodents. I read that they (females) preferred to live in small groupings so...I went to the closes store nearby a few weeks later and bought the second mouse you see there (Bou; the other orange one's name is Miss Jangles). I eventually introduced them to one another and they got along great-no tussles or anything. So Bou and Jangles lived their happy mouse lives as a duo for a good few months--then (dun dun dun dunn..!), while I was shopping at the local pet store, I came upon another mouse. What can I say!? Impulse buying, I'm guilty of it too (at least I'm not stupid enough to impulsively breed...my mom'd kill me!). So I ended up with this mouse. Curly.

I know for a fact that none of my mice are show quality, and they're full of faults-I believe kinked tails is a fault (one that my orange mouse has--unless it's the cause of someone picking her up by the end of her tail...which she'd been subjected to before I'd gotten her, but I'm not sure) and is there like some gene that makes brittle ears or something, or are nipped ears the result of nipping (as can be seen on Bou).

Just thought I'd dive in here with a thorough briefing of how I ended up here. I have a million questions regarding mice and I'm aiming to try and find a breeder near where I live since all I've been able to choose from are the basic feeder variety.

…hm… All that typing and I haven't even gotten started on my other pets! I'll keep it brief since I'm sure you all are just waiting for me to wrap it up.

I have, two birds (cockatiels: male and…male (I think)), one 10 years old the other 6. One crazy the other mellow. Both are common grays. Just recently I've been able to get rid of 5 gold fish (also having been thrusted at me) and I have a gender-confused betta male. Not that many animals at all.

Erm…yeah. That about sums it all up!