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36 Posts
Hi all,
My name is Amethyst, I'm an animal enthusiast, and as my fiance is learning and so graciously accepting, I can and will have just about any animal that wanders up, or needs rescuing at anyone time (including wildlife) And I add critters occasionally do to interest in the species. He wanted the cats
but dogs, poultry, gamebirds, fish, rabbits and herps fill my menagerie and most recently mice.
I found this site while looking for genetic info. My interest in breeding mice actually started because of taxidermy (Yeah, loving taxidermy that adds the whole deceased animal to the collective menagerie as well, nothing is wasted if I can help it). Bats in the US are protected and endangered most places and while not exactly the same anatomically, I had thought mice were similar enough I could make a decent looking artificial bat for schools or museums. Living with my parents at the time I never had a chance to test my theory (they let me keep just about anything but for some reason drew the line at mice breeding?)
Next I obtained my snakes, first an unwanted ball python, later a couple of native species of colubrids to use for education programs. After reading a couple snake books, high school genetics took on a whole new fun meaning, lol! Now I was buying feeder and/or frozen mice. With the frozen I could only hope that the mice have some form of healthy living whilst in there mass produced existence some place. The living ones... well more than once I was not allowed to choose the mouse at the pet store, to return home with a sneezing, ruffled furred, emaciated on the verge of death mouse and it just made me sick, Pet store didn't care. Plus the cost in my area has gone from $1.50 ish for a white feeder to $2.75 for a white "fancy mouse" in the past few years of my snake owning, and the quality of mice remain the same. Not to mention the python who refuses to upgrade to rats can eat 3-4 mice every 10 days, so its really getting costly.
Now I'm trying to eat better and healthier myself, I even have a tortoise that eats better than me, he get all organic, I get it when I can :lol: So why shouldn't my snake food get better taken care of? (Plus, I moved out of my parents) I got a couple of does and a buck over the past couple months and started down this new path. I was reading on the web and have realized reptile genetics are a walk in the park compared to mice, I love challenges so I'm reading and trying to understand all this new information I have found.
When I have a chance I was going to post pictures to confirm but I believe I have a self-beige buck, 2 wild-type brown, a self black, and a self lavender in does. I got them before I realized or have decided what genetics I'd like to isolate. I'd like to stick with selfs for sure to start with. But my first litter between the buck and a brown doe produced a self black, 2 self blues (way to light) 3 spotted ones (I don't understand all the markings yet, excuse my terminology) and a satin? blue doe that is just a bit on the mealy side that I want to keep. I look forward to learning more about this and talking with some of you and hearing some of your input. Sorry this was long winded, and thank you in advance for putting up with me as a newbie.
Regards,
Amethyst
My name is Amethyst, I'm an animal enthusiast, and as my fiance is learning and so graciously accepting, I can and will have just about any animal that wanders up, or needs rescuing at anyone time (including wildlife) And I add critters occasionally do to interest in the species. He wanted the cats
I found this site while looking for genetic info. My interest in breeding mice actually started because of taxidermy (Yeah, loving taxidermy that adds the whole deceased animal to the collective menagerie as well, nothing is wasted if I can help it). Bats in the US are protected and endangered most places and while not exactly the same anatomically, I had thought mice were similar enough I could make a decent looking artificial bat for schools or museums. Living with my parents at the time I never had a chance to test my theory (they let me keep just about anything but for some reason drew the line at mice breeding?)
Next I obtained my snakes, first an unwanted ball python, later a couple of native species of colubrids to use for education programs. After reading a couple snake books, high school genetics took on a whole new fun meaning, lol! Now I was buying feeder and/or frozen mice. With the frozen I could only hope that the mice have some form of healthy living whilst in there mass produced existence some place. The living ones... well more than once I was not allowed to choose the mouse at the pet store, to return home with a sneezing, ruffled furred, emaciated on the verge of death mouse and it just made me sick, Pet store didn't care. Plus the cost in my area has gone from $1.50 ish for a white feeder to $2.75 for a white "fancy mouse" in the past few years of my snake owning, and the quality of mice remain the same. Not to mention the python who refuses to upgrade to rats can eat 3-4 mice every 10 days, so its really getting costly.
Now I'm trying to eat better and healthier myself, I even have a tortoise that eats better than me, he get all organic, I get it when I can :lol: So why shouldn't my snake food get better taken care of? (Plus, I moved out of my parents) I got a couple of does and a buck over the past couple months and started down this new path. I was reading on the web and have realized reptile genetics are a walk in the park compared to mice, I love challenges so I'm reading and trying to understand all this new information I have found.
When I have a chance I was going to post pictures to confirm but I believe I have a self-beige buck, 2 wild-type brown, a self black, and a self lavender in does. I got them before I realized or have decided what genetics I'd like to isolate. I'd like to stick with selfs for sure to start with. But my first litter between the buck and a brown doe produced a self black, 2 self blues (way to light) 3 spotted ones (I don't understand all the markings yet, excuse my terminology) and a satin? blue doe that is just a bit on the mealy side that I want to keep. I look forward to learning more about this and talking with some of you and hearing some of your input. Sorry this was long winded, and thank you in advance for putting up with me as a newbie.
Regards,
Amethyst