I'm getting some brindles!

It's genetic that the bucks die, there is no way to save them. Occasionally one may survive but they are weak and infertile. On a related note, the reason for the brindle pattern is to do with malabsorption of copper. I have often wondered whether feeding more copper would have any effect on the pattern but I don't have enough does to experiment with really.

Brindle does have the same survival rate as any other mouse - they don't suffer any ill effects due to being a brindle.

Yes, they are. And 99% die anyway.

The non brindle bucks are just normal mice as they don't have the brindle gene. However if you're breeding for brindles clearly you don't need to keep any bucks at all so personally I cull all bucks as soon as possible. I believe sarahc does the same but of course she would have to confirm. They are a difficult variety to breed as of course you can quite easily end up with no brindles in a litter. Statistically 25% of a litter should be brindle females, but in my experience it's usually 1 or if you're lucky 2 per litter, regardless of litter size. I've also had a few with no brindles at all, which is really disappointing.

None of my does have any problems, they are normal mice just with a brindle pattern. I think maybe the article was referring to the brindle bucks when it mentioned the shaking etc? The does certainly don't do that whether they're brindle or self, nor do they clasp their legs together rather than splay them out like other mice.

UK brindles are a different gene to US brindles and are sex-linked