[Loganberry]

Unfortunately animals do attract, and I'm phrasing this politely, nutters

hahaha! very true!

 

[Loganberry]

how many times have senior breeders let strains of winning mice go to persons who have been in the fancy a year or so, make all the right noises etc, only to find a year or so later that they have given up and the mice are down the pet store or worse. loads times . a contract saying that the mice have to be retuned to the original supplier if the fancier gives up the breed would be good. five generations-load of rubbuish ! a strain belongs to the breeder by then !

I see the point in this, but I like the words of a top fancier who told me that as soon as the mice go in your shed, they're yours. You can easily f'em up in a few weeks with the wrong food, poor care, and bad selection for breeding, through inexperience or just a lack of ability. I have given people mice and seen this happen in a few months.

Sure, it's irritating if the stock you gave them was good, and they mess it up or give up completely, but i believe that if you just expect that to happen as default, you can only be pleasantly surprised if it all goes well. Personally, once mice leave my shed, i wouldn't weant them back nine times out of 10, or if i had to have them back, i'd probably just end up culling them.

 

[Loganberry]

There are also the people who ask you for pet mice, then a few weeks/months later you see their offspring advertised as 'exhibition' or 'top show quality' mice. That is what really irks me - duping trusting members of the public and giving the hobby/NMC a bad name.

I agree!

Another irk for me is people that use your stud name in adverts for young mice, which may be the origins of the mice that they have been breeding from, but, as in my previous post above, they have already made a mess of the line.

I have been guilty of making a mess of lines of mice that have come into my shed; it's all part of the learning curve! You let things slip because you don't know what you're doing. But I don't like it when i see my stud name quoted in ads for stock from a new breeder.