[SarahY]

Hi All,

Just looking for some advice. My current argente litter are now two days old and I was going to cull the bucks tomorrow - but the litter is very buck heavy by the looks of it and I really wanted to keep the doves/champagne. The mating is argente x argente and both parents are Aa Bb pp, so in the litter of 8 I'll only get a couple of doves and one champagne if I'm lucky.

So - do I wait a few more days until the colour has started to come through and cull the argente bucks then, or do I just take it down to 5 like I was going to and repeat the mating if I don't have any doves/chams left? Will the quality of the mice left suffer if the excess are culled at 5 or 6 days rather than 3?

If it helps to know, I wouldn't be showing any until they're adults anyway (if there were any good enough) as I'm still learning to drive, so I don't need the mice to reach their genetic size early - but if not culling tomorrow would affect them as adults I'll do it as I'd rather have big strong mice the wrong colour than weak little dove/cham mice.

Hope someone can help!

Sarah xxx

 

[Cait]

Good question... I suppose it all depends how 3-4 days affects them at this age, my guess would be quite a lot although as you say it's whether they'd catch up later anyway. Some breeders swear that they don't cull litters the size of yours and that they catch up by the time they're adult - I can think of one such breeder who certainly shows some decent sized mice as a result of this system. So I think yes, wait until they start to get fur since you have lowish odds and it's not a critical litter. Oh, the people who do not cull litters feed like mad to make the babies catch up though, high protein, lactol, milk soaked bread etc etc... you'd probably have to do the same.

 

[SarahY]

Thanks Cait!

Sarah xxx

 

[SarahY]

Just to update, she actually had 9 kittens. I sexed them on Saturday, there were 7 bucks and 2 does *groan*. She ate one of the does sometime on Sunday, and the colour came through today so I was able to cull 3 argente bucks, leaving me 5 kittens. I've got a couple of doves, one champagne and two that I'm still not sure about - could be champagne agouti (A- bb pp) as they are paler than the argentes I culled, but not as pale as the one I think is champagne. Or they could be browny-doves or really rubbish argentes. So really, I have no idea lol.

Culling wasn't very nice I have to say - I've never killed anything that a) I wasn't going to eat or b) wasn't sick, but I firmly told myself all the reasons to do it and got it done. Perhaps it'll be easier next time...

Sarah xxx