Outcrossing with wild mice

I have noticed that there is kind of a new 'trend' going on here with some breeders; they like to outcross their 'lines' (linebreeding and inbreeding isn't done here that much) with wild house mice.
They do this because it seems to increase health in the current mice stock (that are related amongst all breeders by now). The first generation produces half wild mice that are very hard to handle, but the wild behaviour can be absent from as early as the 3rd generation. Type has also returned by then.


What do you guys think of that? Is this a known phenomenon elsewhere? What are the real pro's and con's to this method?

Yuck. What a terrible idea in my opinion. None of my mice need help with health issues...and if anything wild mice don't live anywhere near as long as the nice show type mice.
Plus you would lose the rich colors, large size, good type, and temperment.
I would NEVER breed a wild mouse into my domestic line.

Not only for those reason...but also because wild mice would be very likely to kill my pets and could be carrying all kinds of funky parasites and illnesses!

Sounds like a terrible idea all around!

The only benefit I could ever think of in that situation is potentially new color genes.

That would be in no way worth the risk, IMO.
One stray mouse could wipe out your whole colony in the right conditions,
why do it on purpose? Especially if you've had your lines for awhile.
Heck, I almost never bring in new mice from other breeders.
I avoid petco like it's a smallpox clinic.

I would advise staying far away from any breeder that is so careless with their animal's health. It's the human's health too.
Hanta virus is something fiercely nasty.

I purchased some mice from a pet shop, before I located breeders and got my fancy stock, and I very much believe that they were half wild. They were labelled as fancy mice, but I've never seen any fancy mice that resembled them. Wish I'd taken a picture. They had the structure and shape of wild mice, and the only real difference was that two of them were blue. It wasn't obvious when they were young (and I'd purchased a reasonably typed dove tan doe from there before, so had no reason to suspect), or I wouldn't have wasted my money on them.

Worst animals I've ever had the misfortune of being duped into buying. Tiny, tiny things that never really grew, never was able to tame them in the slightest, and in fact, preferred not to have to catch them by hand as they were wild by mindset. Suffice to say that I didn't keep them - I'm filling their cages with typy PEWs and tris, instead.

I feel the same way. I hope it doesn't turn into a big trend. At first everyone seemed against it, but now there are more and more people trying it or claiming that a wild buck has slipped in with their does...