Quarantine

It actually happened - the astrex miraculously made it over here. I'll write a full post on those ladies when I get photos of them.

My concern lies with their age and quarantine. I was told a month ago the mice are about 12 weeks old which puts them at about 16 weeks now. That leaves ~2 months before they shouldn't breed for their first litter. Is quarantine only three weeks? I was just wondering if given the smaller time window I should risk putting my older buck in with them after two and in the worst case, I lose him at 1.5 years old. Or should I just not worry about the breeding time window and stick to 3 weeks?

Also wondering what people do for the mice during this time. I've heard of people giving the mice Baytril with no symptoms, treating for mites, etc...

The girls were in a cage with their sister, next to a cage with their brother and his lady friend. He had a little eye irritation which made it rather squinty so obviously I wish to abide by quarantine rules given something was going on there, I just don't want to have brought them over for nothing.

Three qeeks is the standard QT. I feel your indecision. Some people do risk their bucks and put them in with a doe during QT. If you don't mind losing your buck, I would say that's perfectly fine. On occasion I have put an expendable doe in with a QT doe who was too lonely and not doing well.

I don't know what the treatment for eye irritation is or how bad that could become. I hope more people will weigh in, here.

Oh their eyes are fine. It was the brother who didn't look so well (I had planned on bringing him home but preferred another healthy mouse instead). I'm sure it wasn't too serious, especially given the breeder didn't see it.

I think I'll play it by ear...plan for the standard three weeks but if he starts looking frail, well, I'll risk it slightly earlier in the hopes he'll have a little pep in him. Despite my best attempts his coat is more silvery-blue than his offspring's which I prefer. Thanks Ann!

I may be a bit out of the loop, but where and when did you get these mice? Did you make that trip to the USA?

Oh dear, yes! It was quite the process (the girls I was traveling with were very, very against it and it was only at the last minute they conceded). I picked them up on Saturday in Detroit. No problems at the border whatsoever!

Oh, good! What breeder are they from? (I'm just curious. I don't know that area at all.)

She doesn't have a mousery name unfortunately. I don't want to leave clues as there's a person in her area that might see this post who shouldn't own animals but I can email you!

Her lines can be traced back to love2read but so distantly that it doesn't really count. She got her mice from a person who used to post here briefly. Her knowledge of mouse colours and genetics is limited but she said they're sired by a himi, doe was a champagne splashed (I think she meant variegated though I never saw the doe). One of their brothers is blue. So we'll see what pops up when I toss in my mystery bag of c-dilutes. The breeder could trace about five generations from her own breeding.

One doe as a baby:



Still not sure what curly gene it is, it just seems easier to say astrex.

Yeah, astrex is called rex in the USA and that baby looks rex. Thanks for the great pix!

Her sister isn't as rex-y looking but I'm told she was curly too. We will see!

The does have been on a different floor of the house for 2 weeks now to the day. All looking good! Still worth waiting the last week before placing my (expendable) buck in with them? I suppose my worry is they might take a while to get pregnant and am nervous about passing that 6 month mark. I'm sorely tempted to put them together on Monday, so five days short of 3 weeks in QT.

Seafolly, the conventional wisdom in this country is that you can breed does until they are one year old. If you want to stick with your six months, then go ahead and put your expendable buck in with them. After all, he's expendable, so it's "safe."

Oh I thought the first litter had to be before 6 months? I should probably clear that up, lol!

Posted on FB as well, but there's no reason a doe can't have her first litter up to retirement age. They are not like the myth about guinea pig pelvic fusion (which I'd believed until corrected by the pig-owning wife today!).

This takes off sooo much pressure. Man, it's amazing how certain "rules" get so widespread! http://www.hiiret.fi/eng/breeding/essentials1.html <- That didn't help, haha.

"The pelvic bones of older females who have not given birth aren't as flexible as those of a younger doe. Thus, the doe may not be able to give birth" While this is true, it's equivalent to saying 20 (or 30!) year old women's pelvises aren't as flexible as a 14 year old girl's. It's true, certainly, and conventional wisdom used to be that women needed to start having babies early, before they were fully grown. Suffice to say we don't do that anymore, and not just because modern medicine makes it safer for older women (35+) to be getting pregnant for the first time. Waiting until they' (mice) are fully grown puts less strain on their bodies at a time when they really need to be putting all their energy into becoming a big, typey, hefty girl.

Some folks have experienced trouble getting fully-grown does to catch, but I've had the opposite experience. It seems the import lines and the bigger American show lines hit sexual maturity rather later than smaller pet-type or feeder-type lines, so I'm stuck waiting longer than I normally expect to for that first pregnancy. Possibly this is because they're still growing for far longer than the smaller pet types. Not really sure.