Techniques for linebreeding

What kind of techniques are you using in your mousery to breed the best quality of mice?

I'm doing a bit of research on the subject of linebreeding and everybody seems to have a different approach. I am looking for a way to improve in my own mousery, but I'm kind of running out of idea's...
Are there many breeders who use trio's? And what about a line, coming from a trio, but there is only one doe and 2 bucks?
The reason I ask is because I'm trying to breed sex-linked brindles, but there always seems to go something wrong and I'm left with only one usable doe from each litter....

And also, I would just like to know how everybody is going about it! ^^

[Dino] wrote:What kind of techniques are you using in your mousery to breed the best quality of mice?

I take the best buck and best doe I have of a specific color/variation, put them in a cage together, and say, "now kiss!

Teehee XP

On a more serious note...

I breed the best mice I have of a certain variation(example: extreme black) and if any of the offspring are equal to or exceeding their parents' type I will keep those babies and breed them together(or to their parent...whoever is best).

Inbreeding/linebreeding is done as-needed. I don't even add relations into the equation. It doesn't matter to me if the mice are related or not. All that matters is type. If I have a doe and her brother has better type then an unrelated buck, then I'll pair her with her brother. If the other buck is better then I'll pair her with him instead.

Although, if you're wanting to keep your line pure and weed out unwanted recessives than inbreeding will help in that area. As you inbreed for a certain color it will eventually become "pure"is or pretty darn close after many generations of selective breeding.

I breed similarly to what Love2read described.

I breed the best mice together, which just happens to be the ones that are related.

Hemlock- you tell your mice too kiss too?! O.O

Lol

Love2read wrote:

[Dino] wrote:What kind of techniques are you using in your mousery to breed the best quality of mice?

I take the best buck and best doe I have of a specific color/variation, put them in a cage together, and say, "now kiss!

LOL this made me almost choke to death!

Love2read wrote:Hemlock- you tell your mice too kiss too?! O.O

Lol

Well its more like,"Breed! I want babies!" when I put them together...

I hear mice do well when trained commands! I'm sure it works . Hahaha.

Haha, you guys sure are a funny bunch LOL

Thanks for the reply's!
I was always worried to breed too closely related mice together and that I would get stuck real fast that way. So I figured out a little system of beginning with 2 unrelated couples and then breeding the male offspring of one litter to the female offspring of the other litter and so on for many generations, because the inbreeding percentage doesn't go up that fast that way. But maybe I shouldn't be worrying about relations that much and see what mice fit best together based on type and health and such.

If you're starting out with pet store mice, make sure to put a big emphasis on temperament too. Don't breed any that are nippers or too skiddish as it tends to be genetic to a certain extent. Typey mice are useless if they can't be handled.

I agree with all. I am trying not to outcross right now, and I just breed the best to the best regardless of relation.

Ok, thanks so much for all the very useful info ^^

I started out with 'show' mice, but the problem here is that none of the available mice from breeders are very type like a real show mice should be, they mostly look like just the fancy type, slightly bigger than feederbin mice. And the tail-set is apparently something that no breeder pays any attention to, its not even mentioned when judged for type!

This is the best typed buck I had managed to breed myself, but his color is awful (he also is astrex)

He has no tailset and to find mice that big is a real rarity... I only got this far because I found one of the three breeders that have mice that are typed a bit like the English show mice (but again, no tailset to be found).

By the way; inbreeding/linebreeding is 'not done' over here, most breeders just get their mice from other breeders. So it's not a subject I can discus on a dutch forum...

I would say your best bet for retaining what type you have been able to produce, is to inbreed or line breed. Outcrossing can be one of the quickest ways to lose type, color, marking, etc in a line! (Unless of course the outcross is beneficial and fixes faults in your lines). If the practice isnt common over there, just dont mention it to people I would say. Or even try and educate them on the beneficial outcomes of using that particular breeding strategy; there is no harm from [proper] inbreeding, issues only arise if there are already problems within the line..

That's ok, I'll still just tell anyone who want's to buy my mice how I keep and breed them, don't want to be called a liar or anything. If that results in me not selling any mice anymore, then so be it, I breed them for hobby anyway, not for selling them
I tried to discuss it before, but if the whole forum thinks in one direction about the subject, it's hard to convince them otherwise. But the reactions aren't that bad, they just don't agree in general

If anybody has a different approach, I would still like to hear about it (I mean read LOL) ^^
Thanks for all the info so far you guys!

[Dino] wrote:That's ok, I'll still just tell anyone who want's to buy my mice how I keep and breed them, don't want to be called a liar or anything.

Woops thats what I meant. Haha

This is an insanely helpful thread. I've been on the hunt for a new male but my foundation male is better than what I'm seeing in stores by a long shot. The thing is I'd be looking at breeding his granddaughter back to him (they're either beige or bone...can't tell with satin) and I was nervous about the outcome given he's been the stud to everyone so far.