breedingcolors
Freaky!
I raised some of my baby mice to get some new breeders. I am ready to make new colonies with them. Can I put a male with 4-5 of his sisters? Will they make healthy babies?
Thanks!
Thanks!
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Can I beed brother and sister mice together?
- Thread starter breedingcolors
- Start date
Taceas
USW = UB313
I've yet to have an issue doing just that. Although I have qualms about doing it 5-6 generations in a row. Its really the best way to avoid introduction problems and ensure disease free mice in the future.
I guess I'm lucky in that my colonies are generally founded by 5 different males, and I can just mix 'n match males and females and get mostly unrelated bloodlines together.
After my extreme moment of dumb-assed-ness and got a new male from an unreliable petshop, that ended up carrying a lovely virulent strain of Myco, I lost quite a few of my adult female breeders. I'm just now rebounding 3-4 months later. *knocks furiously on wood* :headbang:
So I'm not going to be doing THAT anymore, I don't think. Most of the surviving ones have minor sniffles when it gets really warm or their cages are nearing time to be cleaned out. Their offspring are healthy and thriving. So I think I managed to get immunity going from that little stint and hopefully the last in the forseeable future.
But as contrived and contrary to textbooks as it sounds, its not that bad in the short run. I don't think there's enough of a problem with it because they live such short lives anyway. If you have issues with it in the future, just try to remember which female had which babies. Usually there's a minute size difference that you can tell, and keep back the healthiest looking from each mother. That will help to ensure at least some genetic diversity.
I guess I'm lucky in that my colonies are generally founded by 5 different males, and I can just mix 'n match males and females and get mostly unrelated bloodlines together.
After my extreme moment of dumb-assed-ness and got a new male from an unreliable petshop, that ended up carrying a lovely virulent strain of Myco, I lost quite a few of my adult female breeders. I'm just now rebounding 3-4 months later. *knocks furiously on wood* :headbang:
So I'm not going to be doing THAT anymore, I don't think. Most of the surviving ones have minor sniffles when it gets really warm or their cages are nearing time to be cleaned out. Their offspring are healthy and thriving. So I think I managed to get immunity going from that little stint and hopefully the last in the forseeable future.
But as contrived and contrary to textbooks as it sounds, its not that bad in the short run. I don't think there's enough of a problem with it because they live such short lives anyway. If you have issues with it in the future, just try to remember which female had which babies. Usually there's a minute size difference that you can tell, and keep back the healthiest looking from each mother. That will help to ensure at least some genetic diversity.
yes.
Just remember~
When you linebreed/inbreed you are concentrating the characteristics already there. So desirable traits AND UNDESIRABLE traits are more likely to show. You understand heterozygous and homozygous right? The reason that linebreeding/inbreeding is frowned upon is that unseen, un-expressed heterozygous traits MAY become homozygous in the offspring (where as if they were OUT CROSSED it is less likely).
That said~ I do it fairly often. I don't like to bring new stock into my colony as it increases the risk of disease. Usually I try to pull a male from a different tub than his sisters~ so the closest relation would be cousins~ possibly distant cousins. HOWEVER~ IF there is a trait I want that is only being displayed in a few animals (Such as when I first found the silkies in my colony~ or when I purchased a Dumbo male rat a couple years ago, or for specific color combinations) then I will breed Brothers to sister, and/or daughters back to sons.
Just remember~
When you linebreed/inbreed you are concentrating the characteristics already there. So desirable traits AND UNDESIRABLE traits are more likely to show. You understand heterozygous and homozygous right? The reason that linebreeding/inbreeding is frowned upon is that unseen, un-expressed heterozygous traits MAY become homozygous in the offspring (where as if they were OUT CROSSED it is less likely).
That said~ I do it fairly often. I don't like to bring new stock into my colony as it increases the risk of disease. Usually I try to pull a male from a different tub than his sisters~ so the closest relation would be cousins~ possibly distant cousins. HOWEVER~ IF there is a trait I want that is only being displayed in a few animals (Such as when I first found the silkies in my colony~ or when I purchased a Dumbo male rat a couple years ago, or for specific color combinations) then I will breed Brothers to sister, and/or daughters back to sons.
breedingcolors
Freaky!
Thanks!
I already have 2 differents colony so I will try to mix and match a male from one to the females of the other. But it is not always so easy. The first babies I kept, I found that I had 1 female... and 3 males LOL.
I heard that sometimes the mice were sterile when doing that (brothers and sisters together). I wanted to be sure before I make my new colonies.
Thanks again!
I already have 2 differents colony so I will try to mix and match a male from one to the females of the other. But it is not always so easy. The first babies I kept, I found that I had 1 female... and 3 males LOL.
I heard that sometimes the mice were sterile when doing that (brothers and sisters together). I wanted to be sure before I make my new colonies.
Thanks again!
Sasheena
Addicted
I agree with the others. You don't want to breed siblings who are offspring of siblings who are offspring of siblings etc... but if you mix things around, you can do a lot of inbreeding without too much problems. I got a lot of mice to add to my colonies in the beginning but in the last 18 months I've added no new mice to my colonies. I don't worry about brother's sisters... when it's weaning time all the boys go in my boy weaner bin, and all the girls go in my girl weaner bin, and when I feed off a colony and free up a cage for a new colony, I grab four or five girl mice and a boy mouse and make a new colony... and I don't even know if they're closely or distantly related.
I have had a couple of "deformities" cropping up.... a mouse with one ear, other mice with small or strange shaped ears, and also mice with curls and kinks in their tails.... but none of these traits seem to be detrimental to the primary purpose of breeding the mice for snake food, so I don't worry about it.
I have had a couple of "deformities" cropping up.... a mouse with one ear, other mice with small or strange shaped ears, and also mice with curls and kinks in their tails.... but none of these traits seem to be detrimental to the primary purpose of breeding the mice for snake food, so I don't worry about it.