#splash line

[kedreeva]

Two blue splashes and their mom, a self blue.

These are the last of the babies that were too young to go to the expo for adoption, and their mom, who is under pregnancy watch to make sure she's clear of pups so she can be adopted.

After these three find a home, I will be down to just three breeding groups- a SH self black cage, a siamese/splash cage carrying the texel genes (that I am hoping to see siamese texels from before I move the project out to another breeder), and a cage of mixed-pattern blues (aiming for blue tri texel, and this cage may also leave at some point). I'm looking forward to it! As much as I loved the mice, it's a relief to have the majority off my plate as I work with the birds.

[kedreeva]

Thassa lotta beans mama

[kedreeva]

A little blue splash colorpoint doe mouse

[kedreeva]

Photogenic little gal, isn't she?

[kedreeva]

Do you still have any chickens/nonpeafowl birds? How are your mice? I miss seeing those lil guys

I still have the quail, but no other fowl beasts than the peafowl and the quail. Joslin passed away a few years ago now, at a whopping 11 years old.

I sold the last of my mice a couple of weeks ago! They had gotten to the point where I was not having fun with them, they were taking up space I wanted for quail brooding (and the feather dust was not good for them), Their equipment took up a LOT of space because none of it was shared with the birds, and the quail were filling the same niche in my "I need genetics to fiddle with while waiting for peafowl" function, so I ended up sending some of the lines to nearby (or far away) breeders and selling off the does I had available. The last ones left June 1st!

[kedreeva]

How are the sentient lint balls angora mice doing? I know their temperament left much to be desired last you really spoke of them

yes, it did.

Well, I wasn't sure when I was going to announce it, but after a few discussions with friends and family and a good, long think by myself, I decided that I would largely be getting out of mice.

When I originally got the mice, I did so with the intent to have a little side project to fiddle with, genetically, while I waited the three years between peafowl generations. I got free caging from work, I got free food from work, and sometimes even got free bedding from work, if bags tore.

And for a while after I left, I was still running over to pick up busted bags when they called me, but the situation there was... well, Bad, and the folks I had contact with eventually left, too, and so I switched to feeds from the mills where I got my bird feed. The feed costs were high and the mice weren't producing enough/finding enough homes to even pay for themselves. At some point, I stopped enjoying them, and started dreading change days and having to pick new breeders and having to do temperament testing- all things that at some point I really loved doing!

But, with the cost and the shift in feelings, and with the quail filling the same genetics niche without needing special super-expensive food, and the quail being able to be eaten by me if I couldn't sell them, and the quail being wayyyyy more easy to sell, AND the idea that I could actually move the brooder into the incubator room and lower my electricity bill considerably... Eventually it added up to calling some local breeder friends, and arranging to dissipate my lines to others.

Thankfully, I'll have their contact if I want to get lines back sometime, after a good break, and nothing I had outside of maybe the texels would be all THAT difficult to replace if I really had to- I see splashes and pieds and even siamese and blacks around all the time.

I've got a few does in the basement that I'm going to do one last temperament test on at the end of this month, and a few more cages of breeders awaiting pickup. For the moment, I'm keeping a pair of the chocolate tricolors, a pair of the angora tricolors, and a trio of blue tricolor, to wean myself off breeding them without feeling like I quit cold turkey (which is the fastest way to get sad and buy more and cause myself problems) and to leave me with a few pups I can give Bug once in a while, but they will also probably end up at my nearest breeder friend's house, or at least moved to a friend.

So yeah! They will do good in their new home, it's just not here anymore :)

[kedreeva]

Checking temperament on babies coming up for sale, and this group of splashes is not scared of hands at all!

A lot of times when mice first smell human hands being offered, they'll make a face and go the other way. Can't blame them, we smell like a giant predator, I assume. But with selection you CAN pick for mice that don't seem to mind, and will in fact just climb aboard offered hands.

One of the temperament tests I do is to rapidly lift and rapidly drop my hand, with the mouse aboard. A flighty mouse will jump or at least start standing high on its feet looking to get away quickly. A more domesticated mouse will hunker down and hold on tighter, making for a mouse that is easier to handle and harder to accidentally drop, as their instinct is to hold on. As a funny side effect, many mice actually seem to enjoy this "ride" on the hand elevator! They are let off back into the holding bin after one drop, but more often than not they whip around and climb right back in to go again. Some will do this over and over and over, and even shove other prospective riders out of the way to get back on first!

[kedreeva]

I love the void mice, and if it were in any way feasible, I’d take them as pets. Especially with the foundational work that’s gone into them. They’re spectacular and so charming

I appreciate the sentiment anyway <3

I think a lot of people pass them over, because they'll be in the same bin as mice like this baby

Or this one

Or this breeder when she retires and is looking for a soft landing in her old age

I always hope people say "yes even then I would choose the self blacks" but at the end of the day, they usually don't. I actually get the best reaction to them from the little kids- they LOVE the solid colored mice, the solid blacks and the solid whites especially. Those are the ones they always want to hold and beg their parents to let them take home, and the parents always do the :(( and "but don't you want the prettier one over here?"