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Merbil or Gouse?

Matt L

Matt L

New member
Well I know this is a little off subject(cornsnakes that is), but I couldn't help sharing this. This little girl popped up in my rodent breeding colony. It is the product of a well established colony. It looks like a cross beween a gerbil and a mouse. the eyes are 3 three times the size it's litermates, huge back feet, tufted tail, small ears and while I was taking the picture I caught it stuffing food into its cheeks. I welcome some comments on this--call me confused.
 

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Matt,
it looks more gerbil than mouse. This came out of a mouse breeding colony? Have you added any new mice recently? It is a very strange looking animal! Maybe you have stumbled into something new...Thanks for sharing the pic! please tell us if you happen to find any other strange animals in this colony..

Ken
 
Ken,
Yes, a mouse colony! I added about 30 new mice about 8 months ago. I had a slump in production and it was time for new blood lines. This is the first odd one I have seen so far. As a fuzzie this animal was ugly, almost like a giant runt, but I noticed the white stripe on its head and decided to keep it. I didn't think much about indentifying the parents until it was to late, i know which tray and which male, but I have a 1 in 5 shot on the female.
I did hold back one litermate a male as the odd one is a female.

Matt
 
Matt,
Could it be that some of the 30 new mice had been cross bred with gerbils, and it has taken this long for the trait to come out? it will be very interesting to see what happens if you breed one of it's litter mates to it! One just never knows what would be born then! I finally just figured out why i was having a slump in production with my mice. 27 females and no males!! I must have fed all the males because they were bigger. I just picked up 15 more and I asked for all males! I also got 4 rats but they all look female to me, although they are young. good luck with your merbil!!

Ken
 
Holy crap...O.k. so this is a rodent that was born from mice??!?! Holy crap. I keep both gerbils and mice. That thing is cute though!

I didnt even know they would mate with each other...???

bmm
 
Talk about a slump! No males will do it every time!
I try to keep 2 replacement breeding groups in reserve. Its alot of cycling and record keeping, but it has helped my production greatly. I don't keep my breeders more than 10 months(mice). rats will go 14 to 18 months sometimes longer. Oh yeah, the male rats have the tail pillow(LOL).

Matt
 
bmm,
I don't know if this is a cross and I don't know if they will crossbreed, I do know however, I don't have any gerbils. Just this little whateveritis?!?

Matt
 
Well I suppose since it was born from a mouse, yet looks exactly like a gerbil it can already be considered a hybrid. That little one looks exactly like my gerbil babies. How odd. What are you going to do with it?

bmm
 
Tail pilliow..LOL!! Last time I really looked they all looked female. Of course as I was adding them to the cage my buddy calls and asks what i am doing dumb me answers "sexing rats" to which he replies "I hope you have the shades closed" Followed by a few other remarks that I won't add here! After a conversation like that it makes me wonder why i have friends!!LOL!! I guess I'll head back to the pet shop and look for some "pilliow's"

Ken
 
more of a cross breed, I went over to "investigate" for myself and it did indeed come out of a mouse colony its moter was a silver colored mouse and father we are not sure, it has a brother that looks alot like it but without the long haired coat it does but they are the same color, it also like to "hop" around sometimes.
 
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