Eva's Mouse Breeds Page

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Self * Tan * Tan Banded * Marked Varieties * Fox * Shaded Varieties * Agouti * Silvered * Fur varieties *

Breeds of mice (Mus musculus) kept as pets in Sweden

Denna sida på svenska. In cavies the only difference between two breeds may be the colour or the coat. All cavies are bred to the same general body size and body type, all breeds shall have the same drooping ears and so on.
But in our mice we have three differing breeds that differs in body type, size, shape of head and ears... All these breeds can be showed in any variety, ie standard colour, coat, and so on. Byt the mini mouse is rare, and few breeders are interested.

The Swedish mouse. Swedish mice come in nearly all possible colour-, marking- and coat varieties. Quite long lived and healthy. The Swedish mouse corresponds with the American mouse kept in the US.
In Sweden we have almost all colours except Pearl and colours based on recessive yellow. We do not have Tigers (viable yellow). We do have all coat types except "frizzy" or "rex", we only have dominant astrex when it comes to curly coats.
Through the years the Swedish type mouse have been crosed with English type mouse so much that even more typical Swedish type mice have rather good ears and long tails.
The English mouse. Also called English "Show" Mice, and come in many colours. Often these have gotten tumours or problems with their back or hind legs, and they usually do not live very long lives. On the other hand these mice usually have very nice temperaments. The English typed mouse is usually extremely beautiful.
Through careful breeding programmes, using English type mice bought from our neighbours in Finland, these mice today have a much better health.
The English mice usually do not come in coated varieties, or marked varieties like dutch, even, broken and so on. The owner of this pretty mouse is Birgitta Brandt.
The Mini mouse. Usually a very small short haired black mouse with white markings. These have some kind of congenital defect in the back and tail, giving the mouse a stiff gait and a more stiff tail than a normal (Swedish or English) mouse has.
Mini mice are commonly black or black and white. A few other colours may be seen.

The name of this mouse is "Venturens Mini Hildur" and the name of the owner is Anna Krentzel.
Mixed breeds. Swedish type mice and English type mice are cross-bred a lot. This usually produces a small mouse with good ears, nice face and long tail. These mixed mice are often used to improve the Swedish type mice, hence the fact that the Swedish typed mice often have such nice ears and tails today.
Sometimes Swedish type mice have been crossed with the Mini mouse to get more different colours on the latter.

Problems

We have in the past had bad health problems with our English type mice. They often have very good temper but had bad health. Some got humpbacked, like the mose in the photo, and sometimes much worse. (The photo shows one of my mice back in 1989.) The quality of the English typed mouse is today much improved by responsible breeders.

Today the English type mouse here in Sweden has good health and live rather long, and they live just as long as our Swedish type mice. But you have to remember to feed all mice exceptionally well or they will not live as long as they otherwise could.

The Mini mouse do not always have such good temper.