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Focuses
I enjoy all colors, markings, coats, patterns, and types of mice.
Here at The Fun Mouse I work on different varieties which I strive to improve with every generation. Nothing listed here is to take president over another as I breed for the entire mouse, with health and temperament being of the utmost importance.I focus deeply on Rex, especially Satin Texel, and strive to improve lasting curl. My long term goal is to convert the majority of my mousery to Satin Texel. It will take many years to do so since I don't breed strictly for coat but rather the over all mouse. This is why you will find a lot of Satins, Standards, Fuzzy, Angoras, and combinations there of in my mousery.
I focus a lot on Piebald and breed it into every breeding program here at TFM. I strive for higher marked Pied, though
I presently have a long way to go with this goal. Right now my Pied's are under marked (a good mousery is always willing to admit their faults and what they strive to improve 
). Piebald plays a large roll in my TriColor program as they are made with Pied markings. I focus more on the darker TriColors as they attract me more. The lightest I tend to go is Coffee, while I focus more on Mock Chocolate and Burmese. I strive for distinguished, well clumped markings of even proportions.
The c-diluted (Coffee, Burmese, and Mock Chocolate) non-Splashed/TriColor mice from my TriColor program are taken and bred into my Fox program. I would, eventually, like to breed Blues into this program, for Blue Fox. This is a distant goal, however.
I focus heavily on Silver and Blue, both in Tan.
I strive to improve color consistency, removing the mealy coloration they sometimes have. Lilac is a beautiful side effect of my Blue and Silver goals. Good Lilac Tans make me drool. The main Pattern focus at TFM is Brindled. Years ago, when I first got into mice, brindle (Viable Yellow Avy) was one of the first I ever bred. Miss Dainty, the mouse that all my mice are named after, was a Viable Yellow Brindle. Therefore, brindle holds a deep spot in my heart. Through the years I have found Brindled (sex-linked brindle Mobr) to suit my fancy better and thus moved onto them years after a brindle hiatus. I enjoy many colors of brindleds yet find myself gravitating to non agouti (black) brindleds. I do breed other colors into my brindleds, however.
I also focus on body type, per Club standards.
I strive to improve body type, equally focusing on the over all mouse. I am currently working hard to improve type with texel (texels often have a hamster type by nature). In a very short time I've made great strides to improve their type. I do not, however, breed my mice to be as large as possible .While those are adorable in their own respect, part of my appeal to mice is their small size. If I wanted larger animals, I would likely choose a different species to have as pets. With all that said, my mice are larger than what you would generally find at a pet store.Other Mentionables
I do not focus on Fuzzy. However, I do make an effort to keep it alive in my mousery and will specifically breed it from time to time. I love all types of Fuzzy, from nearly hairless to very thick coats.
I would love to focus more on Merle and Roan. However, among the other goals, I haven't found the time to focus as much on them as I would like. Therefore, I can not call Roan and Merle a focus, but would like to focus more on them some day.
Unfortunately, I've given up my Silver Argente and Blue Agouti lines. Sorry to those this disappoints. I give them up because I am only able to have so many focuses and still give my mice the time and dedication they deserve (and I deserve with them!). I love them and would love to see someone else pick up where I left off.
Goals and breeding practices
While I breed for the over all mouse, I breed for health and temperament first and foremost. At the same time I breed for coat, color, markings and type.
All breedings are planned with goals for the over all mouse. I set high standards and will not place together any breeding that doesn't have well set, over all goal, and can help improve mice as whole. Breeding, when done right, will improve the line with every generation. Every breeding I do is planned with the most care. Breeding goals are always set high and done with knowledge of genetics and understanding of mouse standards set forth by honorable clubs. Several generation breeding goals are always planned as well. Here at TFM, not all mice are bred either. Mice are not toys, nor breeding factories! They are loving, caring, PETS that deserve respect. If I didn't love them as pets, I wouldn't have them. It is my strong opinion that people who don't love mice (or any animal for that matter) as PETS not only shouldn't breed them, but they shouldn't have them either! Some mice in my mousery are 'pets only' and never bred for an 
array of reasons. Some are never bred because a perfect match doesn't come along. No breeding will be done before its time, nor made just because it can.Each breeding is done to better both mice and improve the line. Doing so takes the right pairings. Some mice are never bred because they don't live up to my standards to improve mice as a species. Not all mice are meant to be bred. Some are never bred because I simply never planned on breeding them. As stated, I love them and their presents is all I need to enjoy them :). I state all this to illustrate that I will always breed for health and temperament first because they are, in fact, loving pets and breeding requires much care, knowledge, and planning. I strive to improve mice as a species, in all aspects. I feel that tracking the health of my lines is one of the most important things to help insure quality mice.
I make health tracking a *top* priority. I will not breed mice that are unfit to be bred health wise. It doesn't matter how rare the color, pattern,coat, etc that may pop out. A mouse that is less than healthy yet rare is no different than any other mouse unfit to be bred.I practice selective breeding and have a good bearing in genetics. I do a lot of out-crossing and line breeding. I am very much against casually inbreeding close relatives and always have been (this does not shadow the fact that sometimes there IS reason to do so in some cases but only when it is well thought out and there is no alternative). A partial roll model for my breeding methods stem from rehabilitation centers that try to preserve and better wild life/endangered species. They have countless years of research and know how to breed for the best quality animals. After all, their goal is to preserve species and make them strong. In doing so they do NOT
inbreed unless they are forced to (as in, there are only 2 animals of species left and the only way to continue the species is to mate the siblings together). Generally there isn't a need for that with mice. Inbreeding also causes what is known as 'Inbreeding Depression' which I try to avoid with a good balance of out-crossing and line breeding practices.I do not breed all my lines separately. For the most part, I do not breed types that need to be kept separate. I am able to cross many of my lines together (such as using Coffee for both my Fox's and Tri's). Part of the reason for breeding many of my lines together is to out-cross. Having many mice and being able to breed them across lines helps widen my gene pool greatly, which therefore helps keep the diversity I feel is very important for the health and well being of a mouse. However, there are some lines I keep very separate as they can interact with each other, causing undesirable results.
I don't discuss much about temperament on this page
as my mice are well known for being friendly (it is a common misconception that mice are not as friendly as other pets, such as hamsters. Mice are actually MORE friendly, if bred properly). My mice often win shows in the Most Friendly category of shows as well. I smother them with love and make socializing them a priority. I do so not only because it is important for them, but it is important for me as well. I enjoy being with my mice and I feel it's important for me to know their individual personalities. Often this is overlooked as being so incredibly important,but knowing their personality helps a caregiver detect if something is wrong far before someone that doesn't interact with their mice as much.To see my mice and how tame they are, check out my Mouse Movies.
To learn more about my ethics and practices, take a stroll through the Mouse Information pages (the Ethics page applies the most, but my beliefs and practices are not limited to that page).All of my mouse pedigrees are out there for the world to see. Everything is tracked and disclosed freely. At The Fun Mouse I hide nothing and hope to set a good example of other mouseries around the world. If you have any questions about my mousery, breeding practices, or anything else relating to my mousery, feel free to contact me via the Contact Me link.
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