Taswell Stud

Last week on the morning of the Sowood show I walked through the bus station to find that the bus that I had planned to get (as advertised on their website) was not running. Dilemma! I therefore couldn't get to the show. This was such a disaster - I had arranged to steward as well as to collect a new buck, and it turned into one of the biggest and best Sowood's ever, so I am beyond gutted that I ended up missing it. The joys of not being able to drive! I'm now counting down to the Manchester show in November - and I WILL make it!

Well the waiting finally came to an end today - all of the mice appart from 00/02 and her litter (Litter 1 - five does) were culled today. They had shown signs of respiratory infections for several weeks and had only gotten worse. The two bucks from the litter were extremely skinny and while the doe from the litter was a nice weight she had an aweful sneeze, the worst of any of them. The nursing doe was equally as underweight as her babies and I discovered she had actually stopped lactating, probably because she was not eating much if anything - with unweaned babies his explains why they were getting thin. I have arranged to collect a new buck at the Sowood show so all is not lost, but I won't be able to pair up any mice until then which will slow the stud down evern more.

It's been a busy  few days here at Taswell Stud. As is common with many beginner studs, a lot of my mice began showing signs of respiratory infections. This extended from my cinnamon stud buck, to a nursing doe and her litter (Litter 2). Thankfully most of these are now showing improvements, though I have had to cull the cinnamon buck from Litter 2 because he stopped growing and became emaciated, most likely due to his mother being sick and unable to feed 4 pups. The rest are the right size and are looking healthy, so fingers crossed we are over the worst of it and things will start looking up from here!

Both of the new litters here at Taswell Stud are doing great. The first litter is a lovely chunkey group of 5 does - I was very surprised at the gender ratio here! Two of them are cinnamon and three are agouti. I'm sure they will all prove to be valuable to the stud. The second litter is now down to four - two agouti bucks, a cinnamon buck and a cinnamon doe. I was surprised at the variety ratio for this litter - of the original 9 born, only 2 were agouti!

I woke up this morning to find a rather large litter in the nest of my second doe! I could only just tell she was carrying a litter, I would never have guessed she would deliver so soon! Pictures in the Gallery.

The arrival of its first litter yesterday morning! And an other due to arrive soon.

There is finally definite progress here at Taswell Stud! One of the two does has ballooned over the last few days and I definately expect to wake up to Taswell Stud's first litter of show mice tomorrow! To continue the positives - I removed the second doe along with the doe in kindle to give the buck a break and hopefully motivative him to do his job a bit quicker once I return the second doe, but in the few days since the split this doe has begun growing slightly plumper. Fingers crossed this is what I think it is and within another week or so Taswell Stud welcomes it's second litter!

Things are slowly chugging along here at Taswell Stud. The mice are all doing fine - one of the does definately appears chubbier than usual, no signs of pregnancy in the second doe but fingers crossed she's in the early stages. It's almost 3 weeks since the mice arrived so I'm keeping my eye out for babies sometime soon!

After months of phone calls and preparations I've finally been able to collect my starting stock from the amazing Dave Safe! I've come home with a cinnamon buck and two agouti does who will hopefully grace me with an ever growing stud over the next few months when I hope to begin exhibiting.

I'm just putting this little blog up because I've noticed that this website is getting page views!! I've no idea how because to my best knowledge I've not posted a link to this anywhere and up until today there has been 0 page views for each day I've looked....suddenly today I get 9 unique visitors! If there's anyone viewing this (before I officially advertise this website on 4th July) I'd love to know where this link has been posted, just out of curiosity! =P

In other news, I made one final phone call today to arrange the collection of my mice - everything is now confirmed for this Saturday, 2nd July! I am hopefully bringing home a breeding trio consisting of a cinnamon buck and two agouti does. I can't wait!