27/03/2025
Hi everyone!
Thought I'd jump in with an update for you all!
It's been an odd mix of chaotic and calm here at the mousery-- there haven't been any new litters to care for or pairings to plan for a good while now, but that extra time has been taken up by all the extra cleaning and quarantine planning I've been doing instead.
I've also taken this as an opportunity to refine some of my goals. I'll talk more about my plans for my lines later, but for now I'll say that I'm combining a couple of them, and reducing my lines to 2-3 rather than 4-5, so I can make more progress with the quality of each.
I'm currently also in the process of deep-cleaning my main mousery space, and fixing up my rack system for when everyone is ready to come back.
some more info on my current setup/plan:
For burnout, I have split my colony into two groups;
group 1 has all the mice that were already old enough to start burnout when I found out there may be an issue.
Group 2 are all the mice that were pregnant/born right around when I found out, and weren't able to start burnout till they were older.
The two groups have been quarantined from each other for the last couple months, and group 1 is finally nearing the end of the main portion of burnout! I'll be pairing some of the mice together from group 1 here soon, to test if burnout has worked.
Group 2 is gonna hafta wait a while longer--they'll remain separated in quarantine for at least 6 more weeks.
So we're slooowwwly getting there! Burnout should be over by late may. Sadly, even if all goes well, the first available mice wont be here until late June at the earliest. But we'll get there! I'm just glad I've still got a solid group of happy, healthy mice to select from.
Thanks for following along!
Please enjoy this video of my retired hairless lady.