Picking mouse parents

Question
I want to breed my mice but I only want to do it once and I'm having trouble picking out parents especially the mom. I have one mouse who is beautiful she has coloring that I'd really like to pass on and she's tame but she's very hyper and I don't like that. She is the most submissive to other mice out of all of my mice. Then I have another mouse who is by far the most tame and sweet out of all my mice and she is cute although not the colors I was hoping for and she also tends to be the dominant mouse in the group. The male I want to use has an amazing temperament and isn't aggressive towards other mice. I would just breed him with my nicest mouse but they're from the same litter and they have the same coloring. Should I try to find a different male for my nicest mouse? Use my beautiful but hyper female mouse? Or just breed the brother and sister together and sacrifice interesting colors for sweet hand tame mice?

Answer
Hi Nicole,

Ultimately, it's up to you to decide what you want to breed for most.  I find it more rewarding to breed for temperament (their niceness) than for color, and you'll almost always be surprised by the colors that come out of a litter, even if the parents look similar.  Past generations could have passed on to the siblings different color genes that could be pretty exciting - surprises are half the fun of breeding!  :)

For the record, however, even though excitability is partially genetic, you can teach your new mice to be hand tame by handling them frequently after they are a few days old.  This will also reduce a little of the danger of their 2-3 week old "hopper" phase (where many a mouse has been known to "popcorn" right out of one's hands and into danger if not careful!).  Whichever mother you choose, frequent handling will make a big impact on their trust in you.

Back to the parents - there are other factors to look at when deciding who to breed.  Some mice are natural mothers, while others take a litter or two to learn, and still others will never quite figure it out.  If your more attractive female is more on the skittish, hyper, or anxious side, you may have trouble helping her out, and she may be more nervous about letting you (or any other perceived "dangers") near her pups.  Every mouse is different, but the more she trusts you, the easier it will be to handle the pups when they are old enough, and the better chance they have at being more hand-tamed.  This would make me personally lean more toward the calmer female.  Of course, there are always unforeseeable health risks with any pregnancy, so you should also take health into consideration.  A healthy doe (female mouse) should be a normal weight, be behaving like her usual, and ideally be at least 3 months old and not older than a year (you can absolutely breed mice that are more than a year old, but complication risks do increase, litter size decreases, and the chances of getting pregnant go down as well).

The same goes for the male - if he is healthy (and any age really, though fertility also decreases with age) things should go just fine.  Of course, every male is different too, and some have more interest in copulating than others.  Lastly - some mice just don't get along!  It may be that the parents you pick just aren't the right match.  If you wind up selecting a different mouse altogether, remember to isolate any new mice for at least three weeks without any health symptoms before breeding - medicating pregnant or nursing mothers can be dangerous.

Wooh, that was a LONG answer!  If it were me, I'd try first with the siblings.  There's little harm in inbreeding one generation (every mouse breeder does), and I think I would prefer sweet mice over brightly colored, hyper ones.  That's just me, though.  If you have any questions along the way, let me know and I'll be happy to help!

-Tam