Banded Mice

In this article I intend to discuss this much neglected variety of fancy mouse along with my own experience of keeping them.

First of all I would like to state that my own stock has pet shop beginnings. I tried very hard to get hold of bandeds from within the fancy, making a lot of phone calls and sending emails, only to be told that no-one had any, or at least none to spare. I was determined not to give up, so I examined the stock of any pet shop I happened to pass until I managed to get hold of another banded (not only did Humbug have a headspot, but she did not get pregnant: that is until she was 13 months old, but that’s another story). Luckily the gene that causes the banded marking is dominant, so one was all I really needed to make a start.

I have kept bandeds in small numbers in black (our main colour), blue, agouti, chocolate and dove ever since I began breeding mice. However at one point I was down to a low number of bandeds suitable for breeding due to a combination of deaths, old age etc.

Problems like this are easier to solve with bandeds than they might be with other varieties because banded is a dominant gene. Unlike rumpwhites, where an outcross does not produce anything like the same markings in the first generation, bandeds can produce passable specimens when crossed to selfs. This also lets you improve colour and other aspects more easily than with, say, a broken, where you have to cross back for many generations before you arrive back at good spots.

A banded that is mated to a self will produce 50% banded babies and 50% self babies. That is because a banded of the required band width will have one dose of the banded gene and one dose of a self gene. If you mate banded to banded you will produce the same 50% banded babies, but 25% selfs and 25% double bandeds, also called ‘charlies’, or BEWs. Obviously the ‘charlies’ are no use unless you are breeding for BEWs as well, and the selfs should be discarded as they are not as good as a ‘pure’ self. This is easy to sort out in the nest after a few days. However, if your bandeds are few in number or need a kickstart you can keep BEW does and mate them to self bucks to increase your numbers.

Faults to look for in the nest:

Pied tails: The tail of a banded should be the same colour as the coat throughout its length. Sometimes you will get a mouse born with a white tail tip, which can vary in length, and all else being equal you can then reject these. However, if you need to build up a stud you can keep the mice with pied tails as they do not produce only pied-tailed young.

Foot stops: As in a dutch, banded mice do have stops. The standard simply states ‘feet white’, but obviously a clear stop in the right place makes the mouse look much neater. Often the mouse will have good stops, but sometimes one foot will be either over-coloured or under coloured. If the leg has no colour on it, look underneath the mouse, as this often means the band is running to the leg.

Top of band: In very young mice you will only be able to see the top part of the band, as the stomach colour takes a few more days to appear. By all means reject mice with very bad top bands, but do not be over zealous at this stage. A mouse with an average band on the top may develop a very good band underneath, and this is the hardest bit to get right. You don’t want to get rid of what could be a valuable breeder just because the top band is slightly wrong. Since breeders who cull will be getting rid of roughly 50% of the litter immediately at this stage anyway (the selfs and BEWs/’charlies’) the doe will not be overloaded. You can then come back when the mice are a week to ten days old and reduce them further.

Faults to look for in juveniles:

Zip or belly spot under: The presence of a zip or belly spot becomes obvious as the mouse gets older. By 10 days it should be clear and enough like its final appearance to enable you to make a decision. If possible, choose mice with belly spots over mice with coloured zips, as these are one stage further on in the process of getting rid of unwanted excess of colour in the bottom band.

When mating, theoretically mice can be balanced in traits, e.g. by mating a mouse with a coloured zip in a certain place to a mouse with a white zip in the same place. However, banded is a dominant gene and a ‘standard’ banded will only inherit the gene from one parent. That means it will not get opposite characteristics from each parent (which works with brokens). The mice that do receive a banded gene from both parents will be ‘charlies’ or BEWs.

Colour: Colour is one thing that is sometimes neglected in a marked mouse. This is understandable – breeders need to concentrate so hard on the markings that the colour seems to be an aside. Still, colour does get 15 points and cannot be forgotten entirely. With banded mice, there is the advantage that colour need never suffer the way it does in dutch and brokens, because a self can be used as an outcross without the problem of generations of further breeding to return to the correct markings. Bandeds are by no means easy to breed, but they do have this advantage.

Tan vent: As stated above, outcrossing a banded is not as much of a problem as with other marked mice. This can be an advantage when trying to get rid of tan, although I admit that my own black bandeds currently fail in this respect. I plan to keep some BEW babies and mate them to a self to try to produce bandeds with less tan.

So, if you are still interested in breeding bandeds after reading all of that I think you can certainly call yourself a dedicated fancier!

Cait McKeown