%5BMumbai%5D.jpg)
Throughout my life, beginning from childhood and the time i learnt to walk and talk right upto the present day,our house always had some pet animal or bird.One of my most memorable experiences of breeding and observing the pets that i owned was with white mice.On 11/11/1996 i purchased 2 white mice from Mumbai's famous Crawford Market and akin to their nemesis cats, which i now breed, mice are difficult to sex when young.Later, as they grew, both the mice turned out to be female and i named them "Thumri" and "Gale".Mice have a short lifespan and grow fast and within a few months "Thumri" turned out to be the more dominating of the two females."Gale" was shy and hesitant and both of them provided fun and antics in our household. They were fed on a diet of dal and rice with fruits.During this particular phase of my life i was totally involved in the sport of "Horse-racing" when ashore after my shipping voyages.Decided to study the genetics of breeding and hence purchased a male mouse on 21-7-1997 and named him "Tokku". "Tokku" proved an absolute stud that could put a race-horse to shame, getting down to the "Mating Game" instantly with "Thumri" and one fine day on 13-8-1997 "Thumri" gave birth to a litter. of 6 mice. The first mouse was born between 1000hrs and 1100 hrs while the rest of the 5 were born between 1100 and 1200 hrs. mice are born blind and open their eyes after about 15/16 days"Thumri" was very active and showed no signs of "Pregnancy lethargy" and hence she took me by surprise. "Tokku" was a good stud but had a scared nature, unlike his female counterparts "Thumri" and "Gale", besides he was thoroughly bullied by the 2 females in his harem.Mice are prolific breeders and later "Gale" littered 4 mice on 30-9-1997 out of which one was still born, the only instance in which a baby mice was dead at birth amongst the numerous litters produced by these prolific breeders."Thumri" again littered 7 mice on 7-10-1997 and just a simple mathematical calculation will tell you the "Pet mice" population explosion that occured at my residence in 1997.The "Pet Dealer" from whom i purchased these mice promised to buy back any litter but later welshed and hence i was saddled with a house teeming with mice. "Thumri's" first litter of mice was given to the "B.N.H.S(Bombay Natural History society)" of which i was a member. I released some of the other mice at the "Mahalaxmi race-couse" one early morning while on my normal jogging workouts and in case someone notices white mice or a mixture of black and white rat hybrids then this could be the result of the "Thumri,Gale and Tokku" mouse breeding programme of 1997.Finally, i had to separate "Tokku" from the pair of "Gale and Thumri" to prevent a further explosion of "White mice".In 1998 , "Tokku" almost a year old and having been the sire of numerous litters developed into a disciplined trained mouse, least scared of me and disciplined in his daily routine of exercise and food.Once just accidentally happened to leave "Tokku" along with "Gale" and "Thumri" in the balcony for exercising and was surprised to find "Gale" delivering a litter on 17/4/1998.No wonder the World "PEST INDUSTRY" is still solvent in-spite of recessions and changing "Business Models" as the common rat is still the World's most proliferate breeder.Akin to "Race-horses" the common pet mouse is also a herd animal and their temperaments and skills differ from each other. Every mouse has its own individual personality."Thumri" was the smallest of the 3 mice but the most energetic and a very good climber while "Gale" was lazy and a glutton, the same applying to stud mouse "Tokku".Mice and rats have a very short life-span and hence within a period of 3 years, all 3 of them died and that was the last of my hobby of breeding pet mice.It helped me in understanding "Horse Form" as well as "Horse temperament".Also understood the meaning of "Laboratory Mice" and the reasons of using animals as research subjects for human products and living.No wonder the play ,"Mouse-trap" by Agatha Christie is the longest running play in history,
P.S :- Decades later on Saturday (7/1/2023) read this unbelievable article in " Free Press Journal" which says " MICE" are being used as Cyborgs in warfare. Sad also of the fact that "Animal Experiments " is a fact of human existence where at times animals are cruelly experimented in laboratories and die horrible deaths during experimentation.Although mice as a species will never face extinction unlike other animal species yet cruel laboratory experiments which at times might not prove practical in real life situations is definitely something which not only "P.E.T.A( People for Ethical Treatment of Animals)" opposes but also a few wildlife activists as it is extremely cruel.
Note :- Click on the caption below to read the printed article in enlarged form
