I am a fancy mouse breeder based in Northamptonshire. The prefix 'Blackthorn' is registered with the National Mouse Club, and I regularly show my mice at NMC shows. My main focus is on breeding and exhibiting Dutch marked mice in black, agouti, argente and dove, although I also breed and show silver fox mice and marten sables. Click here to see my show results.

Above: My main variety, Dutch marked in various colours.

I breed mice to show and for my own enjoyment, not for money. Due to an overwhelming amount of timewasters, coupled with a lack of genuine people wanting mice, I regret that I do not supply pet mice to the public. I am happy to supply serious breeders with stock, which can be collected at most NMC shows around the country. I rarely have mice available as I only have room to keep the mice that I need myself but I breed to order, which means a nine week waiting period. You can look at pictures of my mice and the stud in which they are kept on the gallery pages.

Above: Black silver fox mouse.

I have recently been fortunate enough to have been given a stud of marten sables, on which I am now working hard. These beautiful mice were bred by Ruth Hollis and I'm very pleased to have them here.

Above: Marten sable mouse.

You can read various articles I have written about exhibition and pet mice, including their care, breeding mice, showing mice and coat colour genetics here. These pages are still in progress, so check back for new articles!

Blackthorn Stud's Goals and Aims for 2012:

Line 1 (Black, Dove and Blue Dutch): Main objective for this year is to continue improving type and I will be outcrossing to blue self to do this. Blue Dutch is a side effect of this plan but black Dutch remains the focus.

Line 2 (Agouti and Argente Dutch): Main objective in this line is to fix the markings and produce more consistant Dutch marked mice as they are appearing with random splodges at the moment. My main goal for Blackthorn Stud in 2012 is to win Best Marked with a pink eyed Dutch, I'd love that.

Line 3a (Black Silver Fox): Main objective for this line is to improve type, size, growth rate and top colour. My silver foxes are smashing mice, but they take so long to grow up! I also find the bucks a bit feminine looking. I have some big, beefy Burmese foxes (which I bred from my Himalayan mice back when I still had some) to improve the type for now, but this will weaken the black top colour if I'm not careful so I must use these mice sparingly.

Line 3b (Blue Silver Fox): I want to get these on the show bench this year but I need to improve the top colour first as it is fairly weak and mealy. For this I am crossing in black silver foxes and blue selfs.

Line 4 (Marten Sable): These are already big, typey mice so the main objective with this variety is to improve the overall contrast between the top and under colours and consistantly produce mice which meet the NMC standard of rich sepia on top with a snowy white under. I will cross these mice to black silver foxes to achieve this. I would love to win Best AOV with a marten sable this year.

I also plan to get no new stock at all if I can help it. This is the first year that my stud has the chance of being self-sufficient, which would be awesome as bringing stock into one's stud is obviously a big risk. And I plan to show as much as I possibly can, but that goes without saying!