Contract Mouse Breeding Services

What contract mouse breeding covers

Contract breeding moves the daily work of a mouse colony out of your vivarium and into ours. That includes pair setup and rotation, weaning, ear or tail sampling, PCR genotyping, record keeping, health monitoring, cage census, and production of the animals your protocol needs.

You keep ownership of the line and the data. We handle the animals.

Service scopes

• Colony maintenance

  For lines you need to maintain but are not actively studying. We maintain a defined number of breeding pairs, genotype offspring, track the breeding pedigree, and provide monthly reports. This keeps the line available for future studies without occupying your facility’s cage space.

  See mouse colony management in detail

• Cohort production

  For a line you are about to study. We scale the colony to produce a defined number of animals at a defined genotype, age, and sex ratio, with littermate controls.

  See cohort specifications

• Complex and multi allele schemes

  Conditional knockouts requiring a Cre cross, compound mutants carrying three or more alleles, reporter crosses for lineage tracing, and inducible systems. These schemes require careful tracking of genotypes and breeding pedigrees across multiple generations, making colony management more complex and increasing the risk of losing the desired genotype.

  See conditional knockout breeding

• Rapid expansion

  When a study date is fixed and the colony is too small. We run pairs in parallel with staggered starts rather than sequentially.

  See speed expansion breeding

• Backcrossing to a defined background

  Lines arriving on a mixed genetic background can be progressively backcrossed to increase the proportion of the recipient background, reaching a theoretical expectation of approximately 97% by N5 and 99.9% by N10. At sufficient backcross generations, the resulting line can be considered congenic.

  See backcrossing to a defined background

What is included

• Breeding scheme design by a PhD scientist before any pair is set
• Pair setup, rotation, and replacement as productivity declines
• PCR genotyping of every animal, with assay development for new alleles See mouse genotyping service.
• Weaning, sexing, and cage census
• Health monitoring under barrier conditions with routine sentinel testing
• Pedigree and breeding records you can audit
• Monthly colony report covering census, genotype distribution, and production
• Health certification with every shipment
• A defined project manager as your single point of contact

Moving your line to our facility

Protecting the line

One failure can put years of research at risk. Freezer failure, a pathogen event, breeding collapse, or a staffing gap can compromise an entire research colony. Cryopreserving a backup of every actively managed line provides a secure resource outside the live colony when you need it most.

Ask us to quote maintenance and cryopreservation together. The backup costs a fraction of regenerating the line.

Reporting and oversight

You receive a monthly colony report: current census by genotype and sex, litters born and weaned, genotype distribution against expected ratios, pair productivity, and projected availability against your target date. When productivity drifts from plan we tell you before the deadline rather than after.

A PhD scientist reviews every scheme. U.S. based scientific oversight applies at each stage.

Our barrier facility is located in Holbrook, New York.

Why researchers outsource breeding

• Cage space returns to active experiments instead of maintenance animals
• Per diem spend shifts from holding animals to producing them
• Technician time returns to experimental work
• Genotyping runs on validated assays with proper controls rather than between other tasks
• Breeding continues through staff turnover, holidays, and grant gaps

One published comparison found that laboratories outsourcing genotyping produced more cages and more mice over time than laboratories running standard in house practice, and that adding breeding support from a dedicated animal care team increased colony productivity further.

VanDenBerg KR, Oravecz-Wilson K, Krolikowski L, Hill V, Reddy P, Freeman ZT. Impact of Automated Genotyping and Increased Breeding Oversight on Overall Mouse Breeding Colony Productivity. Frontiers in Physiology, 2022. DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2022.925784 · PMID: 35923239 · PMCID: PMC9340497. Read the study on PubMed Central (opens in a new tab)

What researchers say

“ingenious Targeting Laboratory is highly recommended for generating animal model generation. Past 2 years, we have made 2 conditional knockout mouse lines. All processes of each project were scientifically and professionally handled. Their scientific consulting to initiate the project was superb compared to other companies, and transparency of the project progress reported by project managers was excellent. Their excellency and dedication to meet our needs in a timely manner are invaluable to continuation of our research progress.”

Frequently asked questions

Related services

Get a breeding quote

Tell us the line, the genotype you need, how many animals, and when. A PhD scientist will return a scheme and a quote.