# question about mice mutations **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 29, 2007, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mice-mutations/431584 "2007-12-29T10:15:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mlai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@mlai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlai)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mice-mutations/431584/1 "2007-12-29T10:15:56Z")
My friend has seven mice, four boy mice and three girl mice. The boy mice have tails which curl up into a loop, similar to that of a pig. They’re also developing growths on their shoulders and are really dumb, much stupider than previous mice. The girl mice are fine. All seven are from the same litter. I assume that there is something sex-linked going on. Is there a mouse expert (muridologist?) who can speculate as to what’s happening? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mice-mutations/431584/2 "2007-12-29T22:31:00Z")
Paging **Mouse\_Maven**. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2007, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mice-mutations/431584/3 "2007-12-30T04:50:34Z")
Never owned a mouse… have had to boot a couple out of my house after I bought it. I’m just wondering how one determines the relative intelligences of mice. Oh, and where did they come from in the first place? Are they the 5th inbred generation from two original mice?