Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here is the story, My first sets of breeders were whites, and a pair consisting of a black mouse and a grey silky/long hair.

So i fed off the whites, fed off the silky/black pair and kept one offspring male from the black/silky pair.

I wanted to have some fun with breeding traits. So i got one local black/white female and got another brown and white female in the valley.

Well this was thier first breedings, 23 total babies born in the same night, so i dont know who's are who's. They were just in one big pile in the morning.

But whats funny is i have colors that were not even in the original groups i have about 8 different color traits, i have alot of black, 2 whites, 2 chocolates (one with a black nose), brown, yellow, Tan(or lighter yellow), Blue/Grey, Black and white. How often do you get such a diverity of traits? And how can i single out certain traits

the 2 moms

mom and dad, dad is getting ready to be a feeder. He will run across the bin just to bite your a$$ then run back to the other side

And a few of the color'ed babies

Take Care
James

2 Moms

Mom and Dad

And a few of the babies

Take Care
James

James

I know what you mean. I had two mostly black rats with a little white on their bellies. They begat mostly black rats with a little white on their bellies. Kept four daughters and bred them with their father. Mostly black with a little white on their bellies, except a couple of albinos. So the dad must have been het. for albino (carried the recessive albino gene and the dominate colored gene). So far I understand. Then came the gray with white on their bellies. Then came the whites with black hoods (although the hood and the stripe were not clean).

The only things I'm sure of is that the snakes don't care and the birth rate and survival rate remain high. I lurk on a chicken board where they have discussions on the genetics of colors. Way over my head.

DeMak

The snakes don't seem to care about looks at all! LOL! I have lost most of my rats to illness brought in with some I bought from a USDA approved breeder. I do have one male dumbo left from the offspring and 3 females, an agouti, a black, and a real pale faun/gold whatever with dark ruby eyes.

The mice however have produced just about every color possible. It's fun picking which I want to keep as replacement breeders but color and fur length just happen.

Marcia

Lets see if I can explain somewhat anyway... Each time an egg is fertalized, the genetic traits of the mother and father recombine in a different manner creating different dominant traits that manifest in the pups. Coat color is quite variable and most mice, unless from straight lab stock,(And even then it isn't guarenteed they won't throw off other colors at one point or another) have the potential to throw off many different colors depending on the genetic material given by the male half of the equation. Each spermataphore (spelling is off) holds an X or a Y chromosone..and each of those have different alleles attached for coat color, coat type, eye color, body shape..etc etc.In simple terms.. its how the alleles from the X or Y factors from the male bond to the allels in the X chromosone of the egg the female releases which determines sex, eye color, hair color and type.. Etc etc again.

With recessives.... anything can happen. But both parents have to be carrying the gene for it.

I've had a few unexpected colors show up too and just wonder how many more colors I had since a lot of my mice are fed off as pinks. I have one here that I kept for a breeder that is the lightest fawn I've ever seen, with red eyes, and he is now getting siamese traits. Neither of the parents looked like him so all that he is must be the result of recessives. He's gorgeous. Then in another litter (different colony) this beautiful yellow/orange and white satin pied pops up with neither parent showing any of these traits except the father is a pied. Aren't genetics fun?

MissHisssss

Whats funny is my Rats dont seem to do this, Thay have been fairly predictable. Then again my last set of breeder mice were fairly predictable also.

Anyone have rats that throw color like this?

BTW it is a ton of fun see'ing all the different traits come out. With my previous mice all I got were black and whites.

Take Care
James

all i ever have gotten out of my mice have been black and white also untill the last litter, 2 of the babies 1.1 are black with white tails they look really cool.

Actually Nightdwarf... you also got black and white (pieds) with the last two. They are just lacking in spots. There is a name for it when that happens I just can't remember it right now. All I remember is the name for when a mouse is mostly white with just a few spots. It's called extreme pied. White mice with black eyes are extreme pieds too.

MissHisssss