Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I really don't know much about mouse genetics, so I was wondering if someone could help me out here.

I've looked at some sites where they show which genes do what to the color of the mouse, but this really doesn't help me much.

I really like the lighter colored mice, particularly fawns, beige, champagne, and BEWs, but I've heard that some of these genes (fawns in particular, which happen to be my favorite) are fatal if homozygous.

I guess my question is if I get 2 fawns and breed them together, does that mean that some (or all) of the babies will die?

I'd like to try my hand at breeding these guys, but I would like to stay away from getting babies that are of a dark color, particularly agouti and black. So does that mean I must get 2 of the same color? And even if I do get 2 of the same color, if they are heterozygous for something, will I potentially get babies of a different color than the parents?

Also, I think I've read that if you breed a siamese to a PEW that you will get himalayans. Is this right? What if you breed a PEW to something else, will you get all wild type (black or agouti) or could you get some other color as in the siamese/himalayan example?

Any help is appreciated.

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alstiver@hotmail.com

I've just finished reading all of the other previous posts regarding how expensive it is to breed mice and how hard it is to get rid of pet mice after they are born, and how you wont make money breeding them, etc, etc. But, while I would love to breed mice for pets, I'm not opposed to using them as feeder mice (euthanized first though), so getting rid of excess mice is not a problem. I do have a couple snakes which got me into the idea of mice in the first place.

I'd just really like to know more about genetics. Like "what" x "what" = "what".

I guess one of my main problems is I don't understand how the albino gene and the pink eye gene are different. And the problem with that is the main gene I'm interested in is the pink eye gene.

For example:

Will breeding a Champagne to a PEW yield Champagnes Het PEW? Or will it be Champagne x PEW = Chocolates Het Champagne Het PEW? Or Something completely different?

I'd love the idea of being able to create Champagnes from Chocolates, Fawns from Reds, Doves from Blacks, just by introducing the pink eyes through the mating of a PEW, but I'm starting to think that it wont work this way and all I'd end up with eventually would be PEWs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated? Or even better, if you know of a program that figures out the results of matings just by plugging in the parents genotypes, please let me know. I know simple recessive genetics, but this stuff is driving me batty.
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alstiver@hotmail.com

Hello Amanda,

You are correct in that breeding PEW (Albinos) to Chocolates (or any other self) will not give you Champaings (or other pink eyed dilutes). The reason for this is due to the colors being controlled by 2 different genes. 90% of American PEW are Albinos cause by the C locus (the segment of the chromosome the gene is located on). The pink eye dilute gene is in the P locus. An Albino is cc and can mask any color other then the chinchilla dilution (c^ch), the extreme dilution (c^e), and the Siamese dilution (c^h). So if the Albino carries the p gene (Pp or pp) and you breed it to a Chocolate that also carries the p gene (Pp) then you have a good chance of getting Champaings. However the likelihood of buying an Albino that is a p carry is very unlikely unless you know it's background. You would be much better off to find a pink eyed dilute (Champaign, Fawn, Lilac, or Silver) to breed to a Chocolate. All of those babies will be hetro (carrying) the p gene so if you breed them back to the pink eyed parent or to each other you will get your pink eyed dilutes.

As for Fawns in the Homo state being lethal that is true. This is due to the Lethal Yellow gene (A^y). However, it is not that the babies die. They actually die in-vitro. So a Fawn x Fawn breeding simply results in smaller litter sizes. Any Lethal Yellow that is born will be hetro.

I hope this helps. If you have any further questions please feel free to ask. I have raised/bred mice for over 20 years and have studied their genetics almost as long.

Jeff C.