# Precious blue babies. <3



## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

I have babies afoot!
This litter was very early or I got my estimates wrong. 
So I have a whopping litter of two(after removal of mutilated siblings), Two little fatties.
This liter is from my pet typed doe, Alice and a blue tan buck I got from Cindy (he goes by Phoenix now)
First pet/show type cross babies, first blues, first babies since the fire. I consider them little jewels.
One is a buck and the other a doe. My sister has been jokingly calling them Adam and eve.
Pictures <3


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

very well fed little oinkers. Congratulations!


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## Bridgette Rena (Jan 28, 2011)

Aww, adam and eve! I love that.


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## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

I'm so glad you have a litter! Everything feels better when there are little ones.


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## Seafolly (Mar 13, 2012)

Two! Well isn't that awesome! Lovely milk bands too. I hope you keep posting photos.


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## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

It really does. I love babies, and thanks.
I'm so excited for these guys, photos will be coming in as often as I can get away with xD


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## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

Blue bell had her wigglers yesterday while the forum was down.
11 babies, 4 bucks, 7 does.
4 of them...have pink eyes 

I'll post pictures as soon as I get home.<3


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## windyhill (Jan 19, 2010)

Congrats!


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## morning-star (Apr 9, 2011)

Shadowrunner said:


> Blue bell had her wigglers yesterday while the forum was down.
> 11 babies, 4 bucks, 7 does.
> 4 of them...have pink eyes
> 
> I'll post pictures as soon as I get home.<3


 congrats!

pink eyed ones will likely be silvers.


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## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

That's the most logical conclusion, but I won't know for certain till they fur up.
I didn't expect anything other than blue and blue tans.

As promised, I took a few pictures. 
I've been away from home for the last few days doing school work.
My sister sits for me on those days. Good googa mooga look at the fatties from the litter of two.
I'm fostering a few from bluebell over so they look huge by comparison. They are only a few days apart.


















Pink eyed babies----









Black eyed babies-----









entire litter-------









Foster siblings----


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## morning-star (Apr 9, 2011)

yummy bubs! look nice and healthy.

I get silvers pop up in blue x blue litters all the time. They are cute.


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## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

It's been a while sine I updated I figured I'd do that nao 

One of the older two babies. All of these guys are tans. Every last baby so I believe the tan I got from Cindy
before the fire that sired them all is at/at.


























Little chubsters. Two of which are the silvers :3


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## PeachnZelda (Feb 23, 2012)

Amazing the size difference purely from having less competition! Do you think they will end up bigger or is it just a case of them growing faster at the beginning? Lovely bubs.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Awww...you'd think after 13 years I'd settle down, but itsybitsyteensieweensiecutsiewootsiemousiewousies just melt my heart!

They look great!


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## beckajean101 (Mar 31, 2012)

Awww.....I am so jealous!


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## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

Thanks guys <3
You'd think I could calm down too but they are just too sweet.

I think the size is due to a few things.

The father is a better typed mouse then any of the mice I've had before so they benefit from that.
I do reduce my litters, according to gender mostly and also by size.
So I'm left with the biggest girls, since the boys tend to be bullies about milk.

Also, something I noticed with this set of litters.
Since Alice only had two babies and bluebell had 11 I fostered quite a few over to Alice.
A week later you can see a huge difference between the ones left with bluebell and the ones fostered.
The ones with blue are skinnier and smaller and a few of them died last night, but their siblings with Alice are HUGE.
I think the individual mouse's ability to produce milk varies.
Now that I think about it, with my son I produced too much milk. It was painful because I couldn't 
feed my baby enough to drain it off.
I helped another new mom with her baby because she couldn't produce enough to
feed her exclusively on breastmilk so it might be the same with mice.


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## PeachnZelda (Feb 23, 2012)

Shadowrunner said:


> Thanks guys <3
> You'd think I could calm down too but they are just too sweet.
> 
> I think the size is due to a few things.
> ...


That's really interesting 

weird how some in the same litter will end up bigger/smaller too. I didn't have any obvious runts from my petshop litter, and for the first 3wks or so they were pretty much the same, but now some are looking a lot bigger and more robust than the others, despite same conditions. I guess it depends on the luck of the draw, genetically, as well as milk and parentage.


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## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

I think so. And even uterine placement might have influence.
Depending on the size of the placenta and where it sits, one human twin will be bigger than the other.
But then again mice have a different shape to theirs. It looks like a beaded rope when the babies are further along in development.

I'll update with comparison pictures soon <3

Edit:
Oh! I looked at the babies again today and it looks like one of my silvers has better belly color for a tan than all his siblings. How odd is that?
Even the blues look pale next to him. What would his color be if he didn't have both dilutions working on him?


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## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

D: So The two silvers are also tans. 
The tan on one of the silvers looks way better than the blues who look almost fox at this point.

Do any of you guys have experience with silver tans?
Because I'm not sure if this is...normal.

I'm not home right now, but I'll post pictures asap.


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## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

The tan on a silver is normally paler than black-eyed varieties, and paler than other pink-eyed varieties. For this reason, most show silver tans are genetically dove tans bred to have very pale top color. If your silvers are darker than your blues, something is definitely weird. Is it possible your blues are C/c*?


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## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

I really doubt it, but I got the buck who sired them from another breeder so I could ask her if she has any clues.

What you said makes a lot of sense, seeing as the silvers were a surprise to begin with
maybe I should do some digging.

I have to take some photos in good lighting, because this one really has me scratching my head.

*sigh*

So Alice escaped her cage while I was at school, got out of my room, and my room mate's cat killed her.
So now I have 2 1/2 week olds and 3 1/2 week old babies without a mom. All eyes are open but still, way too young.
I only just took the remaining two babies that were struggling under blue bell and put them with Alice. So I am putting blue with all the babies in hopes that she will be able to keep them going. I noticed the older two babies eating dry food and drinking from the water bottle so I believe they will be okay. I usually wean boys from mom at 5 weeks, but put a sectional in the cage so they can still see mom. Blue will serve as a role model now but I worry because she hasn't been able to lactate well enough to raise her own litters much less care for 9 babies. Alice was able to do that just fine but she's gone now. I put some milksop bread in with them so I think if they want to, they'll make it. I'm also supplementing with KMR via De-needled syringes. Phoenix, their sire died last week, his health has been questionable since the fire so these are his only offspring and Alice's as well. Come to think of it, all of blue's previous babies died then too so these are her only babies as well. *fingers crossed*


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## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

So update time. The first two are the 3 week old boys. The rest are about 2 1/2 weeks old.
I have been supplementing them but they are still smaller than they should be since their mother died.
All in all I think I have some promising mice here. A real improvement on the mother. Some of the buys actually 
look to be almost up to par with their father too, except for paler belly color.
Before the fire killed them, I had a bunch of typier mice I had just gotten so I expected to
be further along by now, but all things considered I think we've done well. 
The biggest thing needing improvement at this point is tail set.
That and the hair behind the ears...jeez.
I couldn't get any clear or color true belly pictures, so I'll try again in the morning.

First two boys (a few pictures of each)
















































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