# Merle? Roan?



## Frizzle (Oct 6, 2011)

One of the breeders in my area found this girl at Petco. Could someone verify it's variety? For breeding, it's just a simple recessive, yes? Would she want to find a black self buck to breed with, or what would be her best option? She is mostly a feeder breeder dabbling with colors, so type isn't a consideration here, just coat.










The ticking is uneven in consistency, and the belly becomes nearly white, but still with black/dark hairs dispersed throughout.









Besides the grey/silverish ticking going on in its coat, there are two solid black patches on it's right front & back shoulder areas.


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## candycorn (Oct 31, 2011)

The mouse is a merle. I can't believe it was found at a petco...crazy.


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## blackbirdmice (Oct 27, 2012)

It's a merle for sure. Tell your friend that I wouldn't breed from her right away though. She looks underweight and her coat looks horrible.


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## Frizzle (Oct 6, 2011)

Thanks guys! I don't think she'll be breeding from it for a while, quarentine & she needs a self black buck to breed to her(?). I know some ppl on the fb page pointed out the mouse looks "buckish" from that vertical picture, I mentioned it to the owner and she says its a doe, but eh. I know I was to astounded by the variety to give much thought to double check the gender!


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## blackbirdmice (Oct 27, 2012)

Frizzle said:


> Thanks guys! I don't think she'll be breeding from it for a while, quarentine & she needs a self black buck to breed to her(?). I know some ppl on the fb page pointed out the mouse looks "buckish" from that vertical picture, I mentioned it to the owner and she says its a doe, but eh. I know I was to astounded by the variety to give much thought to double check the gender!


I also thought it was a buck, the tab does look long and far set in the vertical picture. I actually had to do a double check to see what the gender was before I responded!


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## Frizzle (Oct 6, 2011)

Just wanted to follow this up with having found my own Merle at Petco! His tail is longer then his body, his eyes are nice and bright, unfortunately, he doesn't have any nice large black patches (the peppering is irregular though, with on teensiest hint of a black spot on his head), but from what it sounds like, these roan-like merles will still produce merle, just not that many in a litter.

He's currently in quarentine, and once out will be paired with my black tan doe. (Trying not to count chickens!) While I doubt I have the resources to make black tan merles as beautiful as Rolands, it is a very pretty mix that I am in love with.

I named him Merlin. :3 And pictures will be following once I have access to a different comp, this one only lets me link the url, not the Img.


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## NikiP (May 7, 2013)

Congrats!


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## andypandy29us (Aug 10, 2012)

I wish there were petco's in the uk ...  the pet shop mice near to me are tiny and over bred ....


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## YuukikoOgawa (Jul 26, 2013)

Do they have people who breed feeder mice in the UK?

You can find some real gems from those breeders sometimes. Though I would ask some questions about how they breed their feeder mice too; some are more careful about quality than others.

The fun thing about genetics is that technically, most animals have had the genes for all the various colors and mutations right from the beginning in the wild stock, but most of those odd colors get pruned away by predators. I know there's some exceptions to this with mice due to them being used in research, but for the most part it's not really all that astonishing to see odd colors pop up in places that aren't trying to breed for that.


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