# Any day now!



## Skye_29 (Jan 7, 2013)

My girly here should be having her litter very soon, she looks like she's going to pop! Pictures don't do justice on how big she is lol

Any guesses on how long left and number of babies?

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## onionpencil (Jan 6, 2013)

oh... 2 days, 10 babies... good luck!


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## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

Id say 4 days left from when you took that pic, and id guess 8


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## TwitchingWhiskers (Feb 2, 2013)

5 days from the day of the pictures, and 9 babies.


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## HannahBanana (Dec 23, 2012)

I think she will go on valentines day and have 8!
What cages is that you are using? I like the plastic with the wire flip lid.


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## andypandy29us (Aug 10, 2012)

I think 3 days and 11 babies


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## Skye_29 (Jan 7, 2013)

Very exciting! She hasn't had them yet though aarrrggghh! I'm going away next Friday so I hope she has them before then  my gran can't wait to take care of baby mice, even though I told her that she doesn't need to do anything lol.

@Hannah, I use Rydon Mill House Cages. I don't use the mouse house thing, as its annoying and hard to clean, and the wheel I have to take out and clean often because all they do is wee in it. The water bottle arrangement is weird but I kinda like it. Also the clips on the top are dodgy at best, but I just use a weight and don't bother clipping it in place. Apart from that they're great. I've got three, they are £20 from pets at home. I usually have the food bowl on the platform, but it gets noisy shuffling around at night so I put it on the bedding.










http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewit ... 0968638310


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## Skye_29 (Jan 7, 2013)

Update. Seems kind of embarrassing now I read my post, I've never seen a mouse in the last few days of their pregnancy (I was on holiday the time this girl and her sister had their first litter) and she doesn't look that big in the previous photos lol. I'm guessing that she will have them on Friday or Saturday, but it would be lovely to have some valentine pinkies


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## bonsai (Oct 14, 2012)

Hello Skye.
Best wishes for the litter.
When I took a look at your pictures it looks as if the food bowl is placed on top of the bedding.Please make sure that you put it directly on bottom of the cage.
When I began keeping mice,years ago I had a terrible accident with a mouse digging under a bowl.
After that I'm more than careful.


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## Skye_29 (Jan 7, 2013)

Hi bonsai, thanks I'll move it now, I'd hate for anything to happen.

She had 12 babies last night with 1 still born/recently deceased due to a deformity on its nose. They are so tiny!
Anyone got advice on whether to introduce her sister to help? The sister is in the first week of pregnancy, not sure if she would be a help or a hindrance.


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## Seafolly (Mar 13, 2012)

Nope, leave her in her own space.  She'll do just fine on her own. With another female one would risk wars over babies and such. Since your other doe is expecting too, I just wouldn't test it. Peace and quiet is all she wants.


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## bonsai (Oct 14, 2012)

Hello Skye.
Congrats for the valentine litter.
I agree with Seafolly.
Let mom with her pinkies on her own.
Any change could be risky now.


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## andypandy29us (Aug 10, 2012)

congrats on the litter .... does that mean i won  3 days and 11 babies


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## Skye_29 (Jan 7, 2013)

andypandy29us said:


> congrats on the litter .... does that mean i won  3 days and 11 babies


Haha I guess it does! *sends a virtual cookie*

Here's a picture or four 


































Of the whites, there's one male and four females. And there's one dark grey female while the rest of the coloured are male.
Sorry, I would move this to the litters section, but I don't know how D:


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## andypandy29us (Aug 10, 2012)

lovely litter you have ... so cute


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## Kitei (Feb 4, 2013)

So gorgeous! I want <3


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## TwitchingWhiskers (Feb 2, 2013)

Wow, they look great! Could you just, send me all those lovely whites please? (just kidding)


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## Skye_29 (Jan 7, 2013)

Update! Opened their eyes today at 13 days old 

First up is proud, if slightly hassled, mum:

















The girls:









The boys:









I think I'm keeping the splodgy head one, and the top silver fox. None of the girls struck me as particularly interesting, so we'll see what the five litters I have due in two weeks will bring me.
Individual photos of the ones I'm keeping:

















Aaaand finally, a picture of this little cutie, he's calmer than the others and has an almost-invisible white spot on his head. This is his pondering place lol.









I'm calling the grey colour silver, but I have no idea what it is. I'm confused by all the terms and UK vs US terms. The mother was previously bred to a blue, and produced blacks and "silvers", and the mother's mother was a black broken herself.


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## TwitchingWhiskers (Feb 2, 2013)

The ticked grey color ones could be lilac. That is a UK term. Honestly, I think the US-UK switch is just really stupid, so I use UK terms. Lilac is mix blue and chocolate (a/a d/d b/b). I have zero experience with ticked varieties so I hope someone else can help you out there. On a different note: precious, adorable babies you have there :love1


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## Skye_29 (Jan 7, 2013)

TwitchingWhiskers said:


> The ticked grey color ones could be lilac. That is a UK term. Honestly, I think the US-UK switch is just really stupid, so I use UK terms. Lilac is mix blue and chocolate (a/a d/d b/b). I have zero experience with ticked varieties so I hope someone else can help you out there. On a different note: precious, adorable babies you have there :love1


Thank you  what does tickled mean? Flecked/lightly dusted with a colour? And, so a/a means not-agouti, d/d means chocolate? and b/b means blue? I'm attempting to come to an understanding of mouse genetics lol. what do you do to show that the mouse only carries a recessive heterozygous hidden gene, rather than a recessive homozygous visual one? Or do all mouse colours tend to be dominant/co dominant?


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## TwitchingWhiskers (Feb 2, 2013)

Skye_29 said:


> TwitchingWhiskers said:
> 
> 
> > The ticked grey color ones could be lilac. That is a UK term. Honestly, I think the US-UK switch is just really stupid, so I use UK terms. Lilac is mix blue and chocolate (a/a d/d b/b). I have zero experience with ticked varieties so I hope someone else can help you out there. On a different note: precious, adorable babies you have there :love1
> ...


Ticked mice have 3 bands of color on each individual hair, giving them what I like to think of as a 'peppery' look. Take agouti for instance (a ticked variety): the band of color closest to the body is black, the middle band is yellow, and the top one is brown. a is non-agouti, d is blue, and b is chocolate. Blue and chocolate are recessive, so when written d/d, or b/b, it means the mouse has two copies of those genes; or, homozygous for blue and chocolate, making them lilac. I'm not sure if this is the case for your mice, because like I said, I have never bred ticked varieties, so I don't know what to look for in lilacs. There are many recessive and dominant mouse color alleles. If a mouse is heterozygous for a recessive allele, it will not show. Although, it could show in the mouse's offspring if paired with another mouse that is either heterozygous or homozygous for that recessive allele. Dominant alleles will show if the mouse is heterozygous, or homozygous, so it can sometimes be hard to tell for sure.

I recommend learning how to draw punnet sqaures, and reading on finnmouse's site. There are many great learning resources out there, you just have to find them 

Finnmouse: http://www.hiiret.fi/eng/
Punnet square how-to:


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## Skye_29 (Jan 7, 2013)

TwitchingWhiskers said:


> Skye_29 said:
> 
> 
> > TwitchingWhiskers said:
> ...


Thanks! I already know quite a bit on genetics, but I've only ever applied it to corn snakes and boas, where it's 'hypo het albino' rather than 'a/a d/p s/dhakaiisb'... lol
What you said helped though, thanks


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## TwitchingWhiskers (Feb 2, 2013)

Your welcome  Mouse genetics are my first genetics terms to learn so I'm very used to them.


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## andypandy29us (Aug 10, 2012)

I love the buck with the white 'splodge' on his head he reminds me of gizmo from the gremlins movie


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