# Opinions, please?



## nuedaimice (May 26, 2010)

Hi,

I am thinking of trying to start a line of Silvers here. I have a buck and a doe in a litter right now. Their type will be something that will need to be worked on (as with any of my current stock... the U.S. is a lot more spread out - I have a few animals that have better type that I am working on a type line with).

Anyway, for the sake of coloring, and I know these two are younger, so I'm just asking initial opinions for fanciers who have experience with Silvers, if these two could be used to start a line of Silvers?










They are blue based, not lighter bred Doves.


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## WillowDragon (Jan 7, 2009)

The main issues that I know of with blue based silvers that you should look out for, is mealiness or heathering, colour looking 'dirty' or too 'warm' if they carry any other recessives, especially choc/cham, and obviously size and type is not going to be as good as it could be if they were dove based silvers.

They look a nice shade at the moment, though the one at the front looks to have a slightly different hue than the other. Obviously colour will be easier to judge when they are adults.
I don't know what the ideal shade is for silver over there, but over here it is very light, and the babies pretty much look white when the age your are now.

W xx


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## nuedaimice (May 26, 2010)

I knew about the mealiness, and I know I will have a very long way to go getting the line to anywhere near perfect. Thank you for your comments, I will have to sit down and write out a breeding plan.

There are very, very few breeders in the U.S. who concentrate on strictly show type/clean lines with only one variety. In fact, I could probably count them on my two hands (and still have a few fingers left over). The few breeders who concentrate so heavily all have related stock and none of them specialize in blue based silver (at least not on the east coast at the moment, that I know of).

In the U.S. we do have to really work at getting nice show type mice in the varieties we want. Unless its something someone else already breeds for. My favorite variety is American Brindle, which I had selectively bred some very clean, nicely typed Am. Brindles years ago, but the lines died out when I stopped breeding. No one else has been able to put together a line like I had since. It is one of the hardest varieties to get looking nice... I'm hoping I can do that with some of these other varieties I have here.

My main focuses at the moment are PEW and Am. Brindle. I have a large collection of random other genes because I am having to piece together a type line from a selection of mice that have a nice a and b, bred to other mice that have a nice c and d. My boyfriend is working on Tans and Extreme Blacks, and he has a lot less work ahead of him than I do.


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## Loganberry (Oct 24, 2008)

Sorry, but there is no way you can comment on baby mice and give an opinion as to whether they would be a good start for a new line.

Also, silvers in the UK that have won shows are not always very pale, but they are even. We show pale to mid coloured silvers normally. You need all the shades from light to dark to breed them. It's like mixing paint.


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## nuedaimice (May 26, 2010)

Thank you, Loganberry.
I will try to post more pictures as they get older.
I know these two will have poor type. They will have longer heads and higher set ears, cobbier bodies, poor set ons (well, one of them), and probably thinner shorter tails. The mother to this litter was not very nice at all, and the sire was mediocre.

Unfortunately, because I have only been breeding again for a little over a month after a 3 year absence, my stock is very limited.


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