# Marten Sables!



## SarahY (Nov 6, 2008)

After the struggle with mouse rotovirus wiping out my silver foxes and most of my marten sables, I have a few healthy young marten sables again and, all being well, the line is saved  These are not only healthy, big and fit, they are very nice! The top colour will cast out darker; these are only six weeks old and marten sables darken on the top as they age. But the bellies are actually white, hurrah!


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

There's something really elegant about this kind of mousie; subtle shading, and they all have lovely big luminous eyes. Very, very nice!


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## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

:love


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## The Boggit keeper (Mar 5, 2010)

Aww,they're lovely. I don't know if it's just me or an effect of the shading in the coat but they seem to have really nice noses! 
I'm sorry to hear that you lost stock to Rotovirus.


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## MojoMouse (Apr 20, 2012)

They are exquisite mice! Really lovely, delicate colour shading and type.  I was reading on Finnmouse that they are challenging to breed. Has this been your experience?


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## SarahY (Nov 6, 2008)

Thanks guys! 

Yes, they've been a nightmare to breed. Rotovirus notwithstanding, they are very hard. The contrast between the dark top, the shading down the sides, and the white belly is very difficult to achieve. You get dark tops with cream bellies, or pale tops with white bellies, or you get dark tops with white bellies but no real shading between them. Or you don't get any in a litter at all because they don't breed true! I've had a few litters with one or no marten sables in them, but plenty of silver foxes. I haven't had any yet with dark faces like they're supposed to have. Then, if you get one that is good enough to show, you have to hope very hard that it doesn't start casting and getting horrible lines and marks in the coat colour. I don't know what I was thinking, taking them on :lol:

They are getting there though, these last lot are nice and they're definitely the best I've bred yet. The faces are darkening and the top and bottom colours aren't too bad. I shall just keep plugging away with them for the rest of this year at least.


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