# Improving color quality?



## Erica08 (May 20, 2009)

I have a tan doe that has terrible color the top coat is black but very dull and unfortunatly she is passing it along as would be exspected. Now idealy I would cull her from my breeding and replace her with a better quality doe but unfortunatly I can't find anyone in my area who is breeding tans. My buck that I used for the first breeding has good color or at least it's better than her's if I keep breeding him to his offspring at some point will the babies start producing a better color?


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## julieszoo (May 27, 2009)

Could you not mate him instead to a decent black self?


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## Jimmythetiger (Mar 24, 2009)

Bump. I'd really like to know the answer to this too. How do you improve the reddness of tans in future generations?


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## Natasha (Apr 26, 2009)

A question, do you have and breed mice with something in the c-locus? I had that problem too, from a foodmice breeder with bad tans, they all had Cc or Cc(e), but other breeders had this problem too, buy crossing in c(ch)c(ch). So I think you can create bad Tans, crossing in some colors, that are located in the c-locus.

But this just one pssibility, I don´t think this could be the only reason, for bad Tans.

greetings
Natasha


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## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

Tan is a dominant gene, so mice with one copy appear tan just as those with two, although the depth/colour may suffer. Show mice are bred tan x tan for many generations and are almost certainly homozygous (two copies of the tan gene). This is one way that is likely to help improve tan. As you say, a great way is obviously to start with strong tan or buy some in if you don't have any. However if this is impossible one recommendation has been to breed fawn into the tans to help with the strength of yellow pigment - the problem being that you're in the US and won't be able to get hold of that gene. The only real option is to keep breeding mice with the strongest tan together in your case but this is likely to be a long and difficult process. If the mice are for show it may be worth getting in touch with those who imported from the UK a little over a year ago and see if you can buy stock, whether from an organised show or by internal shipping, which I know a lot of US breeders do. I guess it all depends how much you want good tans!


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