# How do I improve my chocolate mice?



## dwellsinshells (Feb 23, 2011)

I am crossing my yellows to my chocolate male. Will breeding his yellow daughters back to him likely produce nice chocolates as well as better yellows? Should I be adding something else to the chocolate group? I also have a couple of really reddish yellow satins that I recently found. I could potentially put them to my chocolate boy male, as well, and start mixing in their offspring to both groups if they look good.

I am still learning about the genetics. Everyone here has been extremely helpful, so thank you in advance.


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## cjdelphi (Mar 23, 2011)

add more coco and sugar.... Try filling them with a fondent cream, ask cadbury?


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## dwellsinshells (Feb 23, 2011)

Sounds delicious.


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## tinyhartmouseries (Dec 30, 2010)

Does anyone carry black? RY that carry black can be soooooottyyyy...


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

Depending on your region and access to different mouse varieties...dominant red would be the best outcross, after that deep red Avy Brindle (dominant gene) and then RY but all RY are black based so not sure how they wouldn't carry it. RY is a/a - e/e. Not sure about mixing in agouti either, haven't tried that yet but I have a feeling if it's a nice rich agouti it would help chocolate but you would need to breed out the agouti after crossing it in.


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## m137b (Sep 22, 2010)

Chocolate based RY does tend to be less sooty, so breeding choc into your RY's should be good, but only for the RY. I'm not sure how a pale self like RY would improve a dark one like chocolate, unless the intention is to improve the reddish hue, in which case RY probably isn't a way to go, since they tend to lack any reddish hues.

I'd think if you wanted to work on improving chocolates the best thing would be to breed chocolate to chocolate for a few generations, selecting the pups with the best color and no light extremitites. Once you've got a line of chocolates with dark extremities, and decently uniform color that breeds true with few or no hidden recessives, then select a good outcross to improve the more subtle hues like red tones.


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## dwellsinshells (Feb 23, 2011)

Thanks! That's all really helpful. I love my chocolates, and I'm gonna have some long haired ones in my next litter. I'm very excited. Their dad was my first chocolate and he has long hair and he's fluffy and adorable.


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