# Tricolour



## skinnybaby212 (Oct 18, 2011)

just a quick question, im just a pet owner starting to breed now and again for pet mice, but i just wondered how you create tri's? i feel like ive read somewhere that you need splashed


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

you need a splashed or tri colour mouse to begin with.


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## candycorn (Oct 31, 2011)

Some folks are trying to make them with pied brindle mice too..known as calico mice I understand. 
It's easiest of course to start with tri already, but pied + splash is a good start!


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## skinnybaby212 (Oct 18, 2011)

so if i have a splashed and a pied i cant put them together?


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## Stina (Sep 24, 2010)

candycorn....pied splash IS tricolor...If there is any white on a splashed mouse, it is a tricolor.

skinnybaby, you can cross splashed and pied...but if the pied isn't c-diluted or carrying a c-dilute you will not get splashed in the first generation, nor would you be able to tell who was hiding splashed. You would have to cross the offspring to eachother and hope you had ones that where hiding splashed (unless your splashed is homozygous)


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## spitfire (Jan 25, 2012)

Dont you first need to breed the pied to black eyed cream? then breed the resulting litter to splashed.


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## candycorn (Oct 31, 2011)

Stina said:


> candycorn....pied splash IS tricolor...If there is any white on a splashed mouse, it is a tricolor.


Yes of course, but it won't have the big seperated patches of color that most people associate with a tricolor.

A great example of what I mean is my Dexter (RIP) who was a pied splash...but not a good tricolor. 








Vs. 
Rolands incredible Tricolor animals









So while tecnically Dexter was a tricolor...he is not what most people think of or want when they are talking about tricolors.


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## Stina (Sep 24, 2010)

Even if the spots are poor, its still a tricolor and not calling it so just makes things even more confusing for people trying to learn. A poor tricolor is still a tricolor and can still be used to produce better tricolors over time.


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## skinnybaby212 (Oct 18, 2011)

thanks guys, i suppose all i can do is put him to the pied and see what happens as i dont know their backgrounds
oh and whats c dilution?


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## Stina (Sep 24, 2010)

a c-dilution is what makes the lighter coloring that allows splash to show. chinchilla (c^ch), extreme dilute (c^e), himalayan (c^h), and albino (c) are the different common c-dilutes. Generally the best for tricolor is c^e/c^e, but any of the c-dilutes in combination (besides c/c) will show splashed.


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## skinnybaby212 (Oct 18, 2011)

oooooh well the only does i have are a silver self and 2 choc pieds


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## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

For a splashed mouse to show the splashed, they have to already be c-diluted. If your splashed doesn't carry pied and your pied doesn't carry a c-dilute, it's going to take you a few generations.

Say dad's c*/c* Spl/spl S/S and mum's C/C spl/spl s/s,
Your first litter will produce C/c* Spl/spl S/s and C/c* spl/spl S/s. They'll all be full-color and non-pied, but they'll all carry both the c-dilute and the pied, and half will carry splashed. Keep a buck from this litter as well, so you've got a male carrying the c-dilute and pied, and hopefully also carrying Spl.

Assuming you bred those does back to dad (and do several, since you don't know if they're Spl or not), the doe who has Spl will produce:
C/C Spl/* S/S
C/C Spl/* S/s
C/C spl/spl S/S
C/C spl/spl S/s
c*/c* Spl/* S/S
c*/c* Spl/* S/s
c*/c* spl/spl S/S
c*/c* spl/spl S/s

So you've got a small but not unreasonable chance of producing splashed babies, half of whom will also carry pied. Take any and all splashed does from this litter and breed them back to the uncle you kept from the previous generation. That means for the does who carry pied, you've got:
c*/c* Spl/spl S/s + C/c* */* S/s =
C/c* Spl/* S/*
C/c* Spl/* s/s
C/c* spl/spl S/*
C/c* spl/spl s/s
c*/c* Spl/* S/* <----more splashed
c*/c* Spl/* s/s <----these are your tris
c*/c* spl/spl S/* 
c*/c* spl/spl s/s

With this litter, you've got a really low chance of producing tris if the buck you kept is spl/spl, and a higher chance if he's Spl/spl, but it would be your best bet with a splashed buck and your existing chocolate pied does. The more does you breed, the better the chance you'll produce the tris you're after, because you'll be more likely to have the does who carry the right mix to produce your tris.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

A good quick start would be a tricolor or splashed bred to a pied beige, if you can find those. then you'd know you have the dilutions needed as well as the splashed genes. The splashed gene is dominant. You'd get about half the litter as splashed or tricolor if the tri/splashed mousie is heterozygous (Spl/spl) for splashed, and all of them would be splashed if the tri/splashed is heterozygous (Spl/Spl).


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## skinnybaby212 (Oct 18, 2011)

that is soooooo hard to get my head round

so what if i crossed this....









with this...








?


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## candycorn (Oct 31, 2011)

You will get agouti mice...unless the pied carries siamese or the siamese carries pied. But that is not a splashed mouse. It's a siamese with terrible molting pattern.


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## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

Agouti? I see a seal-point siamese (omg the molt! hopefully temporary?) and a black piebald. That would give you all-black babies carrying the c-dilute and the piebald.


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