# Pinkie eye color changing? How is this possible?



## Lizzle (Apr 7, 2010)

One of my female mice had a litter the same day as another of mine, and she is fostering 4 of that other female's babies.

2 of those babies had pink eyes! But.. it is now their 4th day of life and all 6 (Mitzty had 2 children of her own) have black eyes! How can this possibly be? :shock:

Has this ever happened to any of your pinkies?


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

Perhaps they are ruby eyes?


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## Lizzle (Apr 7, 2010)

That actually seems like it'd be the perfect answer, since both Mr J and Mitzy have ruby eyes (that is why I bred brother to sister (well, technically haf-sibs, but close enough, as I normally would not do this). However - the two that had the pink eyes were 2 of the fostered babies from the red and black brindle and a male that looks like this:








(who is the son of albino Big (female) x Mr. Jingles). Hmm, I guess I will just have to wait and see!

**Note: that picture is actually one of my pregnant females!


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## LimaMikeSquared (Jul 14, 2010)

In humans their eyes change colour as the protein within them change and as certain genes for colours appear - hence why blonde hair can turn into the more dominant brown at a later age.

I suppose this may happen in mice? If something has a recessive allel for pink eyes and a dominant one for black then it may change over time, as the more dominant allel comes through.

It could also be the suggest answer of some of the eyes turning to ruby.

Julie


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## Megzilla (Oct 12, 2009)

Well I had a yellow banded female turn black in later life a few years back :S all the other yellows stayed the same :lol: 
Tis possible


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## Lizzle (Apr 7, 2010)

*LimaMikeSquared* - That makes a lot of sense, especially since that happened to me! I had the brightest blue eyes up until I turned 11 and started going through puberty. My eyes turned a deep green very quickly and have stayed that way ever since. However, that happened during puberty, not while I was a little pinkie. :lol:

*megzilla92* - How strange! I do know that eye coloration genes are very complicated (at least in humans), but I was under the impression that mouse eye colors were pretty straightforward and don't change color unless there is a problem (like cataracts, etc.). I will update this post as they get older so we can all see what color their eyes turn out to be!


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