# Okay, what are we?



## Paziqi (Feb 10, 2010)

These three babies popped up in a litter I recently had. They are now 2 weeks old. The mother is an agouti of unknown origin, with a white tail tip. The father is a self dove (p.e. black), with nothing but self and pied in his family chart going back to his grand parents, though he does have a great-great grandfather who was splashed. The rest of the litter is almost entirely self colored, with a couple of very small head spots. Colors include black, dove, possibly silver and hopefully argente, though could be recessive yellow.

I'm mainly curious about what all the white ticking is on these three:










Black male, head spot/streak, and wierd looking back end.










Another black male. Totally black on the top, but has these white hairs running along his left side. He doesn't like to hold still, but he has this patch of mixed white/black under his left eye. The center of his belly is almost all white, with the white hairs peppering into the black as it moves onto his sides.










Hopefully argente girl, could be RY. The lighter patches are all white, not flash.

The white on these guys is mixed in so differently than I've seen on pied mice, with the exception of the head spot on the first boy. I was thinking roan, but everything I've read on that says it is dominate, and neither of the parents appear to be roan. Anyone have any ideas?


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## SiamMeece (Sep 21, 2010)

I'd say splashed, definitely when it's in the line. Splashed markings can resemble roan merle and will not show with only one copy of a c-dilution even though it's dominant.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

I agree entirely. You got yourself a tri in the woodpile.


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## Paziqi (Feb 10, 2010)

I had thought splashed was color on color, not white on color? Not that I'm disagreeing. I've been wanting to breed tricolors for 2 years now. If these guys are splashed, I have to go rethink all my breeding plans.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

With lighter colors, like yellow and red hues, the background dilutes to white. If you lack a marking pattern in the mix, you end up with BEW's. I have a LOT of them. I like that gingery splashed mousie. I'm reformulating my yellow tricolor line right now as I'm getting meeces with the faintest hint of color and BEW's. Not what I had in mind. Wanted to resurrect what used to be before the accident, but it's not working, as of yet.


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## Paziqi (Feb 10, 2010)

Moustress, I've seen some of your pictures of your old tris, they were beautiful. I definitely wish you luck in bringing them back. Seems most things worth doing take time, frustration and effort. But I suppose that is part of what makes them so rewarding once they are achieved.

As far as these three go, what do you think are the c-dilutes I'm looking at? I know that there dad is C/c. Is it possible to make any guesses on what their mother contributed to the mix, based on their color?

If my goal is to get to tricolors, I'm thinking I don't want to use albinos. I have 1 young female who is ce/c, so I'm thinking my best bet is to try and use her to get some ce/ce mice, and then add in the splashed. And the spotting. Am I on the right track?


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## SiamMeece (Sep 21, 2010)

That depends on your personal taste but I'd say yes you are.

ce/ce, ce/ch and ch/ch give a c-dilute that is beige/medium brown and contrasts both with white and black (black tricolor) very well. ce/c and ch/c give a light c-dilute that contrasts nicely with black but not so good with white.

The chinchilla gene with any other c-dilute gives a dark to very darkbrown shade (burmese, mock-chocolate) which contrasts nicely with white but less or not so good with black.


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