# Arabesque and Twizzler and a blue litter-Chapter 2



## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

This litter is about six days old. Arabesque, the mother, is a blue curly self and the father, Twizzler, is a blue tricolor. Arabesque comes from a line that has thrown tri and splashed, so we have a combo of pied, self,splashed, and maybe tri.





Twizzler and babies


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## MissStitches (Mar 31, 2012)

I'd like to see how they turn out when they're older! Right now, a lot of them look nice and chubby. An added bonus for both health and cuteness factor.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

At eleven days, waiting for the eyes to open...


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## Seafolly (Mar 13, 2012)

The curls slay me every time. They're gorgeous.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Thanks; the curls look so nice when they are around 3 weeks old, but being short haired, they will pretty much disappear as they mature. I actually plan to breed the curls out as I develop my blue tricolor line. I had problems with the individual mousies I had used to try to start on that, and opted to use Arabesque. She's a nice blue, has a great disposition, and has no bad habits like barbering her mate until he goes bald and get sores. I still have one other doe that I may use for this line...but I have to think carefully about it before I do, and check my records to be sure she's not from the wrong genetic background.


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## Frizzle (Oct 6, 2011)

Are your curls dominant or recessive?


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

It's dominant; going to be real easy to get rid of it, thank goodness. I don't dislike curly meeces, just don't think it's a good look for tricolor. And it's a waste on any short haired mousie. The long haired rexes (texel?) are another matter entirely. They are just luscious.


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## tinyhartmouseries (Dec 30, 2010)

Ok, I love dad's face as babies are climbing all over him!!!


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## Frizzle (Oct 6, 2011)

I would be very interested if it is something you don't want anyways... Do you not have any longhairs? It's cropped up in mine and I'd have some to spare come August.


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## LUX (Mar 10, 2011)

moustress said:


> It's dominant; going to be real easy to get rid of it, thank goodness. I don't dislike curly meeces, just don't think it's a good look for tricolor. And it's a waste on any short haired mousie. The long haired rexes (texel?) are another matter entirely. They are just luscious.


 I could not agree more with you about this.
Astrex on tri = no go - but I would LOVE a texel tri :lol: I really don't like astrex, but I love texels/longhaired astrex.
Their curls are so much more beautiful.

It's a very nice litter. I love the piebald baby blues <3
You could allways keep a non curly girls from the litter and breed back to Twizzler to get blue tris.
Love them!!


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

LUX: Breeding back to Dad is exactly what I had in mind. He's got a little bit of white on him; thus far I'm not certain whether any of this litter are pied with non-curly coat.

All in all, I'm pleased with this litter. I needed get a strain that didn't have the agouti background; it's not what I wanted at all. Agouti based tricolor with the blue dilution is interesting, but it's just not as nice, IMHO, as nice clear blue with lilac and silver. Arabesque has a nice undertone of mauve in her coat, and I suspect the lilac dilution will have a nice rosy undertone. You can't see it in these pix, but that goes back to the difficulty of getting the accurate color when photographing blue meeces. Each of you are probably seeing a slightly different rendition on your monitor.

I've become quite fond of blue in the last couple of years; I think blue has supplanted champagne as my second favorite color after fawn.


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## beckajean101 (Mar 31, 2012)

Aww...they are stunning ^_^


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)




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## MojoMouse (Apr 20, 2012)

I love the blue tones with the white. The mice look elegant and classy, and just a bit understated, in a good way! A lovely litter.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Thanks to all and sundry!

Increasinly, I am oriented towards working on the blue and red/yellow tricolors. This litter falls short of my ideal, which would be another nice blue tricolor with distinct patches of blue, lilac and silver, but I know it'll happen in the next generation.

Atlanta is my best blue tri to date, it's sad that she has that overgrooming/barbering problem. It's sad to look at a tankful of blue tri/splashed girls and see not a single whisker. Arabesque comes from faraway Mississippi, and is not related at all to my other blues, so I'm hoping to have eliminated the problem.


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## bubbles&amp;squeak (Jun 17, 2012)

awwwwwwwwww they are so cute xx


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Thanks; I'm glad you enjoy seeing my itsybitsycutsiewootsieteensieweensiemousiewousies....*sorry couldn't help myself *


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

New pix:


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## Tikmio (Oct 9, 2011)

Those are amazing babies. I think I'll breed my blue carriers, this post has got me thinking about my old blues. Thanks moustress!


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Tikmio: Thanks! I'm glad you found the pix inspiring.

I'm pretty pleased to get several nice standard blue splashed and the one self blue; I had hoped for tris, but I can breed the splashed back to the dad or to aunts and cousins.


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## Fraction (Aug 29, 2011)

Those are some very nice mice! I don't usually like blue on animals (except some blue merle dogs), but I really like the look of your blues. That blue self is very pretty.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Thanks! 

I'll probably never produce a better blue than that; I'm pleased to see that the four I consider good enough to potentially breed didn't inherit the weird ears that Dad sports. They are small and riding so high on the head!

Leaden is just about the only gene lacking in my mousery that I'd consider going out of my way for in the future. Since my breeding is for tricolors I don't consider it an important lack, though this blue self is obviously mealy in appearance.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Here are Arabesque and her young girlsl they are about five weeks old.


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## Carlie (Jun 21, 2012)

Arabesque is stunning. Who's the fatty blue? Love big blues! 

Edit: I've just re-read. :lol: Arabesque is the Blue fatty and Twizzler is the tri-colour. He's lovely!


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Carlie: I thought it went without saying that Arabesque was in this batch of pix, pregnant and living with her girls. None of the little girls are named yet; I rarely name meeces unless I am going to breed them. Sometimes, if they have an outstanding personality I will name them even if they aren't ones I want to breed.

Allegro (also known as Bandboy) and Andante (usually known as Coyote), two of my blue agouti tris, with thick luxurious long hair, are good examples of that:

Allegro (Coyote),top




Andante (Bandboy) top, right, and bottom.






The other is a brother who didn't like being handled. didn't deserve a name, IMHO>


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## Carlie (Jun 21, 2012)

Stunning! I can see why you named them. I'm sure I have a texel girly the same colour as Allegro. I never knew what to call her colour, as I've never seen a blue agouti before. Now I do. 

A lot of mine are referred to as "Fluff", "Spot", "Fuzzy Bum", "Gigantic Bugger", "Little Sod", etc.

I'm not good with names.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

*snicker* I have special names for certain meeces...Wingnut, Dingbat, Booboo (sometimes I call the whole herd my little booboos), Lugnut, Ratface Mousie, a certain crew of young males I call my Platoon, the biggest one is Sarge...the whole unit will be decommissioned when Sarge retires from that life and get farmed out to stud.

I come with new ones regularly; the little inmates never fail to evoke comment with their antic behavior.

Ooh! I almost forgot to mention the new litter, born yesterday. Arabesque has a new pile of wiggly pink, and they have asix young auties to keep them warm. I was sure she was going to pop, as she had developed corners on her sides; yikes! The babies are all long bodied and very active and skweeky, looks like a have several self blues as some show pigment a bit from head to tail tip,.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

All 13 are still wiggly and skweeky! I successfully fostered four of the smallest with Rhonda and Red Rider. I wasn't at all sure it would work, as their litter, small though it was, has had their eyes open for several days, and I wasn't sure if she was still lactating. It turns out that the whole little group enthusiastically accepted them. The little girls, all three,moved right in and started grooming them fromone end to the other; RR. and R both came over, sniffed around them a bit, and went back to scoffing their fresh food.

The next morning, I saw that all four adoptees had milk bellies, though the littlest one didn't look very good. By last night, that one had improved enough that I think they'll all make it. I'll start culling litter in this line as soon as I have the colors and markings I want for my blue tricolor line. That runt could turn out to be the standard pied blue that I need. All the pied babies from Arry's first litter are curly.

There are signs of markings and color coming in...I am plagued with impatience!


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

moustress said:


> This litter is about six days old. Arabesque, the mother, is a blue curly self and the father, Twizzler, is a blue tricolor. Arabesque comes from a line that has thrown tri and splashed, so we have a combo of pied, self,splashed, and maybe tri.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

WTH is going on? I didn't repost the last post shown above, and I can't delete or edit?!!!

Here are pix of the new blue babies:


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