# Surprises in agouti litter



## wildrose (Apr 27, 2011)

Oh the fun of breeding pet store mice whose background you don't know lol. Parents: broken agouti and agouti. This litter was just for fun.

They haven't opened their eyes yet but everybody had dark looking eyes as pinkies, so I'm trying to figure out what the heck they are. The gray looking one seems blue. I can't think of what else it could be. I'm at a loss with the broken one... It looks brindle?! I included the agouti for comparison. This is such a weird combo but it could be that I'm missing some part of the genetic puzzle. Those with much more experience, I humbly ask WDYT??










Edit: picture not working! Here's the link: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=20z74n4&s=7


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Lovely marked brindle baby!

Agouti can hide a lot of of things, and though brindling is dominant, it can be darkened by agouti to the point that it is almost undetectable. It also can hide a lot of recessives. Fun indeed!


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## wildrose (Apr 27, 2011)

moustress said:


> Lovely marked brindle baby!
> 
> Agouti can hide a lot of of things, and though brindling is dominant, it can be darkened by agouti to the point that it is almost undetectable. It also can hide a lot of recessives. Fun indeed!


Ah, thank you! That makes sense.

Anybody have anything to say about the 'blue"?


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

What do you mean? If you have a blue baby it means both parents carry the recessive gene for blue. You could have a blue self or a blue agouti....the second being quite possible considering the agouti parents. The parents could be heterozygous in the A (agouti) locus, carrying a (the recessive gene), so the baby could be a nonagouti blue or a blue agouti. If the young mousie has flecks of brownish color, that would be blue agouti. Sometimes a young blue agouti will look like plain blue when quite small, as the brown parts can change later in life. Earlier, the brown can be blackish, which blends in with the blue.

Does that cover it for you?

I'll be in chat for the next half hour or so, if you want to flog the subject further.


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## tinyhartmouseries (Dec 30, 2010)

Wildrose what a palette of colors!!!!


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## wildrose (Apr 27, 2011)

moustress said:


> What do you mean? If you have a blue baby it means both parents carry the recessive gene for blue. You could have a blue self or a blue agouti....the second being quite possible considering the agouti parents. The parents could be heterozygous in the A (agouti) locus, carrying a (the recessive gene), so the baby could be a nonagouti blue or a blue agouti. If the young mousie has flecks of brownish color, that would be blue agouti. Sometimes a young blue agouti will look like plain blue when quite small, as the brown parts can change later in life. Earlier, the brown can be blackish, which blends in with the blue.
> 
> Does that cover it for you?
> 
> I'll be in chat for the next half hour or so, if you want to flog the subject further.


Just wondering whether it *looks* like a blue to anyone. (I know it doesn't do much good but I'm anxious to figure it out ha) It's eyes aren't open so I'm not 100 percent sure of their actual color yet. They could be a darker red, but I doubt it. Didn't consider blue agouti. :think I guess we'll see. Thanks for taking the time to type out that explanation though. 



tinyhartmouseries said:


> Wildrose what a palette of colors!!!!


I know, right? :shock: :lol:


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## MouseHeaven (Oct 25, 2010)

Beautiful babies, congrats


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## m137b (Sep 22, 2010)

It looks more like blue agouti, in the pic it has a very slight brownish tint, and appears to be ticked.

As for the brindle, one of the parents isn't actually an agouti. It may be agouti brindle or just plain brindle, brindle is highly variable.

They are very pretty healthy looking babies


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## wildrose (Apr 27, 2011)

Thanks for the feedback guys, its greatly appreciated! 

Aw, crap. Just realized I misspelled "surprises" in the title of this thread.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Note to thread author: See edit button in upper right hand corner of post. It's my friend!


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## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

I've got a marked brindle buck that looks almost exactly like your pup! Gotta love that blue, though.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

The blue is nice but a bit light. Pretty, though. Probably some sort of dilution or something like that. To me it looks midway between blue and BE silver.


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## wildrose (Apr 27, 2011)

> Note to thread author: See edit button in upper right hand corner of post. It's my friend!


LOL thank you. :doh I'm slow.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

I sometimes spot errors weeks after posting and go in and edit them... :?


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## wildrose (Apr 27, 2011)

Update: the two surprises are definite girlies! yay! Eyes still not open but looks like it'll be soon. The blue is not agouti as far as I can tell. She's gotten a tad darker but has even coloring. I'll post more pictures when their eyes open.


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