# Hereford



## Sharon_

I really love my herefords. They will always be my favorites.
I breed them in the colors blue, chocolate, black and i hope red in some time.


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## Laigaie

There's something really incredibly striking that happens when the demarcation between the white and the base coat goes right through the mouse's eyes, like it does in that second photo. Truly beautiful mice, Sharon_, as always!


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## tinyhartmouseries

They are just wonderful, I would also kill for a red like the one in your avatar! Oh, what that would do for my tans!


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## Sharon_

Thanks! I also love my red / fawn mice.
And they have done this to my tans 










And I can't wait for this litter 
Chocolate hereford x dove


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## Fantasia Mousery

Wow, you have some seriously beautiful mice!
Thanks for making me fall in love with yet another marking :lol:


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## Roland

Sharon_ said:


> Thanks! I also love my red / fawn mice.
> And they have done this to my tans


Hi Sharon, very nice and great fotos!

Best regards, Roland


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## jadeguppy

That facial marking is very nice.


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## Sharon_

Roland said:


> Sharon_ said:
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks! I also love my red / fawn mice.
> And they have done this to my tans
> 
> 
> 
> Hi Sharon, very nice and great fotos!
> 
> Best regards, Roland
Click to expand...

Thx Roland!
I'm also bussy with splashed en tricolor (also in astrex), who came from your mice. 
So i'll post some pictures of them in some days


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## PPVallhunds

beautifull


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## Victoria

Hi Sharon, wonderful mice and although I have never seen hereford mice before they are truly strikingly handsome - Vicki x


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## zoocrewmice

Ahh, I LOVE seeing your herefords! I really need to get pics of mine up soon. Markings aren't quite as good as some of yours, but getting there.


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## moustress

Herefords are so striking, but, oh, my heart; that banded champagne tan is so lovely!


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## Sharon_

I started from zero with the herefords, because I'm the only hereford breeder in Belgium (and I think also in the netherlands..), so I got just one with a bad marking. So yes, I'm realy proud of the marking I've become 

And the champagne tan is now mated with a blue doe. I want to become some blue banded mice


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## zoocrewmice

Well, you are doing great with them.  Just curious, is your hereford dominant or recessive? I've heard it's recessive but mine gives markings just like yours, but is dominant.


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## Sharon_

Hereford is a recessive gene. Are u sure yours are herefords? Broken mice can have a look a like marking. Broken is also recessive, but it can be carried many generations. I once paired a self wit a hereford, and the litter was 100% 'hereford'. But in fact, it were just broken mice with a look a like hereford marking


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## zoocrewmice

That's the thing that's weird though, is broken is a recessive gene too - and these all seem to be dominant. Oh well, I'll keep an eye on them. Maybe with another generation or two I'll know for sure!


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## Sharon_

Like I said, broken can be carried a lot of generations, without knowing. I also have a litter with 2 self mice. Some of the babies are broken. But the last broken mice in the past of the parents, was 5 generations ago, and that was a mouse with just a white tail tip..


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## SiamMeece

zoocrewmice said:


> Well, you are doing great with them.  Just curious, is your hereford dominant or recessive? I've heard it's recessive but mine gives markings just like yours, but is dominant.


It is claimed that Hereford is a recessive trait but I have been breeding with Hereford and I'm not convinced that is true. In several pairings Hereford x non-Hereford I found Herefords in the litters, some with very nice markings, most of them with poor markings or with some sort of blaze and some with no markings at all. I'm from the Netherlands so relatively close to Sharon so our Herefords may come from the same source.

Btw Sharon, beautiful pics and beautiful mice


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## Roland

Breeding a homocygous recessive mouse to a carrier results in 50% showing the phenotype. This is no exciting news, but well known since Mendel.

Here is a paper about the genetic basis of herefords, it is an autosomal recessive mutation on chromosome 15, called "white nose" (wn): http://www.springerlink.com/content/tbde3n3e5e8xxa3c/

Roland
Chilloutarea Mousery - Tricolor , Splashed , Merle , Recessive Red


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## zoocrewmice

Oh gosh guys, I know this. >< Not to sound too offended but I'm not that dumb...

The mice I was breeding to should not have carried broken, but I suppose I will go breed to another broken to make sure.


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## SiamMeece

The non-Herefords I was refering to were non carriers or else I wouldn't have bothered showing my surprise in this topic about finding Herefords in the litters, Roland. I know the article and pretty familiar with mendelian genetics.


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## Roland

Hi Charles,

herefords are recessive. Often people muddle herefords with headspotted mice. Headspots can look very similar do herefords, but have a different genetic background.
What you probably have noticed there is the semidominant expression of piebald. As already noted many times before stocks of s/s mice may differ widely with regard to the amount of white areas in their coats. Thus by selection and inbreeding it is possible to establish reasonably stable lines of piebald animals which are either essentially all white with very few pigmented areas, or have very little spotting, amounting to 10% or less of the coat ( Dunn and Charles, 1937). Lines selected for intermediate amounts of spotting are much more variable.

The amount of white areas in the fur is depending on modifying factors.
It seems evident that in the absence of " k" genes (or in the presence of their normal allelomorphs), s is almost completely recessive and in the absence of s the " k" genes too are almost completely recessive. On the other hand, these " k" genes act as semidominants in the presence of s/s. In other words "the dominance of s is influenced by the presence or absence of the ' k' genes, the dominance of the ' k' genes is influenced by the presence or absence of s" ( Grüneberg, 1952).

The wonderful mice shown in this thread have nothing to do with this, they are very nice "true" herefords. Without any doubt herefords are recessive, while headspots are semidominant, as described.

Regards, Roland
Chilloutarea Mousery - Tricolor , Splashed , Merle , Recessive Red


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## Anne

WOW thet are truely stunning! Very nice pictures as well!


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## Bridgette Rena

Beautiful mice!


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## Rhasputin

Any photos of the blue herefords?


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## Sharon_

And an older one;


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## moustress

Such purdy li'l faces!


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## Rhasputin

Herefords have the cutest faces! They're the only marked variety I have a real soft spot for. :love1 :love


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## GypsyTails

I'm drooling over what your Reds have done for your Tans. Hehe. Nice herefords!


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## windyhill

I have bred broken mice to look like herefords 
I have 1 line I call my herefords, even though they are really brokensm but Ive bred the hereford marking for so long in that line.


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