# Ridgeback mouse?!



## love2read (Aug 30, 2011)

I bred my Red buck from the UK to my Blue Tan doe from here in the US and got an Agouti Tan RIDGEBACK doe! :shock:

She started out as a normal-looking mouse, but is just nearing 6 weeks(5 weeks and 6 days old today) and had her big molt and when I was checking on mice tonight I about went cross-eyed when I saw her!

I tried getting pics with my camera, but the higher quality made it difficult to see the ridge, so I had to resort to using my cellphone...sorry about the cruddy quality...


















































This is NOT a hoax! I took a short video clip with my phone showing my attempting to pet down the "ridge" to show that it's really there and doesn't go away with petting. If anyone wants to see the video too I can upload it as well.

When she's old enough I'll be breeding her to her brother to see if anything comes of it. I also just put her mom back with her dad a little while ago to repeat the breeding and see if any more pop up.


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## bonsai (Oct 14, 2012)

Oh congratulations.
I've never seen such a shade before.It looks fantastic.
I'm really interested in the following litter.Good luck.


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## madmouse (May 19, 2012)

That is *extremely* interesting! Do you think it could possibly be a random mutation that is similar to the Abyssinian gene? Please make sure to let us know if the trait is reproduced in future generations!


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## love2read (Aug 30, 2011)

I have no idea. I sure hope it can be reproduced though!

Since my Red buck is from the UK shipment I have no pedigree on him. Maybe he carries Abby in there? I've only been able to inbreed 1 generation so far and the only thing that popped up is an eye issue(1 eye was smaller then the other on half the babies in the litter...). Maybe a few more generations will pop out some more mysteries(hopefully GOOD ones and no more funky eyes).


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## Stina (Sep 24, 2010)

I'm fairly certain there's no aby in the red's backgrounds


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## laoshu (Sep 16, 2009)

I am also sure there would be no abby in the reds that were exported.

I have bred many hundreds of abbys and never seen any markers to indicate a carrier of the gene or visual abbys that look like that.

I would be interested to see what further breeding's would bring about though


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Aby is pretty new; the characteristics that give us interesting coats types all started as minor things which were inbred to fix the trait, so it's not at all surprising that we would see hints of these sorts of things in non-abys. What we think of as being discrete characteristics as sometimes present to some extent in animals that have no history. Mine turned out to be a short haired rex with interesting things like the ridges, but those disappeared as it grew. I'm sure there are 'phantom' manifestations like this all the time.

It's interesting seeing things like this but usually disappointing to pursue; it takes many generations and in my experience you often find it's linked with some awful double recessive that results in unfit animals. It's a project that would take years, most likely. I don't know that much about aby in general; it would be interesting to see what happens. I had an awful strain of satin when I started 15 years ago that was riddled with health problems, and it took me five years to get to the point where I didn't have a 75% occurrence of unfit offspring.

I found Pudge, the savior of my satin line, in a feeder bin.


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## gyri (Nov 20, 2012)

love2read said:


> When she's old enough I'll be breeding her to her brother to see if anything comes of it.


Though if it was a spontaneous single-gene mutation in that mouse, you may not see any results until you breed her to her own children regardless of whether or not you breed her to her brother. Sorry, new here, maybe I'm stating the obvious or saying something extremely novice, lol.


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## onionpencil (Jan 6, 2013)

any updates here? very curious! 8D


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## love2read (Aug 30, 2011)

Yes and no...

She ended up losing the ridge with her next molt and in it's place she got an odd white streak where the ridge had been and then a couple white spots on her hips as well(where an Aby would have rosettes?). In addition, she got a weird "zipper" on her belly...

Streak 









Zipper









I bred her to her brother and she has her first litter. They're almost weaned, so I should know within the next few weeks whether any of them are ridgebacks as well!

I also have a litter from her aunt(mom' sister) and dad that is getting near the 6-week mark. Perhaps there might be a Ridgeback in that litter as well! Assuming it's inheritable and not just a weird fluke.

We shall see...

If I don't get any ridgebacks in either litter I'll keep one of her sons and breed him back to her as a final attempt. If that produces nothing then I think it's safe to assume it's a fluke.


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## TrixYogurt (iM) (Oct 28, 2012)

Very interesting that she still shows te traits. Even if the actual ridge has disappeared.


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## love2read (Aug 30, 2011)

It was nearly gone by the time she had her second molt. It just looked her fur was a little frumped. However, within just a couple days it went from barely there to a weird white dotted line.  It looks like scar hair, but she didn't have anything wounds or anything like that. It's so weird.


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## onionpencil (Jan 6, 2013)

very interesting, wonder if it will change even more...


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## Runaway Mousery (Jul 5, 2012)

Well now...that is some really bizarre stuff. The first pictures very much reminded me of what one would refer to as a "prime line" on a very well conditioned rabbit. But the streak that followed the moult really throws that theory out the window :shock:


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## Cordane (May 22, 2012)

Oddly enough, its not the first time I've seen that..


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## Cordane (May 22, 2012)

I was meant to say that I have seen something very similar.. 
















Not pied/broken either. Just randomly grew some what hairs from my understanding.


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## HemlockStud (Apr 26, 2009)

That is very interesting! I cant wait to hear if you produce more. 

Also in the second update with her having the weird dotted line. Sort of reminds me of a picture on this page, way at the bottom left. It would be cool if whatever your doe is turned out to be a new marking as well.


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## love2read (Aug 30, 2011)

Cordane, that's so neat that there was another one! Did you own that mouse? Do you know if he/she ever had any issues later on or produced more babies like that.

I check on every single one of my mice EVERY day(usually multiple times a day, lol)... the Ridgeback girl's ridge was only obvious for a few days and even then it could've been easily missed or confused as being "bed head", so it would be extremely easy to miss it. After those few days it was barely noticeable. Then, after the ridge "disappeared" it was a couple more weeks until the white marks appeared. It literally popped up overnight. O.O So, I can imagine whoever bred that mouse must have gotten a very confusing surprise! Lol. I'm pretty darn sure it's the same as my girl though.

I'm counting down the days til the litters reach 6 weeks, lol.


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## love2read (Aug 30, 2011)

HemlockStud- it DOES look kinda like the mouse om the page...that one looks like a more extreme version of it. I might have to try contacting whoever owns that site to see if it appeared out of the blue as well or if it was born like that...


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## Cordane (May 22, 2012)

Nope, not mine. It belongs to "Jo's Mice" on Facebook


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