# New Babies :-)



## RobM (Apr 3, 2010)

Hey,

One of my mice, Twix gave birth on the 14th (possible the 13th), its a first litter for the both of us . She has been incredibly skittish since she gave birth, so I had left it until today to have a peak. I looked today (but did not touch) and saw 9 incredibly cute and healthy looking babies  (will add a pic later).
As she is fairly skittish, when do people think I should start to handle the babies?


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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

You should be able to handle them from the day they are born. Some people like to wait 3 days, but I reason that if the mother is going to eat her babies she shouldn't be bred from.


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## RobM (Apr 3, 2010)




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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

Those babies are more than old enough to handle!


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

I'd remove the mom (or distract her with a treat) first so she doesn't see you take them, but Jack's right, at this stage, with fur coming in, you really don't need to worry about handling them.


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## Elven (Apr 18, 2010)

I really like those black and white babies.


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## RobM (Apr 3, 2010)

Thanks guys.
Here are a couple more pics:


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

How I love black and white meeces!


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## The Boggit keeper (Mar 5, 2010)

There's something irresistible about a pile of mousies, especially babes, they're lovely


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## RobM (Apr 3, 2010)

The "black and whites" may have three colours like their dad, does that ruin it for you?


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## RobM (Apr 3, 2010)

Hey, haven't posted some pics for a while, so thought I would add some:

1 week

















2 weeks +

























What would people describe the markings as?


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

What a bunch of cuties! They are called broken marked black, and black and tan, and broken marked black and tan. the third color you referred to is the bellies, right? Aw, I just melt because they are cusiewootsieitsybitsyteensyweensymousiewousies...

*koochie koochie* 

Nice pix.


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

*Sigh* I'm so jealous. I love black tan/fox colors. I just got my first fox buck, but he's too young/skittish to breed. Looking forward to my first babies. Meanwhile, I just drool over everyone else's.


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## ian (Oct 3, 2008)

Those babies look lovely and healthy. I love brokens, very nice


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

I adore broken marked tans in general and I'm so peeved that my litter of satin champagne, fawn, and silver that had tans has turned out to be so unhealthy. The marked argente tan buck, which had a fabulous tan belly, was one of four from that litter who have died from seizures. Oh, well, back to the drawing board. It's not easy bringing up a good tan out of stock that is just so so as far as tan bellies go.


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

How doyou breed for tan bellies? I mean, I know you have to have the genes, but then what? Do you look for the darkest tan, or the one that's most red, or what? What are considered faults in the tan line?


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Well, I bred tan to tan, I bred tan to fawn, fawn to tan...It was kinda funny really; I had decided to try breeding fawn to tan to try to get a better tan, and then I read a question in this forum that talked about breeding a good tan to a fawn to deepen the color of the fawn's belly, as fawn typically suffer from lighter bellies than tops. It seemed to work to do the opposite, so that's what Ill do again...and it did also, BTW, give me a better orange belly on the fawns from those litters..heehee!


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

Autumn2005 said:


> How doyou breed for tan bellies? I mean, I know you have to have the genes, but then what? Do you look for the darkest tan, or the one that's most red, or what? What are considered faults in the tan line?


it doesn't really apply to broken tans but with tans of other varieties,cham,black etc you breed the deepest tan to the deepest.Within a year or depending how much you breed,several generations,you will find the tan spreads everywhere,tail root,behind the ears ,guard hairs.Then you need to cross a plain/self mouse of the variety back in.This puts you back to mice with pale tan and off you go again selecting for the deepest tan.


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

So getting the tan everywhere, behind the ears and so forth, is a fault? And then after you select for the deepest tan, but have to breed back to a self, the tan is pale again? But not as pale as before, hopefully?


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## RobM (Apr 3, 2010)

Thanks all 

I have to admit I didn't get where the tan bellies came from at first as the mum doesn't have a tan belly. The dad only has a very small amount of tan around parts of his belly and it wasn't until I saw some of the black and whites ones start to develop a tan that I twigged onto where it can came from!
Is is a dominant gene? as the majority of the babies seem to have it.


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

From what I understand, it is dominant to most colors, but recessive to agouti.


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## RobM (Apr 3, 2010)

A video of the males: 




Advert for those for sale/give-away can be found: viewtopic.php?f=32&t=3383


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