# Surprise litter...



## jujubee18 (May 21, 2010)

Well it is all my fault because I gave my cousin two little mice, that i was 100% sure were males because neither had nipples, but SURPRISE!! she just called me and told me they had babies...I am going to take the mom and the little ones and try and find good homes for all of them...possibly keep some of them. but really...I wonder what they will look like. there is a tri colored black white and yellow, and a black and white marked. I wonder what the babies will look like...

I'll keep you updated...


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Well, that sounds like almost too much fun! The black, white and yellow one can't be a tri color; it just can't. You must mean a marked yellow brindled mousie. Are you set up to post pix? If you have an actual calico I'll eat the rest of my bale of aspen bedding.


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## jujubee18 (May 21, 2010)

the mouse is almost all black except one spot that is on its face, and his belly that has some white as well. The spot has yellow and white...I only have a picture of when it was young but i will post it. I have no clue what coloring it is :] but he is cute.


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

Wow! What a cute mouse!


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## jujubee18 (May 21, 2010)

XD thank you I just found out that mouse is named Socrates and his girlfriends name is Mojo. So i won't get the little Socrates back but i will be able to show Mojo and her pinkies. :]


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

That's pretty amazing *chomp* *need more water with this stuff**yum**loaded with fiber-good for me*...

You still have this mouse?

It probably won't breed true; I had a champagne mousie about five years ago that had an orange spot on it's flank. these things just happen; it's known as a 'sport" or a random occurence....there have been genuine calico type tris, but even those are hit and miss with the right mix of genes. http://www.hiiret.fi/eng/breeding/varie ... color.html There's the link to the full scoop.


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## jujubee18 (May 21, 2010)

HAHA you didn't actually have to eat it. No i don't have him anymore i gave him to my cousin, and since it is such a random occurrence, i doubt ill ever get another :] But glad she has him now. 
Wow thats a true calico O.O I only know about calico cats, and did you know that calico are only female? I wonder why and if that would also happen with mice if it was a sure breed.


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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

Cats have a different mechanism that produces calico than do mice. Theirs is sex-linked. Mice have dozens of ways to get three-colored animals, only one of which is sex-linked and it's not the same as with cats.


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## jujubee18 (May 21, 2010)

Thats really interesting! You said that one of them is sex linked? What is it?


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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

Sex-linked brindle. It's also called "xbrindle" and (confusingly), simply "brindle." When compared with white spotting of any sort, it can make mice with three distinct colors. Only females survive and reproduce.


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## jujubee18 (May 21, 2010)

Wow thats really interesting. But i'm a little confused on what coloring you would get. Do you have a picture?


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## MyBoyKurtis (May 17, 2010)

Jack Garcia said:


> Cats have a different mechanism that produces calico than do mice. Theirs is sex-linked. Mice have dozens of ways to get three-colored animals, only one of which is sex-linked and it's not the same as with cats.


But even with cats it doesnt always stay sex-linked. I have seen a few male calicos in my lifetime. One of which was on my aunts farm- he died when he was 3 months old tho  poor little thing


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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

Yeah, in sex-linked varieties, one gender usually doesn't make it very often, if at all.

Interestingly, there are sex-linked variants in humans, too, like many forms of colorblindness, which occur almost exclusively in men.


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## MyBoyKurtis (May 17, 2010)

yes, I remember that from biology ^_^ women carry a LOT more traits, right? So its much less common for us to get it than you guys :3


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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

Women have two X chromosomes, so if something is wrong on one of them, the other can "make up" for the lack. But men only have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome so if something is wrong with either one, we're out of luck!

That's why in sex-linked brindle mice, females live. One X chromosome is deficient in copper production, which leads to the mottled coat pattern, and the other X chromosome can make up for the one that doesn't work right and do right by the body's copper requirements.


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## MyBoyKurtis (May 17, 2010)

Ohhh. That makes sense :3
I wish I knew as much as you ^_^;;


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## jujubee18 (May 21, 2010)

When i read this stuff i am truly amazed!!

I took a bio technology class once where i got to work with gels and it was one of the most enjoyable classes i have ever taken.

Sometimes i wonder why i went in to art instead of bio technology.


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

The reason calico cats are almost always girls is because the coloring for orange and black is carried on the X gene, so calicos have one orange X and one black X. Boys, being XY, can only be either black or orange. The rare male calico is an XXY, so they are often infertile or have other health problems.

Took an animal breeding class and we all had presentations. I did mine on mice. OSmeone else did theirs on calicos.


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## WillowDragon (Jan 7, 2009)

Autumn2005 said:


> The reason calico cats are almost always girls is because the coloring for orange and black is carried on the X gene, so calicos have one orange X and one black X. Boys, being XY, can only be either black or orange. The rare male calico is an XXY, so they are often infertile or have other health problems.
> 
> Took an animal breeding class and we all had presentations. I did mine on mice. OSmeone else did theirs on calicos.


Autumn, you beat me to it! LOL

W xx


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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

jujubee18 said:


> When i read this stuff i am truly amazed!!
> 
> I took a bio technology class once where i got to work with gels and it was one of the most enjoyable classes i have ever taken.
> 
> Sometimes i wonder why i went in to art instead of bio technology.


Same here. I'm in the human services field, yet my real passion has always been biology.


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## jujubee18 (May 21, 2010)

So my cousin just dropped the new arrivals off. She said something kind of crazy happened last night. I told her to separate the buck from Mojo the mom, because i heard somewhere females go into heat within 24 hours of them giving birth and i didn't want another litter on my hands. Well she put him in another cage with food and water, and this morning she woke up with the buck in the doe's cage.....I guess he just knew exactly where he wanted to be, but she has no clue how he got into the cage. He obviously could leave any time he wants too, but doesn't. I hope that doesn't change when Mojo is taken away. Well she had about 10 pinkies. I hope we didn't stress her out too much with the move. I'll be posting pictures of of the little girl and her babies ASAP.


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## jujubee18 (May 21, 2010)

Here is Mojo, and her...I counted 11 pinkies.








pinkies:








Mojo: [she has short ears because of a little nippy fight she got into with another mouse...she has had short ears as long as i can remember]

















They look tiny...any suggestions you have for me?


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## MyBoyKurtis (May 17, 2010)

I dont think theres much you can do.. just let mama do her job :]
It looks like shes off to a good start- they all look like they have full milk bellys ^_^


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

Babies are tiny in the beginning. Just let them be.


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