# New doe is a fantastic mystery.



## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

I did it. I went to petco a few weeks ago and picked 
up a few does for experimental litters with the tricolor.
2 pews and what I believed to be a black self(for the blues).
Wrong. They got out of quarantine today and I was looking them over for any signs of being ill.
I noticed something odd. My "black" doe had a even blacker marking on her rear.
Looking closer she appears to be a really dark brown and she has black spots all over her. It's the oddest thing I've ever seen. I could only get a few pictures worth posting, and only the darkest spot shows but I thought you guys would get a kick out of her. I think she's a chocolate, but those spots baffle me. anyway here are a few from my famously craptastic camera. In person her color is really subtle and the spots are even more so. I used a bright lamp to wash her out a little so the camera would pick up her color more.

Her next to one of my black weanlings.









Over shot using a lamp to fade her out a little to show the color.









Tell me if you can see it or not, it's aligned with her spine and about a inch and a half up from her tail (darkest spot) 









Side shot.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

I think she's too dark to be considered chocolate; sepia is probably correct. As far as the splotches, it could be moulting, or some kind of undermarking. You see this kind of thing in mousies that are randomly bred, and it's hard to attribute it in a total vacuum of info.


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## m137b (Sep 22, 2010)

She looks like a black that is moulting badly, especially if she's from petco, a few months of good feed and healthy living conditions and her coat should return to normal.


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## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

I wasn't going to buy her at first. Don't get me wrong, she's healthy(or she would never have left the quarantine area) but I overheard a couple of kids talking about using her for teasing their cat.
*shrug* I only needed the PEWs but I know if I left without her, it would always nag at me.

I don't _need_ anymore black does anyway so she'll be staying with the retired does.
She's cute but my guys are much typier than she is.


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## GypsyTails (Jul 14, 2010)

Hmmm, I've never seen even a poor Black who molts like that. Sepia, yes. Black, no. Interesting!


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if it was a sepia poorly marked brindle. Does PetCo have the chinchilla gene?


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## tinychicken (Feb 10, 2012)

bethmccallister said:


> Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if it was a sepia poorly marked brindle. Does PetCo have the chinchilla gene?


i have a petco chinchilla from a tank of PEW. her granddaughter appears cch/cch too


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## Stina (Sep 24, 2010)

In the NJ/PA area.....the Petco's get their mice from a supplier that doesn't have chinchilla that I'm aware of...I imagine MD would get theirs from the same place. It does look like a sepia.....but it's highly unlikely.

Beth, a sepia brindle wouldn't look like that...they would have a much much more diluted background.


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## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

I've never had a mouse moult in any noticeable way so I wouldn't know.
She looks like someone tried to take a brown mouse and paint dalmatian spots on her.
The one I got the does from gets their mice in on Sundays and they will regularly have a blue or two mixed in with the PEWS, agouti and blacks. Nothing other than that. Not even pied mice of any color.
That's why I thought she was just black. Should I keep an eye on her to see if the coat changes any?


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## m137b (Sep 22, 2010)

Does she have any yellow hairs at the vent/ears/chest/flanks?


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## WillowDragon (Jan 7, 2009)

I have had a poor cross colour bred black molt out like that before... he was definately black, but probably carried some c dilutes too, he had allsorts in him!


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## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

That's so odd. :3

I looked at her closely in the light. It's obvious to me now that she's a dark brown. She does have lighter hairs by the vent but they aren't tan, but really white. She has a spattering of white hairs behind her head too.

She's really sweet, the older does have absorbed her into their dog pile. So cute.


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## WillowDragon (Jan 7, 2009)

Probably sepia then. =o) the c(ch) gene turns tan hairs to white.


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## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

Sepia. What a pretty name for a variety.
Does that go by a different name in the U.S.?


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## GypsyTails (Jul 14, 2010)

Shadowrunner said:


> Sepia. What a pretty name for a variety.
> Does that go by a different name in the U.S.?


I've always heard the term sepia. And sometimes chinchillated black, depending where you look.


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