# First litter baby pics - a little bit of colour help?



## pondering (Jul 25, 2013)

Hiya, my first litter are doing well, they're about 11-13 days old now (two litters, two does) and so are the mums.

You can see the parents in my other thread here -
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=15121

Still got 13 babies (might be fourteen but I think that's just my dodgy counting!) and everyone looks fat and shiny and in good condition.

Of the babies, almost all are the same colour as parents which is some kind of fawn / argente kind of colour... Basically what would you describe these two babies' colours as - fawn and dove?





I'm so smitten, they're such strong little characters. Need to try and sex them later on today but I don't feel very confident so I'm going to do the two tubs method.


----------



## Mionemouse (Aug 21, 2013)

Sorry I can't be of any help with colours (except to say that I think your suggestion of fawn and dove looks accurate to me - but I'm very new to colours) - but I just wanted to say what beautiful babies they are. Thank you for sharing


----------



## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

Parents look either argente or Champaign to me, If there under coat is blueish it's argente.
For fawn what country are you in, as that's pink eyed red or ry
If your in a place that has ry not red then they can't be fawn if they produced a non ry colour. If your in a place that has red like UK fawn is possible as all reds only have one red gene so all fawns are Ay/? p/p

Argente is pinkeyed agouti, the other baby looks dove so if the parents are argente they must only have 1 agouti gene. Leaving the other babies to be argente too or possible Champaign if parents carry choc.


----------



## pondering (Jul 25, 2013)

PPVallhunds said:


> Parents look either argente or Champaign to me, If there under coat is blueish it's argente.
> For fawn what country are you in, as that's pink eyed red or ry
> If your in a place that has ry not red then they can't be fawn if they produced a non ry colour. If your in a place that has red like UK fawn is possible as all reds only have one red gene so all fawns are Ay/? p/p
> 
> Argente is pinkeyed agouti, the other baby looks dove so if the parents are argente they must only have 1 agouti gene. Leaving the other babies to be argente too or possible Champaign if parents carry choc.


Yep in the UK - some lighter 'fawn' babies but I think it's just shades of the same rather than champagne I'd bet but I'll take some more pictures and see what you think... going to try sexing them just now

OK got pics - no idea if they're bucks or does though lol

Definite blue undercoats so they'll be argentes which is what I thought about the parents, too, but difficult to tell


----------



## Mionemouse (Aug 21, 2013)

I love the colours - especially the silvery dove colour. In the bottom photo, are there two really tiddly ones (one of each colour) curled up in the centre? They look so cute!


----------



## pondering (Jul 25, 2013)

Mionemouse said:


> I love the colours - especially the silvery dove colour. In the bottom photo, are there two really tiddly ones (one of each colour) curled up in the centre? They look so cute!


Yes there are two little tiddly ones, one of each - they're from the litter which is a couple of days younger. The other two doves are big fatties so I'm guessing came from the other doe.

I took a picture of one of the tiddlies beside a 'normal' one for you just now 
Sorry my pictures aren't great but taken on my phone in front of a window to try and give accurate colour!


The little dove teeny one is a suicidal jumper so couldn't get any pics :lol:


----------



## Mionemouse (Aug 21, 2013)

Oh that is so sweet! Thank you for the photo to compare - the little tiddlers must feel sooo small in your hand! :love1


----------



## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

Yep argente then.

So as you also got dove the buck and at least one of the does only has 1 agouti gene and one non agouti gene. 
So they are A/a B/? D/? C/? p/p 
The doves are a/a B/? D/? C/? p/p
Some of the argente babies may be homozygous for agouti A/A, if you want to breed a line of argente I'd try to find those ones and breed from them as all will be Argente then. 
To find out breed the does back to there farther and split up to birth, any who produce dove are A/a not A/A. To test a buck breed hi'm back to a female who you know is A/a


----------



## Frizzle (Oct 6, 2011)

Do any of those bubs look satin to anyone else? Satin can darken colors, so that could contribute to tone differences. Hard to tell in the photos though.


----------



## pondering (Jul 25, 2013)

Thanks so much PPVallhunds  very very helpful.

Frizzle the parents are poor satins and the babbies range from satin to just healthy glossy non-satin in the doves. The parents have gained a lot of coat bloom since they've been with me, maybe the change in diet is doing good things for them.

They're definitely not the beautiful satins of the show mice in the picture variety section.


----------



## Onyx (May 2, 2010)

Lovely healthy looking babies, looking great for a first litter  If your breeding parents again/breeding with the babies, you have some nice projects you could set up for yourself now that you have a better knowledge of which genes the parents are holding. The doves are a lovely colour x


----------



## pondering (Jul 25, 2013)

The bubbahs are growing beautifully - got homes booked for some of the boyd so they'll be going in a few days when they hit five weeks. This is my favourite of the litter in the picture.


----------



## pondering (Jul 25, 2013)

The boys in their clean out tub -


----------



## pondering (Jul 25, 2013)

I think I have homes for 8 out of the thirteen already booked, so that's 5 boys who will hopefully be booked before they're ready to leave.

Onyx, here are pics of the spare dove doe if you'd like her?


----------



## firstmice (Sep 18, 2013)

What beautiful colours you have there


----------

