# Shall I list all of my mice?



## silverdawn92 (Jan 13, 2013)

I figure that I may as well share the colours of my stock with all of you. I am unfamiliar with a few technical breeding terms and colours as I have no interest in actual shows and breed for temperament, health, and colours I enjoy rather than show-quality mice. Colours are either stated as seen in standards or made up because I could not find them in the manual. Eye colour is not factored in to colour unless the mouse is an albino due to my lack of 'official' colour knowledge.

*Agouti:*
Self: 4 (M, F3)
Piebald (Marked): 2 (M2)
Category Total: 6

*Black:* 
Self: 1 (F) 
Piebald (Marked): 5 (M3, F2)
Category Total: 6

*Lilac* (Mysterious purple-grey colour, not sure if actually lilac):
Self: 3 (F3, one has tannish tint as well)
Piebald: 1 (F)
Category Total: 4

*Blue* (Blue tinted grey colour):
Self: 1 (F)
Category Total: 1

*Gold* (sometimes appearing more fawn-ish): 
Self: 3 (M1, F2)
Piebald: 3 (M3)
Category Total: 6

*Albino* (PEW): (F2)
Category Total: 2

*Tan* (colour, not marking):
Piebald: (F)
Category Total: 1

*Silver*: 
Piebald: (M)
Category Total: 1

Total Number of Furred Mice: 27
Total Number + Borrowed Mice/Baby Mice Not Showing Colour: 37
Total Numer - Borrowed Mice + Mice Babies to be Given to Others: 34 (May be more, waiting until nonfurred babies show colours)

Any colours seem interesting to you? Many, if not most, are satin as well.


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## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

If you get photos of the ones your not sure about I'm sure someone will be able to let you know what they could be. Eye colour also helps to I'd colour as most colours can only come in one eye colour and not the other.


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## silverdawn92 (Jan 13, 2013)

I'd post pictures if I could. I don't have a camera that can hook up to my computer and my webcam is utterly horrible. I honestly don't care what colour they are according to the AFR/MA but it could be interesting to know. I don't like the concept of animal standards in general.


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## Frizzle (Oct 6, 2011)

What's nice about knowing the technical term is that then other breeders/enthusiasts interested in your mice know what they are buying, as well as when you know the "recipe" for a shade of mouse, you can re-create. Here's a link to finnmouse, maybe you'll find a mouse close to your shade? http://www.hiiret.fi/eng/breeding/varieties/index.html


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## TwitchingWhiskers (Feb 2, 2013)

The fun mouse has another good list but I don't think I'm allowed to post it here...


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## silverdawn92 (Jan 13, 2013)

I know about genetics, I just don't know the technical names of the colours, nor do I want to at the moment. I would, of course, learn the names of the colours if I was selling mice, but I am not, so I usually just call them what they look like at this point, as it is less complicated for me. I have those sites bookmarked already, actually. The shades I am not sure about aren't on there, I've checked. There are colours that very slightly resemble them, though. I have a standards manual as well, and I don't see anything that resembles two of the females. I had some short haired astrex mice and a longhaired astrex but the store I bought them from fed them corn and they died from what seemed to be an allergic reaction. Poor babies. Most of the mice mentioned above are short haired satins aside from a nonsatin agouti and black pied mouse... oh, and the longhaired female grey-brown one. One of my females is obviously banded but the band is much too wide for her body size. I had a beige, black, and white tricolour but she never bred, no matter what male I put her with. My goldish mice look like an odd cross between a fawn and an apricot colour. One of them is very, very bright and has red eyes but looks nothing like an argente.


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## silverdawn92 (Jan 13, 2013)

Mouse number dropped to 30 as of today. A few of my eldest couldn't hold out any longer, the others were weaklings I felt bad for from the pet store. The mother mouse ended up killing a few of the litter, presumably because the babies (about 1 week old) are bigger than my three week old babies and already starting to open their eyes and a few couldn't keep up with the accelerated growth. She has 4 mice from her own litter (other were eaten) and 3 from her sister's littler (her sister ate most of her babies because they were inexplicably ill but putting the living, healthier babies with a foster mother saved most of them), so I think her milk might be overloaded with nutrients. She always gets very thin and ill-looking when she has babies... She seems to be letting the little black runt live. Also, upon growing older, one of the black piebald babies seems to have turned to a lighter brown colour.


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## ThatCertainGlow (Jun 23, 2012)

From what I've read, mother mice will favor the males, so if the runt is a male, she will keep trying to raise it. Not sure what your breeding goals are, but any mouse that runs herself thin doesn't sound like a good breeding candidate, unless she is the only one of a specific something you want, and you would then need to breed that problem out of her offspring.

Er, that is assuming your litters are not being retained at higher than 6 babies per mouse. Now, if you are breeding for feeders, then for certain she's not a good breeding candidate, and more importantly, her children likely are not, unless she was a fluke. You would want does who can nurse larger than normal litters, and remain healthy.

No matter your breeding goal, unless your problem is space for cages, I would advise separating pregnant does to have their litters. Especially if there is more than a couple days between births. First, that lets you know who ate the babies, and there are less reasons why they would. Second, more babies are likely to survive, so more choices when either culling, or whatever you plan for them.


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