# anyone know anything about fox's (mouse type)



## The Village Mousery (Aug 1, 2010)

lol just incase anyone thought i was on about the larger more scary type i mean the mouse colour.

Ok so i got this 6 week old doe, she started out all black with a few faults eg white behind the ears and white tail tip, and a little bit of white around the lowest nipples.

so now nearly a week on shes getting alot paler on her tummy and the white is spreading from around the nipples all the way up. so my question is how long does it take black fox mice to get the white tummys are they born with it or could this mousey be turning into one even if a poor one?


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## WillowDragon (Jan 7, 2009)

Foxes are born with white tummies.

I dunno what could be happening there except her tan is probably getting worse as she gets older.

W xx


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## The Village Mousery (Aug 1, 2010)

thanks willow i'll try and get a pic of the tummy somtime and see what people think.


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## WillowDragon (Jan 7, 2009)

That would help =o)


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## CatWoman (Jun 19, 2010)

I don't know if it happens with mice, but a lot of animals will have a change in coat color in response to stress.


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## The Village Mousery (Aug 1, 2010)

hmmm that would be interesting to know if it did, she in a cage with 2 other doe's atm and one the bigger of the three seems to be having a dominance thing going on... she keeps chasing the other two back into the bed area and when they do come out if shes in a bad mood she humps them. i know shes a female without a doubt so i keep thinking its when she comes into heat or something. The 'lesbian rape" is aggressive to me though she doesnt draw blood. i've read that doe's that are like this can be helped if they have a litter and are then kept in a cage with there daughters and the dominance thing stops. I just wonder if the stress is being caused by the larger doe dominance thing.


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## CatWoman (Jun 19, 2010)

I did a quick search and this rat page came up. It's mostly about coat color and breeding for temperament, but it makes a couple of references to the chemical relationship between fur pigmentation and the stress response.

http://www.ratbehavior.org/CoatColor.htm



> This strange link between coat color and temperament stems from a relationship between pigment production, hormones, and neurochemistry. It is not the case that coat color causes a difference in temperament, but rather that certain physiological processes underlie facets of both coat color and behavior. In particular, the hormones and neurotransmitters involved in the stress response and other behaviors are closely integrated with pigment production.
> 
> For example, the neurotransmitter dopamine and the hormones noradrenaline and adrenaline, which are involved in the stress response, have the same biochemical precursor as the melanin pigments (Anonymous 1971, Ferry and Zimmerman 1964). In addition, dopamine directly influences pigment production by binding to the pigment-producing cells (Burchill et al. 1986). Dopamine indirectly influences pigment production by inhibiting pituitary melanotropin, also known as melanocyte stimulating hormone (MSH), which is responsible for stimulating pigment cells to produce pigment (Tilders and Smelik 1978).





> Pigment cells are found in the skin and at the base of hairs, where they produce pigment that colors the fur. But pigment cells and pigments aren't just found in the skin, they're also found in the brain, including brain regions related to mood and stress.
> 
> During development, pigment calls start out at the back (in an area called the neural crest) and migrate to the rest of the body (Gilbert 1994). Anything that affects the distribution of pigment cells in the body affects not only the hair color, but mood and stress as well. The hooded gene of the Norway rat (Wendt-Wagener 1961) and the star gene of silver foxes (Praslova 1993) are examples of genes that delay the migration of pigment cells from the back to the rest of the body.
> 
> Cell migration isn't the only connection between depigmentation and the stress response. The pigment melanin also shares a metabolic pathway with stress hormones like adrenaline (called catecholamines): they from the same precursor, tyrosine (Nagatsu et al. 1964).


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## The Village Mousery (Aug 1, 2010)

i have took the larger doe out of the cage and had to place her on her own for awhile till the buck is free later in the week. i wonder if Ebony's tummy goes back black now. or i'm going to have to change her name lol


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