# What am I? Help!



## tinyhartmouseries (Dec 30, 2010)

I just found this doe at Petco today. I picked her up because she's a bit out of the ordinary for what I see there. She's tiny and has a horrible tail, but the color struck me. She definitely has concentrations of dark black and a greyer color. It is evident on her face, she has a black spot and a grey spot on the other side. I don't usually get any mice at pet stores unless i think they are merle or blue (haven't seen either in years).

Due to the concentration of spots on her back, I am leaning toward very poor varigated? If anyone wants to make my dreams come true and tell me she's poor broken merle, I'd be on cloud 9. Then there's always the chance she's just poor piebald, but the color difference between her spots is pretty significant. She's very sweet and I'm sure she'll stick around either way. :mrgreen:


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## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

I also have a petco mouse who has different shades of color on her. In her case, however, they're some kind of diluted blue-dove agouti color, with a much beigier color on her rump, while the other spots are all consistent. She also has those odd-shaped spots, which appear to be standard s/s spotting, as she had all spotted young from an S/s buck. The shading variability did not inherit to any of her fist litter, but half were pew. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one struck by the oddness of different shading in the spots. At first I had thought it was simply more intermingling white hairs in the spots changing the shade, but once she calmed down enough to let me sift through her fur with a small nail file, I found that while there was some intermingling, the individual hairs were definitely different shades.


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## morning-star (Apr 9, 2011)

going to to with variegated.


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## tinyhartmouseries (Dec 30, 2010)

Laigaie, could you breed a son back to her? If it's not a dominant trait (varigated) it'll need an inbred generation to express itself (merle?), as I'm sure you know. It would be interesting to see what you get as well. I think I am going to breed this one to a black self when she's old enough, to see if she's indeed varigated first, and then breed a son back if nothing odd shows up in the first litter. To even start, we gotta get this girl bulked up first!


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

She looks like either variegated or merle; I'm sure there are lots of mousies that look a little like one or the other (I have several of those in my mousery). Same with roan...with the tri genes you sometimes get 'faux' mousies. But this is not one of those, almost certainly.

What do you plan on doing with this little girl?


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## tinyhartmouseries (Dec 30, 2010)

I'm going to breed her to a black self boy and see if any show varigation. if they don't I am going to breed a son back to her, or siblings together, to see if anything merley shows up.


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

This mouse looks neither variegated, nor merle to me.

She looks like a piebald black.


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

Also, there's no such thing as a 'poor piebald' as piebald is not a show standard.


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## tinyhartmouseries (Dec 30, 2010)

Yes I explained my use of that phrase on another website. I am sure you know what I mean by that, anyway.


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

This is going to sounds so dumb, but I thought I posted on -this- on earlier, and it didn't get posted, so I re-posted. :lol:

I didn't realize it was posted on both forums! Whoops! :roll:


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## tinyhartmouseries (Dec 30, 2010)

it's ok. I just meant piebald that wasn't even or had clear demarcations around each spot, as the best ones should. Also I am almost sure that the European clubs do present "piebald" as a variety on the bench? I could be wrong but it seems every authority has a different idea of what constitutes a piebald vs a broken marked. 
Anyway, it can't hurt to bulk her up and try to breed her to rule out some stuff. It's just such a strange collection of markings on her tiny winy back, lol.


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## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

I did not keep the only male in her litter, as he was a regular albeit piebald argente and I was more concerned with the color oddity than with shape of the spots. There are quite a few with spots of that blotchiness here at my local store (even now, months and months after I picked mine up on a whim). I guess I simply assumed it's a matter of cruddy selection causing the edges of the spots to intermingle, like a poorly-selected demarcation line on a tan.


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## tinyhartmouseries (Dec 30, 2010)

I wonder, really...I do. I've only seen broken marked around here with very pronounced spots, and nothing like this one with her pronouced grey spots.


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

There is no standard for piebald. There are varieties that have standards that are -caused- by piebald, but piebald itself is not a show variety. 

Dutch, broken, and even are piebald varieties that are showable, just 'piebald' is not showable and has no standard. 

The only people I know of, who disagree with this, are the moderators of the fun mouse. There is a 'right' and 'wrong answer here, piebald, cases broken, broken is something specific, and not the all encompassing term.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

The right answer? Ooh! Ooh! Ooh ooh! I know....it's a mousie!


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

moustress said:


> The right answer? Ooh! Ooh! Ooh ooh! I know....it's a mousie!


Ding ding ding!


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