# Brindles



## windyhill

These arent the best marked brindles, but Im working on that.

Buck 1:









Buck 2:









Doe 1:









Doe 2:









Doe 3:









Litter:









I have a few more brindles, but dont have current pictures of.
Im also working on broken brindles.


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## Erica

I love brindles!! They are beautiful. I have one brindle doe, and a buck that I *think* carries brindle. (is that possible? I know NOTHING about genetics in mice.) I think I'm going to concentrate on tri's and brindle though. There go my feeders if I do that, I wouldn't be able to feed something so beautiful.


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## windyhill

Brindle cant be carried, but you can have an unmarked brindle.


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## Erica

I'm not sure what they look like... my buck is bright orange and white. Is there any way to know if they are unmarked brindles?


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## windyhill

With unmarked brindles, you cant tell by looking at them,but you can tell by breeding them.
If you breed them to a non-brindle, then you should still get some brindles.

I believe this boy is an unmarked brindle, but I wont know for sure until I breed him:


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## Autumn2005

I bred a black broken buck to a grey doe with a white belly, and got 8 black, 4 PEW, and 4 brindles. Does that mean either parent had to have the brindle? Which one? The grey sort of has these darker grey splotches on her back, like round spots sort of, big ones the size of your thumb nail. Is that a sign of brindling?


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## windyhill

It sounds like the doe is a poorly/sotty marled brindle, but without a picture it can be hard to tell.
In order to get brindles, 1 parent has to be brindle(includes showing & unmarked)
My best guess is on the doe


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## Autumn2005

I thought brindles were that reddish tan color with black markings. They come in grey too? I only have one picture of the doe, and it's not a very good one.


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## Autumn2005

Sorry to keep asking questions, but what would be considered a "good" brindle marking?


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## Rhasputin

I don't know what judges look for in a show brindle, but here is a pic of my brindle boy, he's got very striking markings!









Also I was wondering: Can you breed tri-colours from Brindles? My brindle girls have produces several broken brindles, that I think look a lot like tri-colours. Not sure if there's anyway to breed them into tris, or just breed them into weird looking brindles? lol.


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## windyhill

Brindles can be bred into several colors(blue,beige,chinchilla,etc) but the most common is Fawn(RY) Brindle.
Brindles are dominant to every gene except Lethal Yellow (Ay) and 
not fully dominant over Tan (at).

Broken brindles and tri colors arent the same. Broken brindles cant be bred into tris.
Tri colors are made up of 3 parts: Splashed, spots & c-dilutes.

That brindle buck has pretty good markings, which is what a judge is looking for.


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## Rhasputin

So in brindles, judges go for bold marking?


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## windyhill

Judges look for good, clean & clear markings, not thin, smudge markings.
The markings have to the clearly visable and spaced apart, not all smushed together.
Judges look for brindle markings on the bellies.


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## Rhasputin

Aha. Good info. 
Thanks!


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## nanette37

broken brindles sound interesting. i have 2 brindles right now (male and female) that both have white head spots. i think im going to breed them together and hopefully they will have broken babies with more white than just head spots. and btw your brindles are beautiful


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## Autumn2005

I never knew brindles could have so many colors! So basically a good brindle would have tiger stripes? can there be a white brindle, like a white tiger?


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## Rhasputin

I have two broken brindle babies right now, that will probably be up for sale soon...
Both are white, with tan spots, and gray/black/brown markings on the tan spots. 
I just took pictures of them last night. So hopefully I can get them uploaded today, and I'll share.


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## windyhill

Thanks
Yep a good brindle will have tiger stripes.
Judges usually look for stripes on the bellies, but theres some breeders who breed for clean bellies.

I like the look of broken brindles, but theres some people that dont. 
Theres a white brindle, but its from breeding a brindle to a beige. The gene that causes beige, bleaches out the orange, making it a a BEW with pastel stripes


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## Autumn2005

Do brindles have any special health problems? I kept one of the brindles from that grey doe, and she was fine, had a healthy litter of 7, and then a couple months later she started getting real thin, and lethargic, and a month later she died in my hand (it was very traumatic!). But she was in with two other does, and to this day those does, both older than her, are absolutely fine and healthy. Was it some genetic condition she was predisposed to? Why did it affect her and not the other mice?


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## windyhill

Brindles are prone to being overweight, it can range from being chubby to being HUGE.
The overweight problem can also cause some issues with breeding, so alot of breeders breed right at the 3 month mark just to make sure they can breed them before they have breeding problems(due to the weight issue)
They are also more prone to getting tumors.

I have no idea what could of happened to your doe, sorry for your loss though


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## Autumn2005

The doe's mother, the grey that I still have, she's very fat, and she doesn't use the wheel in her cage. I thought it was just her, but you're saying that it's a predisposition? So will she be good to breed again, or will her first litter be her last? I was hopping for another fawn brindle from her.


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## Autumn2005

I thought of something else, too. The doe has a white belly. Is that typical of brindles, or is that a sign of a different gene? Like a fox or white belly agouti? But agouti is dominant over brindle, right? So she can't be an agouti if she produced 4 brindles? The doe that died, her belly wasn't white but it was much lighter than her back. Also, she doesn't look like a fox. The grey fades gradually to white, not an abrupt line like the other foxes I've seen.


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## windyhill

Some breeders put their brindles on a diet,etc, but usually they all get fat, no matter what is done.
She may or may not be able to breed again. It seems all tey get bigger they become less fertile and harder to breed, but sometimes you can get lucky.
Most of my brindles have white bellies, but they arent fox. Its common for them to have white bellies, either solid or with some stripes on them.

Brindle is dominant over agouti.
She can be agouti and still be a brindle (either marked or unmarked)

Agouti brindle: Avy/A B/* C/* D/* P/*


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## Autumn2005

Thanks for the help with brindles. I put her on a diet for a while, but I can only do it when she's by herself in a cage. I did get her weight down, but then she started getting scabs between her shoulders, and when I put her back in the big cage with other does and didn't worry about her weight, the scabs went away. This may sound funy, but is there a way for force her to exercise? She doesn't use the wheel, and won't use the ball. I think she'd be healthier if she ran around more, but she doesn't :? .


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## windyhill

Your welcome.
if you ever have any other questions about brindles, feel free to ask. 
I've never tried to force a mouse to exercise, and Im not sure if you can or not.


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## moustress

Diet probably won't make any difference. Chances are that here in the US, she's A^vy not lethal A^y. the white on the belly doesn't mean anything other than she's a marked brindle. If she's not too fat to physicallyj achieve the necessary act, she'll do fine having another litter. At least, she's no more likely to have problems than any other healthy doe. My brindles have not had a tendency to get tumors, as a matter of fact I can't think of even one whose had them, but then, I use a corn free diet, which minimizes the chances to near zero.

The corn free diet really does work; I haven't had a tumor except for a couple during a period I was feeding my mousies whole oats that was later found to contain broken pieces of corn. I was so pissed at the feed mill; now I hand sort all the grain in order to remove the corn plus any other stuff I wouldn't feed my mousies.


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## windyhill

I havent had a tumor in my lines, but I know that theres some other breeders who do.
Alot of breeders swear by having their brindles on a diet they dont get as big, but who knows.
and as for breeding, Ive found that as my bucks got bigger and older then 6 months, they were less fertile.
Never tested it with a doe, I just breed my brindle does once and thats usually it, but Ive heard other breeders say that they can usually only get 1 litter from a brindle doe.


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## moustress

I had a broken brindle doe I got from a pet store who developed a tumor. I bred her and it disappeared. When the babies were weaned, it showed up again, so I bred her again, and it went away again, so I bred her again...then I let her go after weaning the last litter until the tumor got bad enough that it was causing discomfort. Snirkle was her name, a very nice slim brindle she was too, so that obesity wasn't a factor as far as the tumor went.


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## Autumn2005

If that's true, too bad. I usually leave my does with the buck for one week, and they start to show by 2 weeks, but maybe I'll try leaving her with the buck until I'm sure she's pregnant. If I don't get another brindle...  . She was a really lucky find, and her daughter was beautiful.


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## moustress

I've been criticized for leaving the buck in through the birth and letting the doe have a second litter right away, if that happens. half the time it does happen, and I think it is actually healthy for the whole 'family' as the young boys get to see their dad helping to take care of the new babies and make better mousie daddies themselves. I've bred for nonviolent males, some of whom live peaceably with their sons long after all the girls have gone to other tanks. I see it as modeled behavior, in the sociological sense of the phrase.


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