# How do i get a blue?



## hxcrubberduckie (Apr 23, 2012)

As far as i know none of my mice carry blue, so is there any colors i can breed together to get a blue??


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## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

No. Blue is its own gene. If none carry blue, you cannot create blue.


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## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

You cant make blue as its not a mix of genes its a ressive gene d/d = Blue D/d = not blue D/D = also not blue. So if your mice dont carry it you would need to get a colour that allready has blue, eg blue self, blue pied, blue agouti, blue tan, Lilac ect or a blue carryer. Then you would have to breed the blue to one of your non blues to get blue carryers and either breed one back to the blue parent to get 50% chance of more blues or breed the carryers tougher to get a 25% chance of getting more blues. But you might be lucky and find one of yours does carry it.


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## hxcrubberduckie (Apr 23, 2012)

ok, i have this female pied longhaired, is she blue? she has black eyes


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## MojoMouse (Apr 20, 2012)

I don't know if it's just the lighting or colour cast in the pic, but I find it quite difficult to identify what colour she's diluted to. Maybe blue but it looks way too flat in tone, not slate enough. A c-dilute? Or it could be lilac but doesn't look like it at all - again, it's difficult with some pics because of the colour cast. If she's lilac, then you have a blue gene as well as a choc.


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## morning-star (Apr 9, 2011)

It looks very much like a Iliac agouti I own.

My guess it's either that or a very brown-y iliac (The shades on iliac can be either more blue or brown -its a mixture of the two but the brown or blue can be slightly more dominant in the coat) a nice Iliac will balance the two shades giving it a 'iliac' pinky/purple tone.


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## tinyhartmouseries (Dec 30, 2010)

To delve further into this---there has to be a way to create blue, starting from an A/A agouti much like a wild mouse, or, was d/d lab created, or spontanious mutation? How did d/d come to be? I'm always interested in how the different colors were created/appeared.


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## MojoMouse (Apr 20, 2012)

Blue was one of the first colour mutations in mice that came from a lab. They didn't have the diversity that's around now - just one lab induced dilute, hence d for dilute. I can't remember the details of the lab work, but it was something to do with viral transfer. You could probably get more info from MGI (Jax).

I had another thought about the colour - could it be leaden? Is that common in Europe and/or the US? Leaden is a spontaneous mutation. I've never seen one but from what I've read it would probably be quite close in tone to the mouse pictured.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Your mousie looks blue to me. If you breed to a black, pied or otherwise, and breed two of that litter together, you should get a few blues out of it. The process would take about a half a year with time for the first generation to mature enough to be safe to breed a doe from the initial crossing with the black and the blue.Whether or not you have leaden in the mix only affects the evenness of the color, blues without leaden tend to be a little 'mealy', looking as if they are dusted with flour. Tan guard hairs are a bother, and I think leaden pretty much gets rid of that.


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## sys15 (Nov 26, 2011)

MojoMouse said:


> I had another thought about the colour - could it be leaden? Is that common in Europe and/or the US? Leaden is a spontaneous mutation. I've never seen one but from what I've read it would probably be quite close in tone to the mouse pictured.


i've wondered about the possible distribution of leaden in the us. from what i understand they are virtually identical to blue dilutes, and you'd need to breed with a red to confirm which it is.


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## Seafolly (Mar 13, 2012)

sys15 said:


> MojoMouse said:
> 
> 
> > I had another thought about the colour - could it be leaden? Is that common in Europe and/or the US? Leaden is a spontaneous mutation. I've never seen one but from what I've read it would probably be quite close in tone to the mouse pictured.
> ...


What happens when red is bred to leaden? I've been searching around for that hypothetical and am curious.


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