# Ginger and Russell's first litter!



## willa2602 (Mar 18, 2011)

Ginger and Russell's litter of 8 were born (middle of the day, typical!) on the 23rd of May, this is my first litter so hoping all goes well! 
In the nest:









Wake up babies! I want a cuddle and you're going to have to get used to it!! I'm so mean  









I'll follow up with pics when they start to show colours. Just a quick question, both parents are satins, will all the babies be satins?
Thanks! Annie xx


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## The Boggit keeper (Mar 5, 2010)

Aww, Congrats!


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## WillowDragon (Jan 7, 2009)

Yup... if both parents are satin, all the babies will be


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## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

Because satin is recessive, in order for it to show on the parents, they must be homozygous (have two copies of the gene). Since they both have two copies of the gene, their babies will, too.


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## willa2602 (Mar 18, 2011)

Thanks, hopefully Nutmeg is homozygous for the dominant (non-satin) allele then, as she's just had her litter with Ginger's, then I'll be able to tell which baby is which (since mummy did a remarkable job of cleaning off the non-toxic marker i used to mark Her babies)! Guess I'll soon find out about Nutmegs genetics  Then again they are shop bought mice so could be hiding anything!
Nutmeg had 10 babies so I have 18 now! Going to try and see if i can recognise some of the boys and cull a few tomorrow.


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## Soleya (May 24, 2011)

Super cute.. Congrats


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## willa2602 (Mar 18, 2011)

Thanks


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## willa2602 (Mar 18, 2011)

17 babies now, I was completely unable to sex them so I left them alone and didn't cull any.
This is the two litters on the 26th of May:









And this is the largest of the two litters, so Ginger's litter and one from Nutmeg's litter who managed to catch up 









Here are four that have darker markings, I think they'll probably be dark agouti's like Daddy is


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## Soleya (May 24, 2011)

Ah a whole bunch of little cows  I love them


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Congratulations!


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## willa2602 (Mar 18, 2011)

Haha, smallest calves I've ever seen Soleya.
Thanks Moustress


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## Soleya (May 24, 2011)

Me tooo !!!  
And naked  hahaha


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## willa2602 (Mar 18, 2011)

They all have names now! (Although they may have to be changed/modified once they are properly sexed.)
Sorry about all the pics, I should have looked into how to make them smaller but I'm too excited about posting the pics and telling everyone their names! Btw, I've gone with a herbs and spices (mostly) theme....

Meet: Alfalfa









Apple Mint









Burdock









Casia









Chicory









Cilantro









Dill









Jasmine









Juniper









Nigella









Parsley









Peppermint









Quince









Saffron









Tarragon









Woodruff









Ylang Ylang (pronounced Ee-lang Ee-Lang, because of the ying and yang pattern on his back  )









Thanks for looking 
Annie xx


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## willa2602 (Mar 18, 2011)

Oh yes, and don't worry about the blue/red markings on their tails, i _attempted_ to sex and mark them last night.
Also I just realised i spelt Cassia wrong, can't win 'em all!


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## Soleya (May 24, 2011)

Ah they're stunning :love1


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## willa2602 (Mar 18, 2011)

Thanks


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## zoocrewmice (May 5, 2009)

Love the ying yang pattern on the last one!


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## laoshu (Sep 16, 2009)

very cute.. I love seeing marked mice just start to get the pigment through


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## willa2602 (Mar 18, 2011)

Thanks, I love that point too, when you get to see roughly what they're going to look like 
Here's an update pic:








Annie xx


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Aw, too cute!

*BZZT* overload....too much cuteness in one pic!


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## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

I agree! Far too much cuteness! Oh, the cuteness pains me...

As an aside, they should be more easily sexable at this point, as the females' nipples should be showing through the little bit of fur on their bellies. Their tiny adorable spotty fuzzy amazingly cute bellies.


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## willa2602 (Mar 18, 2011)

I know, they are gorgeous, thanks 
Yeah I've been sexing them as i go along, and I'm not 100% sure yet, but I appear to have only 5 boys out of the 17?! Well, that's great! But I simply can't believe it :? But there's definitely 12 bubs with nipples, no doubt...? I mentioned my surprise to my tutor this morning and she said some species will produce female heavy litters at the beginning of the year because they will be sexually mature and able to breed more before the end of the year, thought that could be the reason. Well either that, or some of my boys have nipples, or I'm incredibly lucky?!
Annie xx


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## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

:shock: If that tip holds true, it would be awesome. I think my mousies are just not in tune with the seasons enough. Stuck in their room with no natural light...  Perhaps a set-up of day-night light cycles could decrease the number of males... Nah, surely once I tried anything, they'd start throwing all males! :lol:


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## willa2602 (Mar 18, 2011)

Someone definitely need to look into it! It would be brilliant to be able to roughly control the ratio of males to females in litters produced :shock:


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## Soleya (May 24, 2011)

Ah so cute :love1


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