3-week old rats

I have 3 little females that are a little over 3 weeks old. They are beginning to look a little thin. The smallest of the 3 is about 20g. I took some pictures of two of them since we are trying to figure out what color Laney is. I might pull them from their mother and set them up in another enclosure.

Laney is the lighter one. Luna is the darker one on top. The mother is a black berkshire and the father is an amber.
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...ake/new005.jpg

This is Bradley, our newest male. I think he is a beige but I'm not sure.
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...ake/new007.jpg
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...ake/new008.jpg

fer sure Bradley hasn't missed any meals

He is quite a tubby little man. He is about 250-260g right now. He is in with my blue hooded dumbo girl who is 275g and twice his age. My sister produced him from two black rats (one being berkshire). Bradley is about 2 months old, maybe a little older.

The two little girls posted above are looking even thinner today. I pulled those two and put them in their own enclosure with food and water. I will be keeping a close eye on them.

This morning, Laney, the smallest one (and the one I could not place her color) died. Her sister looks fine now (gaining weight) and shows no sign of illness, though I will keep her separated from the others for a short time to be sure.

Laney was a Mink. Some babies just aren't meant to make it, for one reason or another. Make sure the genetics you are working with are healthy or you'll have more unexplained deaths. Just remember, when working with feeders, breed for healthy animals (not cute, pretty markings or colorful).

The parents don't sound like they should have genetic flaws due to their colors though. Just watch a few more litters and see if you end up with more babies kicking the bucket. It could be that the doe wasn't producing enough milk or something down those lines.

Thanks for the reply. She had an umbilical hernia as a pinky/fuzzy so that may have contributed to it. The other two are growing well.

So is mink recessive? I looked it up on a rat genetics site and it says mink is represented by m while the normal M is the non-dilution allele. So as long as each parent carries mink, you might produce a mink.

I will try the pairing again and see if I get any more minks from them. I LOVE the color. Of course Noel's first litter was not very big but of course it was her first litter.