Black + Brown mouse = ??

[Lolo76]

I was just reading an old thread on mouse variations, and how it can be fun to play with colors... made me feel good, because I thought I was silly for doing that! I recently fed off my all-white colony (minus one pregnant female), since they were eating their babies. Then I got some multicolored feeders from a pet store, and decided to keep the cutest male & female - just 'cause. I saved a brownish male, and a black girl with a pink/black tail.

Here are some photos, and I'm curious as to what I'll get. Do you think they can make brindles? What else? Btw, I noticed the black & brown mice are considerably smaller than white ones... is that typical? And does that mean they'll make small litters?

The boy... he is sooooo freakin' cute.








The black girl


And the white girl (only one I saved from the last colony) with her babies... I may keep a female baby and feed her off instead, since she's a little scrapper.

[Lolo76]

P.S. I'm planning to completely re-do their enclosures, once I feed off the babies and move into my new house (2 weeks)... so don't worry about anything that looks "off" husbandry-wise, since I'm going to make things perfect! Oh, and I switched them to a mostly lab-block diet, as you all suggested on my last thread. They don't seem to like it, but I'll try a different brand before giving up.

[zoologist]

You're not alone. I'm doing the same thing with my ASF's

[Lolo76]

I wish I could breed ASFs, but they're illegal out here...

[gp_dragsandballs]

I too like to have colorful mice. The white mice do seem to be bigger and have larger litters though. I do have a mix of brown, black, grey/black/brown, and black and white mice. Hopefully the babies are just as colorful.

[CA cowgirl]

You are in luck. I kept notes on my litters. I've been let down with mine in terms of productivity. One mouse I think was lesbian. She never came into season in over 2 months. She was fed off. Too bad, she was a pretty medium brown color with a white patch on her side. The next mouse she ate the heads of her 9 babies. Might've been my fault as they had run out of food the night before. She produced 2 more in another litter, but didn't tend to them. I think she needs to be prey next.

The medium-light brown colored girl has been the best so far. She produced 11 babies in her first litter. She looks to be carrying her last litter from the male I fed off a couple weeks ago.

The babies were "sired" by a light brown piebald male. And the babies were like mom, like dad, a couple sorta mixed of the two, and a white one, all with dark eyes like mom and dad.

Hope this helps! And good luck!

[singingtothewheat]

I'm in the process of starting swiss websters. So. All my colored mice have gone away. Yea, it's cute to get colors. The last one we used as a feeder was a really pretty male who was silver almost blue. I just didn't have the room to keep him and I don't want to dilute the swiss webster blood line. Swiss websters have huge litters.

[Raptor]

Male is considered an agouti, or the 'wild type'. Depending on the genetics for each mouse, since they could have recessive genes and what not, you have the possibility for more agoutis, blacks, ad possibly albinos. However, that's just with the genes expressed. http://www.thefunmouse.com/varieties/index.cfm is a handy website for looking at mouse colors. Just don't post on their forum, they poo poo people like us who reed mice to feed our snakes.

[Lolo76]

Thanks all for the info! I think the black girl is pregnant now, so I guess we'll find out soon enough...