Rat / mouse colour

[Mike Cavanaugh]

I am pretty sure that i read somewhere on here that most prefer all white mice, or mostly white mice.... why is this? I picked up a BEAUTIFUL young all black mouse at store today... and would love to make her a momma... but is there something I should know? A reason not to use her to breed?

Why do so many of the white mice have red eyes? for breeding purposes, does this make a difference?

[MarkS]

Sounds like an old wives tale to me. I have white mice and brown mice. I like setting up my mouse colonies with albino females and a brown male (which of course is het albino) so I always get litters that are about 50/50 between white and brown. Either one seems to be just as tasty. I've heard some people claim to have snakes with a color preference, but I haven't noticed it with any of mine, they won't hesitate to swallow either color.

Mark

[Epona142]

I have a large number of colored mice, a rainbow if you like. All breed well and seem to be just as tasty as red eyed whites. At least according to my tegu!

[monk90222]

I only have "fancy mice" breeding at my place. I have black, fawn, brown, and I guess they would be considered pied, and they all breed well and very prolific....
I actually found that the red eyed whites bred worse for me than the colored mice.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I have everything except Albino breeders

I have solid black, blue, lilac, beige, patch etc....never had any problem.

They average 13-17 babies per litters.

I have now been breeding mice for over a year so I think if there had been a problem I would have had notice by now.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

thanks for your replies... guess it is ok to make my "black beauty" a momma!!! Sweet!

Mike

[littleindiangirl]

Why do so many of the white mice have red eyes? for breeding purposes, does this make a difference?

White mice with red eyes are albino. Their eyes are red because they cannot produce melanin anywhere on their body. A mouse that is white with black eyes is not an albino, and can produce melanin. However the area of color is being controlled by seperate genes, limiting the amount of color on the mouse, resulting in low whites, pieds and black eyed whites.

[Jenn]

I'm glad you posted this. I was wondering the same thing. I have both colored and albino mice. I haven't noticed any difference at all in feeding. However, female albinos seem very friendly to me for some reason. After a few minutes a female albino will usually hop right up into my hand whereas I've never had a colored mouse do this.

[littleindiangirl]

That is interesting. Albinos have poor senses, so perhaps they do not know or pick up on the small cues that make other rats nervous? lol, I have many albinos, himalayans and siamese rats, and they do like to hang out to get a better sense for me, I always attributed it to them not being able to see or smell very well.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

White mice with red eyes are albino. Their eyes are red because they cannot produce melanin anywhere on their body. A mouse that is white with black eyes is not an albino, and can produce melanin. However the area of color is being controlled by seperate genes, limiting the amount of color on the mouse, resulting in low whites, pieds and black eyed whites.

interesting. A mouse I fed yesturday to my snake was white with grey patches, and had red eyes. does that mean he was an albino?