I finally took some time to really examine that darker "blue", and I think you guys are right about the mink. The individual hairs seem to all be one colour so that throws out the blue agouti, right?

Also, I'm really excited to see what develops in the latest litter that just dropped. Koyla is the daughter of this black berkshire mom, and her litter is fathered by the same dad (yes, her own father). So far, they mostly look like more black berks, but there are 3 light coloured ones. This is her first litter, so I don't know what she carries. But correct me if I'm wrong here: If Dad is C/ch, and Mom is C/c, Koyla could be C/ch or C/c, since she's black, but NOT C/C because she made light babies. And now that I mated her back with dad, these light babies are going to be EITHER ch/c (Himi) or ch/ch (Siamese)? Assuming there's not some other random gene in there to mix it up...