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Post by applecheeks on Oct 29, 2013 12:11:53 GMT 10
If Ruby Eyed White comes from ru overmarked mice, then what you might have is the original marked/ru gene combo. So cool that it's apparently spontaneously recurred! The black does look just very faintly diluted, but I could be confusing that with the roaning effect of all the white hairs in their baby coat. Or maybe you've discovered an entirely new gene. I'd definitely keep a few of these bubs so you've got breeding options, this would be a fascinating line to explore. With four out of six ruby pieds, if neither of the parents expressed it, this might be a spontaneous dominant gene mutation that came from just one parent? Crossing a ruby pied to a non-ruby pied would be another interesting cross. The roaning effect seems to be fairly common in my type line females but the ruby eyes have never cropped up before which I find rather.. surprising. Bentley (the father of these babies) has been bred to Nephelie (mother of Nimbus and half sister of Nebula) as well as Xia (Mother to Nephelie/Nebula and grandmother to Nimbus) so I'm rather unsure of where the ruby eyes came from. I'm going to keep one doe and one buck from the litter. Pairing the buck up with both Nebula (his mother) and Nimbus (his cousin or something) who were both born with dark eyes as well as pairing him up with the ruby eyed doe I'm keeping from the litter.
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Post by greydawnbreaking on Oct 29, 2013 17:07:50 GMT 10
That sounds like three litters of awesome. It might be worthwhile to cross Bentley with a ruby-eyed doe as well, if possible. That way you'll cover mother-son, brother-sister, and father-daughter.
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Post by applecheeks on Oct 29, 2013 17:24:19 GMT 10
That sounds like three litters of awesome. It might be worthwhile to cross Bentley with a ruby-eyed doe as well, if possible. That way you'll cover mother-son, brother-sister, and father-daughter. After an argument that resulted in losing the friend who was going to get the other ruby eyed doe, I may very well be able to do just that! Mother-son Brother-sister Father-daughter Half Aunty- Half nephew (Nimbus and Nebula have the same Dad, Bentley, but their mums were mother and daughter).
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sharky
New Member
I am a PINEAPPLE
Posts: 41
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Post by sharky on Oct 29, 2013 18:41:36 GMT 10
Aw, they are just so precious! <3 I love their markings (Like miniature cows! )
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Post by greydawnbreaking on Oct 30, 2013 10:19:21 GMT 10
Oooh, ouch! [winces] Hopefully you can make it up to them with a litter of ruby-eyed bubs down the line?
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Post by applecheeks on Oct 30, 2013 11:14:05 GMT 10
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Post by greydawnbreaking on Oct 30, 2013 12:46:56 GMT 10
Oh, how adorable! I love the picture of the nose. In addition to the ruby eyes, they've all got really great faces and the markings are so cute. I really think you've got something special here!
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Post by mousekateers on Oct 30, 2013 17:01:59 GMT 10
they are just beautiful! Looking forward to seeing future litters from these.
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Post by applecheeks on Nov 2, 2013 17:27:03 GMT 10
And another wee update for you guys : Please note that the photos up until now have been taken with flash, therefore the ruby eyes were much more obvious than they were at the time. Since getting a new camera, I no longer need to use flash so here's an update picture! It appears the ruby eyes are MUCH more obvious now, like they are getting lighter with age. Compared with one of the dark eyed bubs.
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Post by greydawnbreaking on Nov 2, 2013 22:44:25 GMT 10
This litter never ceases to fascinate. The ru gene is supposed to actually darken the eyes over time from pink to ruby, not lighten, so this may not be any relation of ru at all. Have you considered posting to some of the international mouse forums to see if anyone else is aware of a genotype that can produce black and white ruby-eyed pups?
Brainstorming out loud, as it were, this might be a very interesting transgenic crossover in one or more of the parents, similar to what creates an argente creme?
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Post by applecheeks on Nov 3, 2013 8:07:32 GMT 10
This litter never ceases to fascinate. The ru gene is supposed to actually darken the eyes over time from pink to ruby, not lighten, so this may not be any relation of ru at all. Have you considered posting to some of the international mouse forums to see if anyone else is aware of a genotype that can produce black and white ruby-eyed pups? Brainstorming out loud, as it were, this might be a very interesting transgenic crossover in one or more of the parents, similar to what creates an argente creme? It was mentioned that it may be the spotting/marking gene that is responsible. One of the bubs appears to be odd-eyed, she has slight black marking around one eye but not the other :
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Post by applecheeks on Nov 7, 2013 20:55:23 GMT 10
Since I took a few snaps today of the bubs, I figured I would post pictures of my 4 (yes, 4) keepers They are 3 weeks and 1-2 days old. This gorgeous boy is from Nebulas litter - best ears out of the lot. The odd-eyed doe from Nebula : The ruby-eyed doe from Nebula : And the lone doe from Nimbus : I do intend to keep one of the ruby eyed bucks but I'm rather undecided on which one to keep : Choice #1 has the best set ears of the two and is definitely the bigger one but he is just so squinty sometimes. Choice #2 has the better eyes of the two, better "figure" but is definitely the smaller of the two :
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Post by greydawnbreaking on Nov 8, 2013 16:07:03 GMT 10
For the boys, I'd say try to keep them all? Maybe they can live together since they're all brothers/agemates, and you won't have to choose. (There needs to be a better word to describe unrelated mice who've grown up in a giant merged litter together. Hmmm.) If you do have to pick, though, I'd go with the little guy. He might be small, but I'd prefer small and perfectly formed over large and "eh". And I think his ears are lovely as well, although that could just be the picture. These bubs are so cute, I'm so thrilled for you! What an outstanding group of keepers. And it should be fun figuring out what that lone black-eyed doe has lurking in her genetics, too.
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Post by applecheeks on Nov 8, 2013 17:52:26 GMT 10
For the boys, I'd say try to keep them all? Maybe they can live together since they're all brothers/cagemates, and you won't have to choose. (There needs to be a better word to describe unrelated mice who've grown up in a giant merged litter together. Hmmm.) If you do have to pick, though, I'd go with the little guy. He might be small, but I'd prefer small and perfectly formed over large and "eh". And I think his ears are lovely as well, although that could just be the picture. These bubs are so cute, I'm so thrilled for you! What an outstanding group of keepers. And it should be fun figuring out what that lone black-eyed doe has lurking in her genetics, too. I've never had any luck with keeping bucks together but I should be able to do so until they are at least 6 weeks old and by then, I should have a fair idea of who to keep! I'm definitely excited about figuring out whats going on with my mice genetics wise, I suspect its a spotting gene so I need to keep a ruby eyed buck to test out is its a recessive thing or not.
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Post by greydawnbreaking on Nov 8, 2013 19:19:07 GMT 10
You never know until you try? Social males are my main breeding interest, though, so I know that isn't everyone's thing. I read an interesting article about mice that talked about how all mice produce three distinct scents to identify themselves, by species, family, and individual. That means that brothers can smell that they're related since they produce the same familial scent, and why if they're never separated they can accept living with each other. I'm currently running a small experiment to see whether merged-littermates can do the same thing, I've got two sets of pilemates (get it? because it ended up being one enormous pile of babies, you know?) (there really has got to be a better word for this) and I'm trying to see if they can live together successfully. I've just done Baby's First Big Cage Clean for my 9 6-week bucks and they're getting all twitchy and trying to reassert their dominance rankings and complaining because all their perfectly comfy (filthy) bedding was thrown out. Poor babies. Hopefully they get through it okay.
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