Ruby Eyed Non-Dilute

[applecheeks]

So as some of you may remember, I paired Nimbus and her half sister Nebula up to their brother-thing Bentley and Nebula surprised me with 3 ruby eyed babies and one odd-eyed baby. Thread linked HERE.

Now before I go on explaining any more, do keep in mind that my type line is line bred - it can get confusing explaining relations and such but I will do my best.

While some suggested that I keep Bentley, I decided against it but adopted him to a friend of mine who lives about 13 hours drive away (she breeds mice as well and has a fair few from my line now). On top of that, she also has a buck called Kakashi who I bred - son of Bentley and Nephelie (Nephelie is full sister of Bentley, mother of Nimbus and half sister/aunty to Nebula).

So she paired up Kakashi with a doe she received from me (a piebald agouti whos Dad was Bentleys Dad). And to both our surprises, she gave birth to a litter which contained one bub that had ruby eyes - this time, an AGOUTI!

It definitely seems genetic

I've already paired up Nimbus and Nebula with the ruby eyed buck I kept from Nebula - the gene is recessive so far.

[greydawnbreaking]

Oh wow, that is awesome! I would LOVE to see a ruby-eyed agouti, I bet that looks amazing. Why is distance?

Is the baby solid or marked? Do you think the gene is related to the marking gene at all, or just happened to appear in marked line? And most of all--pictures?

[applecheeks]

Dec 20, 2013 17:27:01 GMT 10 greydawnbreaking said:

Oh wow, that is awesome! I would LOVE to see a ruby-eyed agouti, I bet that looks amazing. Why is distance?

Is the baby solid or marked? Do you think the gene is related to the marking gene at all, or just happened to appear in marked line? And most of all--pictures?

I live in Whangarei, she lives in Wellington. She came up to Auckland (about 2-3 hours drive from me) and we did a bit of a mouse swap at that time
Bub only just opened its eyes today so she is still squinty but I'll pester her to get some pictures of the bub in a few days. The baby is marked (both parents were marked) but I do suspect it has to do with the marking gene purely because of my odd-eye bub. The dark eye for her has a spot over it..

But I suppose it could have just as easily just happened to appear in this line. I'm thinking of pairing up a dilute agouti doe I'm keeping (her granddad is Junior) with my ruby eyed buck. See what we get

[applecheeks]

An update, finally! Sadly a lot has been going on in my friends life (the cramps in her leg turned out to be caused by a 4cm clot, lots of hospital trips, warfarin etc) so I'm extremely lucky that she managed to snap a few pictures. Flash was used, it makes her eye colour much more obvious but her coat less so.

[MojoMouse]

The ruby eyed agouti is so interesting. Seeing as they're marked, it seems the ruby eyes are caused by the white spotting, as happened with your babies. Definitely worth investigating further!

I hope your friend is ok - sounds like a very bad clot.

[applecheeks]

Dec 25, 2013 10:03:33 GMT 10 MojoMouse said:

The ruby eyed agouti is so interesting. Seeing as they're marked, it seems the ruby eyes are caused by the white spotting, as happened with your babies. Definitely worth investigating further!

I hope your friend is ok - sounds like a very bad clot.

It's neat huh? Yes, it definitely does seem to be tied in with the spotting gene proven further by Gaia (my odd eyed girl with black around one eye and not the other).

[applecheeks]

Well, in some exciting news : Nimbus and Nebula are gaining weight nicely suggesting they are finally pregnant!

[applecheeks]

Nimbus gave birth on the 4th, sadly no ruby eyed babies in her litter though I suspected their wouldn't be - she is just that one step further away from the buck who I believe brought it into my line.

Nebula however gave birth on the 11th and there is a ruby eyed buck in the litter!

[applecheeks]

So while we have had some luck in producing more ruby eyed non-dilutes (2 ruby eyed girls, 2 odd eyed girls, 4 ruby eyed boys so far), we have run into some issues.. I've kept two ruby eyed boys, both have produced litters (small litters but that's typical for my line) but the problem is with the girls.

My friend paired up her ruby eyed girl to a non-ruby eyed buck (her father, Bentley I believe), a plug was seen and there was weight gain however by the time her due date came, and went, she didn't produce any babies.
I had also paired my odd-eyed girl up and the same thing. Plug seen. Weight gain occurred (6g in this case which isn't abnormal due to the small numbers in litters) but nothing. Not a single baby nor can you feel any babies in her belly..

[mousekateers]

this is so interesting. Please keep this thread going, I love reading your updates.

[applecheeks]

I'm going to make a few more attempts at producing more ruby eyed does and then we will just have to figure it out from there.
I have one doe who was born in July, her Dad was ruby eyed along with one of her brothers and I know her Mum carried this gene so I'm hoping by pairing her up with her brother, I might produce some ruby eyed babies but that will have to wait for another month or two - I have a few other matings to do first.
On top of that, Zoelle gave birth on the 17th (Zoelles Dad was a ruby eye carrier). The sire of the litter of 3 was a ruby eyed buck so I'm going to pair some of them back to him and see what happens.

Its definitely able to be produced but it seems to be much easier to reproduce when both parents are carriers.

[applecheeks]

I had Gaia, (odd eyed doe) in with Ollie (ruby eyed buck) for a little over 2 months, plugs were seen but they must have been blanks as she didn't produce from the plugs I had seen.
However, she surprised me with a litter of 4 on the 24th, sure enough all were born with ruby eyes! Their eyes opened today so I a picture of either eye of one particular bub using flash - terrible pictures but you can see the eye colour.


Without flash, the eyes do lighten as they age though.


And of course, this is Mum (flash was used)