Broken black?

technically it's a broken but if you wanted to describe the colour to another you could describe it as irish marked and they would know exactly what type of markings it had.Fancy rats are recognised in irish markings but for exhibition purposes mice are not

Irish:
Colored rat with white paws, and a white spot or triangle on their chest. Some irish have white ovals on their chest/belly. This gene is a modified version of the berkshire marking.

To me they look like poor self blacks. Common faults for blacks are light toes, tail tips, and belly spots.If you are breeding for black this is something to cull against.

Some of babies don't look black to me. Maybe very dark chocolate or sepia?

I was giong to say that too, but I thought maybe it was the monitor. Those are poor blacks. Tail tips, belly spots, white toes, poor color, those are all classic signs. I personally would cull the entire line, but its up to you

They look like poor black selfs to me

wow jess thats alittle harsh, i wouldnt breed from them but culling thems alittle harsh

Sorry, that is what I would do. I breed show blacks, sorry if you think that is harsh, but its my opinion. I dont have room for mice I never plan to breed from.

I hope you know that cull does not always mean kill.

I not search to breed black, here in Spain it's almost impossible to get any color mice, I've never seen a black mouse self, or any other color than the albine until a year ago. The first "black" mouse that I've seen is the father of the babies.
I'm searching good mice to "improve" the color, but now my goals are to get good pet mice, loving and beautiful For now, the color is a secondary objective, since I can't to get good color mice (someday.. )

I would choose to breed the ones with the most white together or back to the parents to produce better broken markings over several generations.Can you only get dark mice where you are?

It's not clear to me whether or not you're breeding towards show standards. If you are, culling some or all might make sense. If not, do as you like.