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Colour / Coat expectation chart

2289 Views 11 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Hillcrest
Is there a 'chart' that gives the expected colour / coat of a distinct pairing ?

What I mean by this is : I take it the PEW is an Albino given that the red eye would indicate a lack of melanin behind the eye , therefore would be recessive to a normal (BEW) . I'm not sure of mousery terminology but I would express it as N (normal ) and r (recessive ) so cross N X r would give 100% normal visual bucks and does , with the bucks being split (carrying /hiding ) albino . Albino being sexlinked means bucks can carry, does either are or are not , I presume , so by crossing Nr x r you'd get bucks and does that are PEW & BEW . Am I right or completely barking up the wrong tree ---or even just barking :D ?

Genetics eh , always a fun topic !!

Regards Paul.
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Pink eye is recessive, but it isn't albinoism like in many other species. I have both males and females that have pink eyes. TheFunMouse has some good pages on colors under varieties and genetics.
Hi Paul,

In mice the albino gene (c/c) is recessive, but not sex-linked. There are more ways to make a PEW, but c/c is the usual show PEW. There is also a pink eye dilute gene (p/p) which produces a pink eyed mice with a dilute coat colour, for example dove, argente and fawn.

You are correct that breeding albino (c/c) to a coloured mouse (C/C), would result in coloured mice carrying albino (C/c). Breeding these togther (C/c x C/c) would 75% coloured mice and 25% albinos. This is obviously simplified, there's a lot of other stuff going on!

These pages are the best for learning the genotypes of mice:
http://hiiret.fi/eng/breeding/varieties/index.html
Although bear in mind that it is a European site so they have varieties standardised that we don't.

Hope this helps you! :D
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Thank-you both for the replies and the links ----at the moment clear as mud :D but I'm working on it . Just goes to show that there is a little more involved than just 'putting two mice together' but exactly the challange I needed and quite humbling ---as a champion breeder of canaries I could rattle chick expectations off without a thought but find myself a complete tyro here . Much to learn and I thank you for your guidance although I feel a few mistakes will get made along the way .

Regards Paul.
:D Hi Paul,
canaries must be interesting! I have recently paired up my cockatiels, and there is so much to learn before i even introduce a breeding box.
It sounds like you have a good basic idea-go to the links others provided and if you learn the exact letters that denote genes, people can start to help explain individual things to you!
Just keep in mind that if you do not know the origin or the genetics of a mouse, they could be carrying recessives that you will not know about. If you really want to start easy, get some mice with pedigrees so you can easily predict what will happen.
SarahY said:
Hi Paul,

You are correct that breeding albino (c/c) to a coloured mouse (C/C), would result in coloured mice carrying albino (C/c). Breeding these togther (C/c x C/c) would 75% coloured mice and 25% albinos. This is obviously simplified, there's a lot of other stuff going on!
Hope this helps you! :D
Then you could also have a black peid (spotted) angora satin with black eyes that gives birth to six healthy babies, eats three of them and then leaves you with three pink eyed whites in satin. I wish someone had shown her a punics cube and explained the 75% to 25% ratio. I wanted more like her. *pouts*

Genetics is fun. Welcome to the addiction.
In addition to the Finnmouse site linked above, I like to use Mousery Database (ww.mouserydatabase.com), where I can input what I'm guessing the genetic make-up of my mice is, and have the computer do the calculations for me. You then have to match those up to actual colors using the Finnmouse site, but eventually you'll just know what you're looking at from the get-go. :D I'm sure there are folks who use the pay version, but the free version does everything I want it to.
This mist is slowley starting to lift thanks to all the advice .
On a side note I have been using forums since the advent of t'internet and I can say hand on heart this one is one of the friendliest I have had the pleasure to be a member off , obviously staffed and used by some very knowlegdable people eager to share the love of thier hobby---it shines through.

At the risk of pushing my luck :D what varieties are Dominent ,what are Recessive and if any what are sex linked and how is this expressed ? SarahY I notice in your reply you use c/c & C/C am I right in thinking c/c is recessive and C/C dominant ? in other words lower case recessive upper case dominant ?

I understand in breeding ,practised it for many years , most stockmen and women do , you get the odd blimp I know but that is normally a sign that an out-cross is required and by keeping good records one should be easily soured that fits the bill . My old mate used to say " People line breed until it goes wrong and then blame it on inbreeding "

Good luck with your tiels Tinyhart .

Regards Paul.
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paul brockman said:
what varieties are Dominent ,what are Recessive
Here you go.......
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=52

paul brockman said:
am I right in thinking c/c is recessive and C/C dominant ? in other words lower case recessive upper case dominant ?
Bingo! :D
:oops: Thanks tratallen ( I'd already read that page but didn't understand it to start of with ---makes sense now )

Regards Paul.
So C is dominant and c is recessive, but any given mice has two copies of any given gene, hence C/C has two copies of the full-color gene at the C locus. C/c is a mouse that carries albinism. c/c is a mouse with albinism. Since C and c are, sadly, not the only two genes at the C locus, you could also have c^h (himilayan), c^ch (chinchilla), or c^e (makes beige). It's complicated.
That helped me a lot! Thanks for posting the code and color together. Seeing it that way in this post made a light go on in my head! I understand genetics from breeding dogs and hamsters but this is so much more complicated! But that made it make much more sense!
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