[moustress]

It's busy time of year, so I'll be brief.

I 'reverse engineered' a litter to get contrast back in the beige to black tris:



I bred my oldest buck, Diamond Stud 3 yrs. old to a young tri doe in order to inject a little health and longevity in the line.:



Royal and Regal, two yellow tri bucks had litters in the last couple of months. Royal was paired with Rosegold, who died when the litter was just about three weeks old. Old enough to be eating solid food, but a little young to be without a mother. Here's Royal with his boys:





And the girls with a couple of aunties selected to give them a little mothering:





Another litter off of Golden Boy, who is a champion stud muffin of a mousie, and Popeye, a one-eyed yellow splashed doe:





That's about it for now; I took new pix last night, but didn't bring the camera downstairs so they will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

[julieszoo]

The markings on that first litter are stunning. 3 years is a fantastic age too! So pleased Rosegold's bubs have grown up well for you

 

[moustress]

Thanks, Julie. I love the little satin creams as it's one of those subtle colors that, when splashed, does'nt show well except in satin. Yeah, that first one of the boldly marked tris worked pretty well. As far as size goes, these are alll small compared to most show meeces, for the most part. But size is something that's not stressed as much in US shows; it's the proportions of the mousie that considered important. There are a few folks here who are trying for mini-mousies with the proportions of show mice. I don't trend to either end of the size concept. Some of my most prized tris are relatively small, but health is the thing that I quest for. the black and white babies in that tri litter you like are really gorgeous, and they carry tri (I wish I could come up with a better name, genie doesn't quite cut it; demon fits better, but is kinda negative) I'm looking forward to the litters I should get off of Nibbles and the two beige marked does he's been paired with. These litters may not happen, if I'm right about the markings indicating the defect these tris were designed to test for.

There is still a lot of debate about just what the transgenic factor is and how it works. The Finns think it's a gene called flecked that has been available to breeders for several decades. At the same time, they insist that my tris must be the result of two different genetic manipulations. That is something I could easily believe after dealing with this line for a few years. Jack Garcia got the tri gene(s) slipped in unexpectedly in the trade or purchase, and isn't at all happy about it at all. I can sympathize with him; I really think that someone decided to throw a whole raft of things in the blender just to see what would happen. (heehee...and you KNOW I just loved {Pinky and the Brain)

Manipulating genes is becoming almost commonplace these days. It's a brand new world for those who want to learn how to do these things, and you know that somewhere there are true Mad Scientists with equipment in their livings rooms cooking up all kinds of surprising genetic soups. It gives one pause, and sometimes keeps one awake at night, thinking about higher education and sources of funding....but now the procedures are simplified enough by automation that even someone like me, who only has a degree in math and computer science, might be able to do something meaningful and interesting.

 

[Bryana]

That litter of tris (first picture) is amazing! I would be sooo proud of those if I were you What do you plan on doing with them?

 

[moustress]

Thanks, Bryana.

We have no club within driving distance, and no breeders that I know of. (The pet stores won't give me the names and addresses of their sources) So I just breed for enjoyment and edification. I'd love to place some of my tris with other breeders so I'd have someone to commiserate with about the phenomenon. One thing about the transgenic meeces is that it's hard to predict (nearly impossible) what the litters are going to look like. I have gotten to the the point where I sort of know what I'm doing with the beige/brown/black tris and I think I have a clue or two about what's going on with the yellow/orange/red ones. Other breeders who have the same type of transgenics as I do have different ideas than mine, and who knows what will happen in the future.

It's been educational that's for sure.

 

[moustress]

I've decided to have just one thread for my meeces who are no longer babies.

These are Royal and Rosegold's girls. They are both satin yellows and they both carry tri/transgenic. these little girls are about six or seven weeks old now.











The larger meeces are two yellow marked splashed tri does who becamse aunties after Rosegold died when her litter was only three weeks old. All the kids are doing fine, i'm happy to say.

And I got distracted; I :arrow: meant to put this in New and Existing meeces.

 

[moustress]

Shirley and Adamant have a new litter of one dozen, born sometime Saturday evening. They're are just starting to show signs of markings at four days old. They have their older sisters to help take care of them, and announced their vigor and good health by eeking loudly as I entered the mousery in the wee hours of Sunday morning. The older girls include two very nicely marked tris, the other two are B & W like Shirley

 

[moustress]

Here's the pile of eight days old babies from Shirley and Adamant. Seven out of the twelve have tri markings.

 

[julieszoo]

Those are fabulous! Are you starting to see a higher proportion of the tri's in your litters now, or is it still very variable?

 

[moustress]

When I started, I had just the one tri, a doe, who had been bred to a very bold tri before she was brought to me. Only two of that first litter showed tri markings. In the three and a half years I've been breeding tris since then, I've experimented with all the c locus dilutions to see what came of it. Now I'm moving back towards the original type which is the beige to black tris you see in this litter. There was only one litter in those three years where all the offspring had bold tri markings. Some of the chinchilla and siamese based litters have all had tri markings. This litter and the first litter off the same meeces were intended to bring back the beige to black on white. It seems to have worked well enough. I have been working on the assumption that the tri factor operates as a single factor dependent on a dilution in the c-locus. The markings types do affect the appearance of the mouse as far as facilitating the pooling of individual hues, with a dominant marking pattern providing the best in pooling and isolation of patches of color. I also seem to be getting some interesting patches of color on color in these two litters.

And I'm still pedaling furiously to discover the manner in which these tris were created. Most recently I've been looking at material about Cattanach's Translocation. I'm still not convinced that there is only one genetic manipulation at work here. I'm starting to wonder if there is an element of the process that causes expression in stages that show up in succession in each generation, and what I've read about Cattanach's Translocation seem to provide some support for that idea.

 

[moustress]

New pix of the Dinky Dozen at 10 days old:

 

[WillowDragon]

Ooo... I love that mousie on the top of the pile in the first picture!!

Willow xx

 

[moustress]

Yeah, Willow, he's the pick of the litter (actually haven't checked the sexes yet) for sure! Best markings, nicest tail, biggest overall. I'm hoping it's a boy. Even his feet are big!

 

[julieszoo]

They are great - keep up updated as they develop

 

[moustress]

Thanks so much, juliezoo. Sometimes I feel like I'm creeping along in the dark when breeding the tris if only because I really don't quite know what to expect from each successive litter. I do understand the reservations that some folks have voiced about breeding from this line. I really love the black and white babies in this litter as well as the tri marked ones. I'd like to be able to explain the genetics of the ones that show color on color. But at least I have guessed right with this pairing and produced a litter with a significant proportion of boldly marked tri babies.

I hope to get these darlings sexed in the next couple of days.

 

[moustress]

The eyes on these little bitties have opened; I wish this pairing had produced bigger babies. But the markings on the seven tris are exactly what I was aiming for. Size is one of the easier things to correct given enough time. The older sisters are looking good as well. The solid patches of color on color have appeared again in this litter which is interesting and puzzling.

 

[Toast]

Wittle cooties. So awdorable *Quits baby talk* They are such nice colors

 

[moustress]

No cooties!! No cooties!! *moustress runs to check*

Aw, dem widdle biddle mousie wousies gotz no cooties at all. *good* *whew*

 

[moustress]

Here are the boys from Diamond Stud and Sapphire's pairing. I really like the facial markings. The doe is a marked ticked carrying c^h so the darker pigments tend to get concentrated in the areas that the points on a Himi or Siamese would be, but altered and varying greatly. These boys are very friendly and swarm me whenever open their tank. They are about nine weeks old.













A litter off of a couple of meeces from my argent /tri attempts are about 10 days now. Sandy, the buck is an umbrous yellow who developed dark patches on his head and rump overnight. Puzzling, but this seems to happen most frequently with umbrous yellow meeces. Sylphia is PEW with moderately long lush hair that is so soft to the touch. they are both smallish meeces, so I'm pleasantly surprised at the size of the babies.









And lastly a young doe from a fawn litter whose color is diluted to a shade never before seen in my mousery and I am at a loss as to what to call it. Is she a red-eyed cream? I think the color is a little too dark for that, but she is a satin, which does deepen the appearance of colors.





Here she is behind mom and a couple of sisters who are the expected shade for all of them. Mom is a stunner for color; I don't think fawn can get any more vivid and bright.

 

[julieszoo]

All so pretty, I do love those fawn satins especially