[EmtheFishLady]

I bought Belle thinking she was a broken marked, but the more I look at her the more I'm beginning to believe she may be an even. Anyone have any comments? What do you guys think?

 

[Jack Garcia]

She's really neither, as per the standards (although she is cute). Or another way of saying it is that she is a poorly-marked version of either one.

The same gene (recessive white spotting) causes both even and broken marked.

Did she come from a breeder? If so, you should be able to ask about her background.

 

[EmtheFishLady]

Her mother was a beautiful even marked, and her father a nice broken with good conformation.

She was the only doe in the litter, so I'm hoping to get some good marked even's.

 

[Jack Garcia]

It often takes years of selectively breeding the same animals to create good marked mice, but every once in a while an "oddball" will pop up that is a nice example. Since you're interested in confirmation, one thing you might want to keep an eye on is those ears. They're really small but they're also yellow, and that's a major fault. They need to be as black as the fur. It's easier to concentrate first on the size and shape of the head and ears along with the tail set, length, and thickness, then the shade of color, then the placement of spots. As the saying goes, "You gotta build the house before you paint it."

The AFRMA has a diagram of what a good even mouse looks like: http://www.afrma.org/micemkd.htm

The reason that it's a drawing and not a picture is because it's so difficult to get the spots so evenly distributed.

She really is a cute mouse. I like her pose.

 

[jo65]

She's a real cutie and that's about all i am qualified to say regarding meece types.