Xia and her Bubs

This is probably going to be far less interesting than a lot of the other litters posted on here but I thought I would share anyway. The father of this litter is my burmese dilute agouti buck called Junior, (he carries chocolate and pink eyes) and despite the fact that I still have his father who is the same colour, Junior has a much stockier body and wider head which is something I really quite like :


And of course Xia. She's an oddball of a thing, started off like an ordinary boring pet shop mouse, poor in every sense and then seemed to.. well, she changed. The biggest ears I've seen on a pet shop mouse and these huge buggy eyes.. I'm hoping that maybe I can somehow solidify the big ears she has in her pups while maybe a wider skull will help with the eyes.


And of course, the bubs. There is 7, 5 girls and 2 boys. Smaller than I'd like but I'm more interested in their ears and eyes than their weight. The smallest of them all still have a milk belly and is gaining weight like crazy so I'll leave her be for a little while longer. Oh, forgot to add, they were born on the 21st, the pictures were taken yesterday at 2 days old.
The boys :


The girls :


And because I think this picture is kind of funny :

Whoa! Xia is totally strange...she even has a nice back hump like a show mouse...she'd pass as a show mouse. You've got find out who supplied the pet store.
Just a hint, if you are hoping for large ears, you will probably want to back breed to her to double your chances....ears seem to want to be small and I know in my own mousery, it's a real challenge to match mice up to help that issue.

She's odd isn't she? Thing is, the pet shop I got her from is actually 6 hours drive away and I believe it has actually closed down.. Just my luck huh?

I'm definitely keeping at least one doe and one buck from her litter with the plan to breed Xia and her daughter back to the buck kept.

You should breed her boy back to her and then another buck from that litter back to her. That should help with the ears.

Dad looks like a squishy little pillow. I want to snuggle him. Mom is gorgeous!

mouselover01 wrote:You should breed her boy back to her and then another buck from that litter back to her. That should help with the ears.

Dad looks like a squishy little pillow. I want to snuggle him. Mom is gorgeous!

I'm glad you like the Dad, he's a work in progress getting size and.. well sqidgyness, (chunky) up.
As for breeding Xia to her son and then again to a son from that litter.. She has had one litter prior to this and she will be a year old in February which makes me hesitant to breed from her after this litter but she has held weight well. Any advice on that would be very much appreciated.


Sooooo..
Today is day 7, they are starting to fuzz up and I'm really hoping that those "chocolates" are not agouti bubs..


And just a few special baby photos

I share your nervousness...however, if she holds her weight you could maybe try it again. If none of her bubs looks better than she does, type-wise, you may have to to even proceed with type. Then, after she's back bred, you should have enough options to breed bro to sis. The babies look great, I think that is indeed chocolate.

Grrrr! Nope.. Not chocolate *sigh*
They have the tell tale sign - the eye spots are darker than the other spots. It happens in every agouti I have had born here including my dilute agoutis..

how pretty!

More pictures - Day 9
Here are the girlies :


The boys :


And a few others..
The tell-tale sign of an agouti


Colour difference between two agouti bubs


And just 'cause

I'm totally crushing on the black & white buck. He's such a cutie! They all look great.

littlelovesmousery wrote:I'm totally crushing on the black & white buck. He's such a cutie! They all look great.

I personally prefer the agouti buck though it probably has a lot to do with the black and white buck seeming like he will be a pingy hopper - he just never stops moving! haha

I'm not sure which girl I'll keep either, I'll just have to wait and see if any are better type wise than the others though I could always keep all of them - plenty of room!

Cordane, I have this problem, too. One can't breed for color/pattern AND type at the same time. That's why I have a brindle tri line and a type line, which I will be developing into tris to cross into the brindle tris to improve their type. Congrats on the great babies! I do love spots!

Thankfully I'm not hugely fussed on colour - all the colours I like don't exist in NZ, (for examples, brindles, tris, reds, blues).

Wow! I have brindles, tris, and reds. I wish I could give you some!

Mrs. Beach wrote:Wow! I have brindles, tris, and reds. I wish I could give you some!

Gosh do I envy you! I seriously hate that importing a lot of animals is illegal but I spose I can understand the rules.. A lot of things imported in history have had horrible effects on the land though in reality humans had the worst effect..
(I apologise for the whole affect and effect thing.. Can never get them right)

I suppose that is why I'm partial to agouti. Some can appear very light and almost have a red hue wiggle some dilutes, (like junior) can have a blue hue and some can have just terrible ticking that they remind me of a brindle.
Also, during the just fuzzing up stage, they can often look like a tri-colour

Individual pictures :


Just to show the colour difference :

Wow! Agouti ticking is as variable as A^vy American brindle stripes!

Mrs. Beach wrote:Wow! Agouti ticking is as variable as A^vy American brindle stripes!

Very much so! Though just like brindles, it would all depend on breeding - mine are all very poor as I am not breeding for colour.
The brighter/richer colour in the first picture is from the less marked agouti while the darker colour is from the heavily marked agouti.

This video was taken the day after they opened their eyes

And this one was taken the day after that

I'm actually really quite pleased with this progress

Soooo
I have decided to keep 3 out of 5 babies which yes, may be a lot but I have plenty of room right now!

First girl I am keeping was actually the smaller one out of the bubs and still remains smaller than her siblings (about 2g smaller but she is still young). Heavily marked pied black and for pet shop bred bubs, she has bloody good ears if I do say so myself.


The next girl is the medium marked agouti girl - bum band, middle band and half of her face is agouti. She is such a nosy wee thing and very bold, already loving to come out of the cage and explore! She may not be the best typed out of the little but she has nice features so we shall see how she develops.


And last, the boy. It was suggested by many people to hold onto one of Xia's boys and breed him back to Xia to "solidify some traits or bring them out even more" and that is what I plan on doing. So in all honesty, that's the only reason he is staying so far. His type isn't the greatest - infact it is quite poor considering his Mum but that is ok, he is by far the better of the two boys.

Your babies are so adorable! I wish you much success!

Mrs. Beach wrote:Your babies are so adorable! I wish you much success!

Thank you!
Most of my current mice are like the boy so the two girls I'm keeping are a real improvement on the ears

They look wonderful, I am excited to see them grow.

tinyhartmouseries wrote:They look wonderful, I am excited to see them grow.

I'll be sure to post more pictures as they grow

Awww very cute, we had a pied with half his face covered and called him Two Faced! LOL He lives down the street with one of my son's friends who now calls him Jeff. But we get to see him from time to time when he comes to visit!