Bon
Pink-Eyed White Standard

Pedigree:

3rd January 2009: I'm currently raising another of Loki's litters - with a huge-eared PEW girl from feeder (super mouse) lines. It looks like there were 13 or 14 bubs to start with, though I think we may have lost a couple - to be honest, I haven't recounted them recently as I have been terribly sick with something that is making it difficult to stand up let alone play with bubs for long :/ I did a very brief count of girls yesterday and think I saw 6 girls - 3 black eyed and 3 pink eyed. All B.E. bubs should be bone like Loki, and all P.E. bubs should be PEW like mum. They'll likely all be standard.

13th January 2009: Ok, I have some pics! As the litter is so big (no losses yet, still at 14 bubs) the babies are quite small. It's a bit alarming seeing them so small and their eyes are opening - but they are running around like crazy mice, into everything, very bold already. They're going to be absolute characters - and hopefully beautiful to boot! There are a couple of runts who I'm not sure will make it, though... if their eyes open and they can start on solid food in the next day or so they have a chance.

I haven't done a full colour/sex count, but as usual it's mostly boys. There are 2 bone girls - I am keeping 1 and the other is runty, so I'm not sure if she'll make it. There are 2 or 3 PEW girls, and both bone and PEW boys. I am looking at keeping the bone girl, and probably one of the PEWs, if one has nice conformation and temperament. Happy to take reservations for the rest.

Mum, a feeder PEW girl, is also available free to a good home - her previous owner is no longer able to keep mice, so the alternative is that she ends up as noms, which I'd like to avoid, seeing as I've gotten to know her now! She's never been handled so is scatty, but has a lovely personality - she'll come up to me and nibble on my fingernails and put a paw on my hand now. I think with some more love, she'll end up as a nice girl. Plus she has the world's hugest ears ever! Note: She may be pregnant to Loki again as I've left them together to raise the bubs. It took Loki an extremely long time to get her pregnant to start with, so I think chances are low, but it is possible.

As a side note, Loki has been a fantastic dad - I kept finding babies sleeping in his nest (mum kicked him out upon their birth). He seems to really like them, and at the same time often looks a little bewildered. Aww! Here's a pic of him looking after them :)

15th January 2009: The runties are tough! Both are still hanging on... literally. I often see them clasped onto a nipple while mum hops around the cage, dragging them around like an opossum. The biggest of the two is looking pretty healthy, albeit small - the smaller is still worrying, but I'm impressed she's come this far.

16th January 2009: Here's the first official count. Well, of the girls anyway, I haven't counted the boys, but they're "the rest" :D

3 x PEW girls - 1 STAYING, 1 TANYA
2 x bone girls - 1 STAYING (1 might not make it)
some x PEW boys
some x bone boys - 1 PIXIE, 1 SANDRA

They should be beautiful, and with the feeder in them, very healthy. A good outcross. I really hope I can find homes for the boys, as I hadn't originally planned to raise this litter, and now that mum's original owner can't give them a home (not her fault), it's the pet shop for them otherwise!

28th January 2009: Just a quick photo update - all the bubs are going well, still on the small side, but they're confident, friendly, nutty, and right into their food - everything you want in baby mice :D The two runties are still going well, the bigger one is nearly the size of some of the others and the smaller is still tiny! They both have enormous eyes, though, completely out of proportion to their heads - adorable!

A Bone Boy	Bigger Runt
Bone Girl	A PEW Girl
Tiny Runt

9th February 2009: My beautiful runty, who I had decided to keep, has suddenly grown balls. This is really, really bizarre, because I *swear* he had nipples when the other girls did (I remember him particularly because he's always been the smallest) and up until a couple of days ago, he looked like a girl, too. Gah! He's still in with mum and the other girls because he's far too tiny to actually mate with any of them - once his balls have descended, though, I'll have to move him :(

Now I have a dilemma, because I'm not sure about putting him with the other boys - they are very rough and tumble, and he's so little. I'm actually considering trying to introduce him to his dad, Loki, who is getting very old and might not be as dominant as he once was. He also was wonderful with the babies up until they were 3 or 4 weeks old when I separated him. I wonder if he'll remember him?

Also, I have decided not to keep the PEW girl, so there is one more girl available if anyone is interested.

11th February 2009: The black-eyed babies are starting to 'shade up' which is an interesting thing for a bone to do. They look like light reverse siameses at this point - some more than others. They are definitely darker than any bone I've seen. Of course, I know what they are, genetically, they have no other options - they are cc(rs) where c(rs) is reverse siamese. It's also the same as Loki, who is much lighter than them. So I can only conclude that they somehow got a better set of modifiers to make their coat colour darker.

Here's the darkest with a PEW for contrast. (His nose is still white, just hard to see in the pic - but bones do have pale noses):

11th February 2009: Here are some more pics, just cuz I can. This is Aven, the girl I am keeping :)

And here is Miam, the boys who once was a girl: