Zen Aven
Bone Standard

Pedigree:

8th September 2009: Beautiful Aven gave birth to 5 black-eyed babies 2 days ago. She is quite a small mouse, but I needn't have worried - her babies are so FAT! Monkey is once again nannying the litter (she was supposed to be having a litter of her own, but after this second failed attempt I'll have to assume she's infertile) - she's a great nanny, stays on the bubs the whole time.

Aven and Forensics were SO cute together. They have very similar (perfect) conformations and look the same colour, and with dad being a big boy and mum being slight, they really looked like a perfect couple.

Dad's colour is an interesting one, so it will be interesting to see what we get. He came from 2 reverse siamese parents, so genetically speaking, he should be reverse. However, phenotypically, he is bone. Since all the babies are black-eyed, it would indicate that he's breeding like a reverse, too, not a bone. I suspect we will get half reverse and half bone from the litter.

9th September 2009: Just had a quick cuddle with the bubs (they are so beautiful - don't know why these jellybeans are nicer than other jellybeans, but they just are!), looks like 2 girls and 3 boys, annoyingly. Both girls are spoken for at this stage. So who wants a reverse siamese boy?

13th September 2009: It looks like we have 2 definite reverses - at least, they are darker than the other 3 - a boy and a girl. Then there is one very white boy, who I assume will be bone, and two in-between colours which could go either way. Will be fun to see how they colour up! They are beautiful and oh-so-fat!

19th September 2009: The babies are so fat that they've all opened their eyes now - 1 opened his eyes at 11 days, and all but 1 had them open yesterday, at 12 days! Pretty good :D They're just beautiful. The darker bubs have paler noses already, which I found a bit odd - my last reversies started off slightly pointed like a siamese, then it reversed. I'll get some pics tonight or tomorrow :)

21st September 2009: We had a bit of an adventure last night!!

The palest (and fattest) of the boys decided to leap out of my lap and onto the floor, then underneath the unit that holds the tubs. I quickly dumped the rest of the babies into their tub and dove down to the floor, but he was GONE! Bear in mind that my mice are kept on the deck, on the first floor. So behind the mouse unit is a whole lot of nothing, down to the concrete ground a floor below.

At this point I'm panicking! He's just disappeared. I have the whole household moving all the tubs, checking behind the potplants, and searching the ground below for any sign of a little body. There's no way he could have survived a fall like that. Right?

Wrong!! After about 30 mins of frantic (and ever-more-despairing) searching, we found him clinging like velcro to the side of the rough sandstone wall that goes under the balcony. I think the fact that he landed on a vertical surface, probably skidded a little to slow down his impact, saved him. I'm sure if he landed flat on the concrete he'd be splattered.

I will be keeping him, and have named him... DANGERMOUSE! :D

23rd September 2009: Some updated pics :)

23rd September 2009: After looking at the babies today, I've decided that I can't keep them all, like I was planning - they're too beautiful not to share! I will be keeping the 2 girls and Dangermouse, the other 2 boys will go to Jen, if she can get him, and Sue, if you still want him, Sue.

Here are some pics from today. Check out the ears!!

This is the bone girl, who I have called Moonshine. She is 100% a mini-Loki. It's incredible. I feel a bit like he's reincarnated in her :) She's the only longcoat, the only one in the litter that got Loki's eyes, and Loki's face-shape. (She also photographs like Loki - very occasionally!)

8th October 2009: How amazingly stunning are these boys?