This article is from the Spring 2001 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

By Nichole Royer

Q I am a long time mouse lover that has raised white mice off and on for several years. Well, now my 10-year-old daughter has become interested in mice. We went to a local pet shop to see some of the colors my daughter might want to breed, and she fell in love with the Siamese colored mice. Having never bred this color before, I had some questions. Do we have to get a trio of Siamese to breed more Siamese? I noticed the pet shop had some young 3-week-old babies but they weren’t Siamese colored with the dark nose and ears. How long does it take for them to show the Siamese markings. I’ve heard that in cats there are many different colors of Siamese. Is this the same for the mice? What other colors could my daughter breed from the Siamese mice?

A Siamese mice do not show their points for some time. As babies they appear to be a warm, creamy, light beige. When they moult their baby coat, their points first appear. Often, they are quite light, but darken with each succeeding moult until they mature.

Though somewhat unexciting, one of the easiest other varieties to run with your Siamese is Pink-eyed White. If you breed a Siamese mouse (genetic code c^hc^h) to a PEW (cc) you get a litter of all Himalayan mice (c^hc). These mice are much lighter in color, having almost white bodies and lighter points than the Siamese.

The advantage here is that if you take your Himalayan mice (c^hc) and breed them to each other, you will get:

One-quarter of the litter should be Siamese (c^hc^h), one-half Himalayan (c^hc), and one-quarter PEW. This works the same for both Blue Point and Seal Point Siamese.

The other two colors that can easily be bred from Seal Point and Blue Point Siamese are Self Black and Self Blue. Good Selfs will also have the advantage of improving your Siamese.

If you are going to do this, remember that it is important to choose Selfs who have good pigment on their feet and color all the way down their tails (no white tail tips). White on the feet and tails is a disqualification in the Siamese.

Here are the combinations you can produce:

• Seal Point Siamese X Black. Babies will be black. Breed them back to the Siamese parent or to each other to produce Seal Point Siamese and more Blacks.
• Seal Point Siamese X Blue. Babies will be Black. Breed them together and you will get Black, Blue, Seal Point Siamese, and Blue Point Siamese.
• Blue Point Siamese X Black. Babies will be black. Breed them together and you will get Blue, Black, Seal Point Siamese, and Blue Point Siamese.
• Blue Point Siamese X Blue. Babies will be blue. Breed them together and you will get Blue and Blue Point Siamese.

Some other options:

• Seal Point Siamese X Chinchilla. All babies will be Siamese Sable. Breed them together and you should get Seal Point Siamese, Siamese Sable, and Chinchilla.
• Blue Point Siamese X Chinchilla. All babies will be Siamese Sable. Breed them together and you may get Blue Point and Seal Point Siamese, Blue and Seal Siamese Sable, normal and Blue Chinchilla.
• Seal Point Siamese X PEW. All babies will be Himalayan. Breed them together and you will get Seal Point Siamese, Himalayan, and PEW.
• Blue Point Siamese X PEW. All babies will be Seal Point Himalayan. Breed them together and you will get Seal Point and Blue Point Siamese, Seal Point and Blue Point Himalayan, and PEW.