foster failure and questions

Things happen from time to time that remind me that I am a relatively new breeder. Two days ago I fostered three of Sunbather's bubs (the three smallest) to Lara, whose pups were just about to be weaned. She welcomed them, took each one from me, and huddled over them. I didn't give it a second thought. I weighed them yesterday and each had lost weight. They looked scrawny and terrible, so I put them back with Sunbather, who now has ten again. I guess Lara's milk had stopped? Was that just a stupid mistake or might that have worked?

I'm looking for typey beige tris from Sunbather (Victorian Line). I have three splashed and seven pink ones (10 total). The pink ones are much larger than the splashed. The pink ones are going to take some time to develop enough color so I can see which are pied beige and which are beige tri. If none of them is (and I'm expecting only 25% pied this litter, and 13 were born), then I'll need to keep the splashed. Kinda stuck here. The only other lactating doe I have is Walrus Girl, who already has seven.

This leads me to another question. Tricolor is three colors: white, the base color, and the diluted base color. Double c-dilute, s/s, Spl/*. Is there a separate name for tricolors who never express the base color? Are they bad to breed from if you are breeding tris? I may find myself in that situation.

It is possible to foster younger babies onto a doe that is about to wean...my guess is that what happened is that the 3 small bubs just werent' demanding enough milk, compared to what the others had been drinking, to keep it flowing.

You can definitely have a tricolor that you do not see the reverted color on....I'm not aware of any specific name for it. I see no reason they couldn't be bred...but you'd only know if they were actually tri by breeding them. Even if they weren't tri though, a nice pied c-dilute can be very valuable in tri breeding if you have other tris or splashed carrying pied.

Very true, Stina! I am having much better luck using pied c-diutes crossed to a Tri or a Splash carrying pied. I love my latest litter.

Well, I'm glad to know I didn't make a horrible mistake. My mistake was in not checking on them in a few hours. I was misled by the way Lara just took them and huddled over them.

By a tricolor not expressing the base color, I mean a mouse you can see is pied and splashed, with darker portions, but just not to the depth of blackness. I wonder if they would produce other mice who do express the base color.

do you mean with the splashes not fully reverted? If so, they would be likely to produce more like themselves without fully reverted patches