Question on kit color

[Gomanson]

History: Our first litter was from a first time mom and was born last Monday. One stillborn and two big kits who died after 3 days from abandonment. Tonight our older doe (experienced mother) kindled. 8 live babies!

Question: I will get a better picture when we check the kits tomorrow, but I attached the pic I took tonight when I counted them. These are silver fox and the doe and buck are black, but the doe carries the chocolate gene. Is this why some babies are pink and some black? Are the pink ones chocolates? OR is their skin color variable or would some other factor affect this? The pink ones seem bigger with tighter skin.

I found one of them on the wire; a tiny black one. I can't tell if it's a runt or a peanut. (As I said, I'll get better pics tomorrow) Is it possible the mother recognized it as a peanut and put it out of the box?

 

[Connorrm]

If they are silver fox, the do not carry the dwarf gene. Chocolate colored babies are genuinely chocolate colored at birth, blacks are black, blues are blue, etc;


The only time you'll get pink babies are himilayan marked, ruby-eyed white, blue eyed white and some of the super light shaded colors.

Could be some form of very lightly colored kit from recessive genes. Oh, a really super poorly colored chocolate.

 

[Gomanson]

Their barely-detectable fuzz is coming in today and I definitely see some chocolate colored sheen on the pinkish kits, as compared to the black sheen on the darker ones.

So with no dwarf gene in the genotype in Silver Fox, I will not have a true peanut; but I could still get a runt? That makes sense I guess. Even that scrawny one is doing well today, so I'm not worried any more.

 

[Connorrm]

Yes, there will always be variations in size. Runts can be common