How long do you wait for a belly to whiten?

[Riven]

I have had kits born who'd bellies are questionable, and they've cleaned up after a couple weeks. I know this is rather common.

My question is... how long do you wait? Usually I've noticed a difference in a couple weeks. I have a little female I was hoping to keep but at 3 weeks she literally looks like a tan, NO hint of white or definition. I know the problem is not on the mom's side and I already pulled the male, but I'm stuck wondering what I should do with this girl. I don't really want to hold her for months and months just to find out she's not going to clear up at all. I'm really disappointed because this females last litter was a RCC beige and I was hoping to get another great offspring out of her because I regretted selling her.

What have your experiences been?

 

[Vyxxin]

You really have to know the lines, which in this case you may not? I know MOST of my lines clean up young but ONE line takes seemingly forever. Even then, I wouldn't wait longer than 6mos-8mos. I'd give them this long because most animals for show wouldn't be shown by this age, most animals for pelt wouldn't be pelted at this age and most animals for breeding wouldn't be bred at this age

 

[Riven]

I know the female, the male was SUPPOSED to be a line I knew, but that line never produced anything like this... so I think that there was something fishy going on there.

I don't want to "short her" but then again this (wondering the bellies will whiten up or not) isn't something I want in the lines either, that's why I was wondering what others had for experiences with this. It's much easier to sell a kit than an adult so I'm thinking I might just have to cut my losses on this one and try again...

I don't know, any additional input? I know there's not magic number, just looking for some info from someone who's had something like this happen.

 

[Dreamlite]

Is there any ebony anywhere in the lines? I has a kit born that was clearly a ebony out of 2 standard chins. There was ebony 6 generations back that must have come through. Out of 9 kits out of the pair, that was the only one that ever looked ebony. If she is nice grow her out to possibly add to a ebony line.

 

[jags]

You can only know so much for sure about your lines. At times it is a crap shoot and the odd genes will pop out from many many generations ago no matter what you might think or what the line has produced before. Anyone who thinks 2 great animals who have produced maybe even several or a dozen great offspring will produce nothing but great animals is very misguided. I do not care how well you think you know your lines the only way to know for sure what this animals belly will do is to give it time and see what it does. Myself if I am not willing to hold it for the extra time then it is gone and if it comes out great latter then someone else gets lucky and I lose. Or I hold it and see what happens and sometimes I still lose.

 

[Vyxxin]

That's about it. For me, I hold an animal for two reasons:

I intend to use it in my breeding program based on lineage, color & gender. Final deciding factor to be adult quality. Sometimes I lose, sometimes they don't develop into enough quality to breed and I have to sell a 7-10month old animal.

Second instance, I will hold an animal that I feel will show well based on "kit quality" and age of the animal at the time it's to be shown. For example, if the show I plan to attend is 6mos off and I have a 2mos old kit that I feel may show well...I'll hold it till I either KNOW it won't do well...or I hold it till show.

Those are the only two times I hold kits. If a kit won't be needed in my breeding program, and won't be appropriate age to show when I plan on showing, I sell it as a kit. For example, I have a few mutation females with kits right now. ONE of the kits is going to be very nice, HE is also the only kit I have out of my one male...but, well, I won't be needing a mosaic male AND he won't be old enough to show at the show I intend to show at. So off he goes, to a pet home.

No point in growing out every kit if you don't have an absolute purpose for it. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes you hold kits that turn out to be crap, not show or breeding quality. But, IMO, those are the only two reasons to grow a kit out: you intend to breed them or you intend to show them. You COULD grow them out to assess the quality of the lines, but that's not an exact science. You have to KNOW what you're looking at quality wise (which I feel confident I do) AND even THEN...you really only get to assess one kit (or one litter) worth of quality from a given pair. Like JAGS said, not much use in that really as all litters are individuals. Meh, chin breeding yano!

 

[Riven]

I was hoping to use her for breeding. I no longer have that male, and I have had 12+ litters out of that female without belly concerns at all. And with different males as well, so I'm confident it's not coming from her side...

 

[Riven]

I posted a thread about the girl in question and would love to see what you guys think about the belly...