Merle
This is a very new color in Europe. When I started breeding merle (september 2015), as far as I know, there were only 5 breeders in Europe that have merle, including me.
Merle is originally from the US, the mutation happened in a laboratorium and from there it somehow got in the fancy mice breeders hands. In the US this color isn't that rare anymore, but people still want it because of the nice looking variaties it gives.
Merle is a very strange gene that is somehow like roan with patches that gives back it's original color, it looks like the merle dog but isn't the same genetically. Genetically it plays tricks as there are breeders that swear with their lives the merle is dominant, but other breeders claim it is recessive, maybe there are two different genes at work there, but that isn't proven yet.
My merles are born as their original color, they grow up being just their original collor, but when they get around 5-6 weeks they start getting grey hairs as they shed. Around 7 weeks you can see if they are good or bad merles, so you have to keep all youngs till at least that age before you can make your selection.
Merle is a new color in my mousery, I got my first merle mice the 5th of September 2015 and I am just working on the first generation. As this line is very young I am still learning about the line and adopting from my lines is with "risks", I cannot guarantee anything about the line yet.
