# Coated varieties - standardised and unstandardised



## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

After discussion about various coat types in other threads, I thought it would be fun to start a thread to show off and discuss all the different kinds of mice that people are working on. This includes but is not limited to abyssinian, fuzzy hairless, true hairless, astrex, rex and longhair.

Show us your mice! Also interested to hear anything that you have discovered while keeping and breeding these varieties.


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## laoshu (Sep 16, 2009)

long haired mice, I loved these ... well the males anyway because they always had the best fur.
I dont keep or breed them anymore but here are some I used to have.


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## laoshu (Sep 16, 2009)

fuzzy mice, again something I dont have anymore but I really liked these. I found these pop out in my lines from my naked once they kept being bred into haired. (my nakeds were not true naked, they did have whiskers)


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## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

I'm currently experimenting with rex mice, working on improving their size and type as well as coat thickness and curliness. This is one of my first generation mice (a buck). I will have to start taking some photos of the new generation...


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## laoshu (Sep 16, 2009)

Re. rex.. is it genetically different to fuzzy?

I forgot to add mine were all from pet lines.

dominant astrex.. very pretty as babys but adult dont hold curls well.


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## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

As far as I can determine it's the same gene - fuzzy hairless with short fuzz :roll: are the 'inbetween' appearance, rex are the furriest end of the spectrum and practically hairless are the other end.


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## laoshu (Sep 16, 2009)

abysinian, stunning I think .. This is the first coated mouse I have worked with the try and improve the type and its not easy getting type whilst keeping the swirls. I have personally found it two steps forward one step back.


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## laoshu (Sep 16, 2009)

recessive astrex with abysinian to boot..
I cant comment much these because these are the first recessive astrex I have worked with.
I can say that they are tiny, It might be because there is so many recessive coat types in there (they are also satin) or might be due to mums milk??


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## Hillcrest (Mar 28, 2011)

these are some texile babies I just got from a mouse breeder in Illinois. She called them texiles. Is that the same as fuzzy or rex? They don't have curly whiskers.


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## SarahY (Nov 6, 2008)

> abysinian, stunning I think .. This is the first coated mouse I have worked with the try and improve the type and its not easy getting type whilst keeping the swirls. I have personally found it two steps forward one step back.


Totally agree with every word! They've been a bit of a nightmare to improve because as soon as you outcross to a typey self the rosettes end up as little tufts and there's only little bit of an improvement on the type :lol: I did get a stage where I resented them taking up space in my stud, space that could have been used for mice I could actually show, but I'm so glad now that I perserved with them.

Some of mine, I keep them in PEW mostly:






















































Sarah xxx


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

Hillcrest - Looks like caracal to me. All of mine that were supposedly caracal had curly fur like that, but straight whiskers.

Texel is a coat type, and they may be caracul texels. Texel just means long haired and curly.


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## Hillcrest (Mar 28, 2011)

What is a Caracal? I have not heard that term yet. I told her I was looking to breed some long hairs and told me I could breed these to long hair. Am I being told wrong? When I first saw them when they were only 2-3 weeks old they looked curlier than they do now. I bet they are only 5 weeks old or so.


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## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

Sarah, is it wrong that for the first time it has just occurred to me that you could 'cheat' with abys and use hairspray on the swirls :lol: You might have to writen something into the standard to prevent this, or add it to the current rule regarding tampering cosmetically (can't remember offhand what this includes).


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

Hillcrest - Caracul is very similar to rex mice. It's just a different gene that causes curling in the coat.
You are probably not going to be able to breed out the curl, at least not easily. If you want long hair, you need to find someone with lgh/lgh (long hair) mice or go/go (angora) mice.


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## JayneAlison (Nov 16, 2010)

MouseBreeder said:


> Sarah, is it wrong that for the first time it has just occurred to me that you could 'cheat' with abys and use hairspray on the swirls :lol: You might have to writen something into the standard to prevent this, or add it to the current rule regarding tampering cosmetically (can't remember offhand what this includes).


Wax,gel,hairspray - the possibilities of funky hairdos are endless


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## WillowDragon (Jan 7, 2009)

You could 'create' swirls on a regular mouse with gel! LOL Is it bad that I was almost tempted to try that? :lol:

I love most all coated varieties! I am falling in love with Aby more and more I will admit, so Kelly and Sarah, if you feel like spreading the love, I am more that willing to help towards the 'improving the Aby' project 

And Cait! That fuzzy is the best looking one I have ever seen I think! 

I have always been tempted to play with rexiod mice... I thought it could be my few boxes of 'something else' at one point... hehehe

W xx


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## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

I have discovered that rex coats act the opposite way to other curled coats like astrex, in that the curl actually improves with age. When they first get their fur it can be fairly sparse but as they grow up the fur gets denser and therefore the curls get better. Mine are also keeping their curls into adulthood. I will see if I can get a new photo of that buck that I posted to show the current coat so you can compare.


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## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

Here's a photo of the buck, just because:









And here's a shot of the belly fur, since this is usually the worst place to show coat:









The buck is now over 12 months old, which I didn't realise until I went to look for the original picture.


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## WillowDragon (Jan 7, 2009)

The only other rex animal I am familiar with is the guinea pig... and I know that thier coat improves dramatically with age too. Maybe it improves in density with every molt?

W xx


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## Stina (Sep 24, 2010)

Just a note for anyone from the US wondering why these rex look so different from ours....what's called rex in Europe is fuzzy in the US. Rex in the US is astrex in europe.


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## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

Thanks Stina. We do call the balder mice fuzzy or fuzzy hairless, but they're rex when they look like they have an afro :roll: I think this is because rex has been seen by the fancy (many years ago) whereas the NMC do not have an interest in any kind of hairless mice.


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## Hillcrest (Mar 28, 2011)

I was wondering that also. Thanks for clarifying. I'm so new and hear different terms everywhere and it's very confusing! VBG


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## Stina (Sep 24, 2010)




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## zoocrewmice (May 5, 2009)

My main project lately along with merle has been texel:



















I'm trying to improve the curl as well as the overall type, though the type is more of an afterthought. My original texel is still fluffy at 9 months old, so I don't want to sacrifice anything in the coat.


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## Megzilla (Oct 12, 2009)

Sarah, your Abys never fail to impress me  Haven't been on in ages and it's lovely to see how much they've improves since 

I'm working on Astrex, will put up pics later, i'm getting ready for work lol


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