# Angora vs longhair



## icedmice

I was wondering if there is any defining feature that can distinguish a long hair (aka long coat in Australia) from an angora.

Looking at internet images suggests there may have been mislabelling so I'm a bit confused and curious.

About a year and a half ago when I was still fresh to the fancy I bought a dutch longcoated buck "Linkin" as a gift to a fellow mousery and we started a dutch project together. I noticed some others in the pet store were super fluffy but I didn't know they were unique at the time. Granted some long coats are better than others my dutch (currently double banded blazed line) retined the super fuzzy coat of their ancestor "Linkin". They are matte in appearance and noticably softer than a regular long coat, they also retain their coat better though adulthood.

The distinction shows best in rex form in photos and naturally the juvenile coat is much more distinguishable so I picked one of each:

A standard Australian long coated mouse:









A standard mouse with unknown coat variety from my dutch line (obviously super wonky marked one from early in the project)









It is incredibaly difficult to show in photos but it does give a bit of an idea.

I'm thinking it's either one of two possibilities;
a) a mutation of angora which has occoured in Australia
b) a modifier of the long coat gene causing a unique quality to the coat.

Is angora a likely culprit for the odd form?
What would be the best way to test my thoery?


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## Rhasputin

The bottom mouse looks like a poor angora to me. Long hair usually only effects the guard hairs, and whiskers, so you rarely get density in the coat.

If you can breed that bottom mouse, and then breed back to him with one of the offspring, you might see some more coat development.


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## icedmice

OH OK now I get it, well angora does seem a likely culprit. Or something that acts like angora anyway.
This is intriguing!!!

The bottom mouse sadly passed on a while ago, he was fairly early in the project but I do have ones very similar to him and have bred them pure for 5 generations now. I've only really seen consistancy for the last 3 generations. All have long coats and blazes. 
Before I'd get BEW, and random spotting like the above mouse. All standard coated mice were eliminated from the project very early.

The founding does were standard coated, I took it for granted that they carried longcoat because there was a mix of standard and long coats...unless this form is dominantly inherited.

The rexes in this line seem to loose a bit of hair as they age so it does appear quite thin, I suspect from grooming. I was planning on breeding it out because I think it stays more presentable as a non rex mouse. I do still have 3 rexes left that I can muck around with.

They aren't really gaining in coat length but it was curious how they kept their length so well in adulthood wheras ones from other lines loose that juvenile length and can almost appear standard coated with a few loose guard hairs.

I may wait till things improve in my standard coated black line and do a couple experimental matings just out of curiosity.

COOL  .


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## icedmice

Here are some pics taken last night of adult bucks in non rex form. The second is a stud buck for my marked line.
Maybe this can give a bit more of an idea. Although it doesn't show at it's best in adult coat there is still a distinction I think.

The suspect angora is actually shorter coated than the long coat however due to the density it appears longer because the fur doesn't sit as tight against the body.

Blown back fur photos

Standard long coat mouse:









Strange coat mouse









Portrait shots

Standard long coat mouse:









Strange coat mouse:









PS: Those flecks on the black mouse are not lice I triple checked. It's just a bit of fluff, I think my hands were a bit dusty from tub cleaning.


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## Marjolijn

It´s a bit difficult to see on the pictures but it seems to me you´re having two types of longhaired.
Take a look here, no photo´s of the types, but it sounds like you photo´s: http://www.hiiret.fi/eng/breeding/varieties/LH.html

- The most common gene available, go, gives a nice, long coat. Never as long as the coats of, say, longhaired hamster bucks, but still clearly long. The coat is at its best on young mice and gets slightly shorter with each molt. All hair of the mouse is elongated with, with guard hairs gaining considerably more length than the undercoat.
- long hair (lgh), a spontaneous recessive, chromosome 8. Identifiable from 5 weeks on. Guard hairs are long, but adult mice lack zig zag hairs (underhairs) on body, head and feet have normal coat. Mice also tend to get skin lesions.

I don´t see it in the 2nd set of photo´s.


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## icedmice

The second set of photos aren't great. I was trying to demonstrate how one had more coat density than the other. The second also lacks shine. This is not from poor health but the fact that the hairs are finer, it's consistant with all mice in that line.

Naturally if it is something new it isn't going to be ideal because it's the first time anybody has noticed it in Australia, the first of any variety is usually a poor example of what a well bred specimen will look like.

The plan at the moment is to seperate this coat variety from my marked line, eventually I wanted my marked mice to be in standard coat. Ideally I will breed them in PEW but for now blue, chocolate or lilac self should suffice till I get a good quality PEW.


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## m137b

In my angoras density seems to be the hardest thing to get, though I do have some that have very thick coats, it's just taken a lot of breeding, and a lot of selection.


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## Luc86

Nice mice :lol:


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