This article is from the May/June 1991 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

By Karen Hauser

Michele Buck, Rootstown, OH
QDo Frizzie mice sometimes lose their frizz when they get their adult coat? Can there be Long Haired Frizzies? Is Frizzie dominant? In the “Mouse Genetics” articles (May/June and July/Aug. 1987 issues) by Dave Bumford, he lists Astrex, Frizzie and Rex—what is the difference? He also lists Long Hair, Fuzzy, and Angora as mutant genes. What is the difference of these?

This P.E. White Frizzie Satin is owned by Troya Duncanson.

AYes there are Long Haired Frizzie mice—they are the ones that keep most of their curly coats when adults. All Frizzies (short or Long Haired) will lose most if not all of their curly coats. The real curly ones that look like little lambs as babies will have some curl left as adults. Frizzie is a recessive gene, Astrex is dominant and Rex is recessive. They are all curly coated mice—just different types. In the articles, Dave Bumford lists Long Hair and Angora as being the same, just different names. Fuzzy is just another form of a longer haired mouse. They have many different types of colors, coats, and markings in the laboratories, some of which we don’t know of in the Fancy, others are the same but are called a different name than what is used by us.

Wanda Wilson, New Cumberland, PA
QI’ve got Brindled mice now. What can you tell me about them? The Satin Brindled are gorgeous! They look like the tortoise shell pattern on Kleenex boxes! The yellow looks like glints of gold foil.

Karen Hauser’s original Brindled female.

AThe Brindled are a dominant gene, very easy to get. They range in shade from very dark—showing no fawn color, to very light—being all fawn and just a couple of brindle stripes. The ideal, in my opinion, would be a bright, clear, fawn with just enough black stripes, evenly balanced to resemble the brindled dogs or a tiger. The faults are too light of brindling, too dark of brindling, unbalanced brindling, or sooty fawn color. Another problem is getting tanned bellies and not knowing it (if the solid colored babies are coming up tanned, then it’s a good chance all your Brindleds are tanned as well—they should show brindling on the belly). They are also prone to obesity since it is the yellow gene. You can also get them with the white spotting gene, and have spotted Brindleds. I prefer solid Brindleds and don’t breed for this. Conformation should be of utmost importance (crossing with English will improve them if you are having problems). One should never keep Brindles (or other mice for that matter) if they have poor conformation, just because they are unusual. Yes, the Satins are very pretty. I’ve crossed my Brindled with English to improve type—they come out really nice.

From Michael Emerson. Burnham. ME
At one time I had Tailless mice that bred freely and true to type. However they were small, produced small litters, and died out.

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