Types & Varieties

Commonly when people think of mice they imagine them all to be white with pink eyes, but in reality the range of colours and types of mice is quite astounding. They can be all one colour, be one colour on top with a different colour tummy, have any number of different markings and have normal, shiny or even curly coats! Examples and descriptions of most of the varieties are available in some detail here, though it is worth remembering that this site is aimed at people who show and that the average pet mouse is very unlikely to exactly match the example of it’s type. Because of this I thought it might be a good idea to show some examples of the varieties in pet mice, not only to help you identify your own mice should you want to but also to show how even two mice of the same colour can look quite different from each other and often very different to the show quality example! As I already mentioned the range of colours is vast, so it will be quite some time before I manage to collect photos of even most of them, let alone all, but here are a few to begin with - click on each of the types to see more examples:

Self Mice (one colour all over)

	- Black A black mouse is exactly as it sounds, a solid jet black all over with black eyes.
	- White White mice will be a bright white colour, like a piece of plain paper and can have either pink or black eyes. PEW and BEW are abbreviations for pink eyed white and black eyed white.
	- Chocolate I shouldn’t imagine there are many people who wouldn’t recognize the colour of chocolate!
	- Fawn A fawn mouse is basically a bright ginger colour, always with pink eyes. The picture here is of a fawn with a satin coat, which means she is shinier and possibly a bit darker in colour to a normal coat fawn but in either the colour will be bright like this and not a pale orange.
	- Blue It sounds like a funny colour for a mouse but the blue in question isn’t royal, sky or navy (unfortunately, how pretty would that be lol!?) but an almost dark grey slate blue. As you’d expect blue mice have black eyes.
	- Dove A dove mouse will be a lovely soft, pale grey colour. They have pink eyes.
	- Champagne Champagne is quite a difficult colour to describe, not helped by the fact it varies so much. Champagne mice can look anything from a pale orange to a pinky grey and as you will see from the photo can also be sort of gold! Again my example is a satin coat though and this particular little girl would be considered far too dark by show standards. Champagne mice also have pink eyes.
	- Lilac When I first heard of lilac mice I had visions of them being purple! In reality they are a sort of pink tinged grey, quite difficult to describe but lovely to see!

Tan Mice (body all one colour as self, but with a tan underside)

Tan mice come in the same variety of colours as the selfs, but have a fawn (ginger) coloured underside. Here are some examples.

- Black Tan	- Dove Tan	- Chocolate Tan	-

Marked Mice (marked or ‘patterned’)

	- Dutch A dutch is basically a white mouse with a patch over both eyes and colour from its waist down to its tail. Dutch mice can be pretty much any of the self colours and are considered dutch even if they have other markings as well as the dutch ones. In this case they become ‘mismarked’ which in my experience includes most pet mice, so if your mouse has eye patches and the coloured rump but other marks on their back they would be a mismarked - in this case black - dutch.
	- Broken Marked A lot of pet mice will come under this catergory! They can be any colour with any eye colour, as long as their markings don’t look like any of the other marked types they just become ‘broken marked’.
	- Variegated A variegated mouse can be any colour and I’ve always thought they look as though they have been flicked all over with a second colour so that’s how I’d describe one!

Other Varieties Of Mice (all the types that aren’t included in the above categories)

	- Agouti Agouti is the colour of wild mice and is basically a browny colour flecked all over with black. They have black eyes.
	- Silver Agouti As above only silver instead of brown. Silver agouti mice look the same as chinchilla only without the white tummy. They have black eyes.
	- Chinchilla A chinchilla mouse is very similar to a silver agouti in that they are both a silvery colour ticked with black only chinchilla mice also have a white tummy.
	- Sable Sable is another difficult colour to describe but is essentially a very dark brown down the middle of the mouse’s back which graduates to a ginger colour down their sides to under their belly. Sable mice have black eyes.
	- Cinnamon From what I can understand (I’ve yet to actually meet one) a cinnamon is the colour of a sable mouses tummy all over and with a dark brown ticking. Again they have black eyes.
	- Argente An argente mouse may at a first glance look like a really pale fawn but if you part his/her fur will have a blue undercoat. This gives them an almost ‘two-toned’ effect as you can see speckles of blue through the pale fawn. Argente mice will always have pink eyes.
	- Siamese Siamese mice are cream in colour and have brown coloured ‘points’ on their noses and tails that blend gradually to meet their body colour. The mouse in this picture is a satin coated siamese.
	- Brindle The official description of a brindle mouse is ’streaks, bars and numerous little areas of any colour over a diluted background’. Their eyes can be of any colour.

Different Coat Types

- Normal	- Satin	- Astrex	- Longhair