This article is from the Win-Spr 2018 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

By Karen Robbins

K.T. Vince, e-mail
Q I was just wondering if you could help me with what color my mouse actually is. It has me stumped since there are Fawn, Argente, Gold, and Orange. I see shades of blue in her undercoat or she’s from a Brindle.

A Looking on the two monitors here, it looks like either a typical Fawn or a lightly marked Brindle as there are some dark bars/streaks of color in the Fawn areas.

Fawn, Gold, and Orange are just shade variations with Fawn being the middle common shade seen in pet mice, Gold being pale and selected for this light color, and Orange being very dark/bright and usually from the extension gene (recessive gold, ee). In England if it is pink-eyed, it would be called a Fawn, where black-eyed ones are called Red. Show specimens of Red are like an Irish setter color and very dark. Most pet breeders prefer their Fawns to be Satins.

A Fawn Standard mouse owned and bred by Margaret Laigaie, Rainbow Island. Photo ©2015 Karen Robbins.

A Gold mouse owned and bred by Kelli Boka, Lots O’ Spots. Photo ©2007 Craig Robbins.

An Orange Self Satin mouse owned by Kris Bryant. Photo ©1993 Craig Robbins.

An English Red Self Standard mouse owned by Nichole Royer, bred by David Safe, England. Photo ©2004 Craig Robbins.

Argente is a P.E. Agouti and has the goldish tips of the hair and gray/lilac at the base of the hairs. It is a different color than the orange seen in the Fawn mice.

An Argente Long Hair mouse owned by Helen Pembrook. Photo ©1995 Craig Robbins.

A Fawn Brindle Standard mouse owned and bred by Nichole Royer, Tarot Rats. Photo ©1999 Craig Robbins.

A lot of pet mice that look Fawn may be unmarked Brindles. Brindle can range from either no markings that you can see to very lightly marked to almost solid in the dark stripes.

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