Varieties
Coats
Short Hair (sh)
Go/* re/re Sa/* (Fr/* Fz/* ca/ca)
"Smooth and dense, short coat with a natural sheen."
Breeding information below the pictures.
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SH Black Eyed Bone buck Rapunzel's Post-Modern Prometheus |
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SH grey agouti |
Quick Look
Short hair is the 'basic' mouse coat variety and all the standards for colour and markings have been written with short hair in mind.
Genetic Background
The genetic make-up of a short hair mouse is simple: it does not have any dominant coat affecting genes and at most carries recessive ones.
In More Practical Terms...
Even with this basic coat type, selective breeding is needed to get the best looking coat. It is surprisingly easy to breed in unpleasantly longish hair, too long guard hairs and over-all unkempt look or "open coat".
The length and other qualities (is the coat satinized or not, is it curly or not) affect the appearance of the mouse's colouring. Some varieties look their best in the basic short hair coat as opposed to long hair or curly. These include the ticked, silvered and shaded varieties, practically all markings and many darker self colours like black, blue and chocolate.
When one considers basic short hair as such, the lightest self varieties can benefit from being short hair, without any darkening effect caused by satin. The same goes for, say, agouti, cinnamon, chinchilla and marten sable.