Varieties

Silver-ticked

III - Silver-ticked

(silvered)

In silvered varieties the coat consist of silver (or white) coloured hairs intermingled thoroughly in the coat of one colour. Term "eyes pink" to be understood to cover all shades of pink and red. Pearl is in this group due to the genetic background of the variety.

Breeding information below the pictures.

Original text: Anniina Tuura

Silver-ticking is a recessive mutation found first time in 1912 and again in the 1920’s. It causes a variable amount of white hairs into the mouse’s coat. The phenotype is highly variable and depends on the overall genotype.

On agouti (A/*) and dominant lethal yellow (A^y/*) background there will be less silvering and the lightening effect on coat colouring is most visible at the hair roots. With these genotypes the ticking may diminish with age, sometimes vanishign altogether. On non-agouti (a/a) and tan (a^t/*) background the silver ticking is stronger and usually increases as the mouse ages. There’s more ticking on black than on brown background. Things get even more insteresting with a/a B/b, which creates a mouse that is lighter and more ticked than either B/B or b/b.

In addition to colour genotype, the phenotype of silver ticked mice is affected by the animal’s sex: bucks are generally speaking more heavily ticked than does. Best silver ticked show mice tend to be males, although there have been quite good females as well.

Selective breeding is higly influential with silver ticked varieties: without selective breeding a silver ticked mouse may be practically indistinquishable from a non-ticked one. Some white hairs may appear on this kind of mouse’s belly, flanks and neck. First coat of si/si mice are usually unticked, with the ticking appearing after first molt. Mice growing up to have the strongest ticking are silvered from the first coat on.

Common faults include uneven silver ticking and molting-related patches and stripes. These can be selected against.