This article is from the WSSF 2015 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

By Karen Robbins

Jay Norrington, Facebook
Q This is Tolstoy . . . could you please tell me what color this is? He has a darker nose and tail base. This is his brother Dostoyevsky who is a sightly longer haired brindleish mouse but he has more of a gold tone to him than most Brindles I’ve seen (could be because he is a Satin I would assume).

Tolstoy. Photo from Jay Norrington.

Dostoyevsky. Photo from Jay Norrington.

I don’t know about the parents; they were abandoned in a box on my doorstep. They are both some of the prettiest things ever left on my steps but their colors are different from anything I’ve seen before. I’ve had Brindles but never quite like Dostoyevsky, and I’ve never had a mouse like Tolstoy.

A Looking on two different monitors, Tolstoy looks like he could be either a Dove (a.k.a. Chocolate Blue or dilute Chocolate aa bb dd; does he have a brown tint?) or Blue (aa dd) Satin or Long Hair Satin (Satinization always darkens colors).

If he has points, other possibilities are a Blue Siamese Sable (aa c^ch/c^h dd) (a.k.a. Blue Burmese; photos on FinnMouse Site http://hiiret.fi/eng/breeding/?pg=4&sub=6&ala=1 or http://hiiret.fi/eng/breeding/?pg=5&sub=5&ala=3 and on the Swedish mouse forum “Mus iFokus”) or maybe a dark Black-Eyed (B.E.) Blue Point Siamese, a.k.a Blue Color Point Beige or Colorpoint Smoke (aa c^ec^h dd) http://hiiret.fi/eng/breeding/?pg=4&sub=11&ala=13 or http://www.fancymicebreeders.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=2808.

If your mouse was lighter in color, another possibility is B.E. Silver. According to Dave Bumford in our “Mouse Genetics” book, Blue can be lightened by adding Chinchilla and albino to create B.E. Silver (aa dd c^chc; may have pale “points”) (photo on the FinnMouse site ). Another way to make B.E. Silver would be Blue with the Beige gene (aa dd c^ec or aa dd c^ec^e).

Dostoyevsky looks like a Fawn Brindle Satin. Both are very pretty mice.

Update: He looks a lot like the Blue Burmese in person. The Color Point Smoke is far too light. Jay Norrington

Sounds like Tolstoy is then a Blue Siamese Sable/Blue Burmese Satin if he has points.

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