[Bazaar]

Hello all! I recently came across a very interesting mouse coat that I was hoping to get a second opinion on

These little guys have a very short, but very consistent/even (and very soft) coat. I have hairless mice and double rex rats as well and this is totally different than that. It looks like a tiny mouse barber just gave them a very neat buzzcut all over lol. These are rescues from a feeder box so the previous owner didn't know their genetics.

Have you ever seen this before or know what it might be called if so? The closest I can find is this (4th pic down), but it doesnt seem quite right either since those seem more wooly:

Hiiret.fi - Breeding

It looks like their hair may be wavy, but it's so short that it's hard to tell. The white ones look more hairless than they are due to the coat color, I tried to capture it as best as I can. The coat seems short like this both in adults and in babies. Any thoughts?

 

[WoodWitch]

They are rex mice, not to be confused with astrex.

 

[Bazaar]

I can see how it might look that way from the photos, but I'm not referring to the rex gene. I'm referring to the fact that their fur looks super short, like a buzz cut.

I've been calling these little guys Chenille Mice because I have yet to come across a reference to them anywhere.

Here are the characteristics of this coat:

• Extremely short fur (~1mm in length)
• Very even, no patchiness or bald spots
• Very soft
• They do have whiskers, but the whiskers are also very short (~2-3mm in length)
• Heriditary, not environmental
• Babies that inherit it have identical coats, neither longer nor shorter
• Babies that don't inherit it appear to have "normal" coats like their other parent

I would describe it as feeling like "velvet" like the material, but unfortunately that name is already taken haha.

Here are some better pictures from a newer baby that doesn't have scars etc (original parents came from overcrowded feeder box).

 

[WoodWitch]

Oh I like those! They aren't for everyone but I like them.
They almost certainly have numerous genes at play causing that effect, Possibly rex and hairless on the same mouse. Or something from a lab. I have rex and hairless in my shed and I see mice like this sometimes.

 

[Bazaar]

I don't think mine are a rex gene, even though they have a slight wavy hair appearance.

For one thing, there were no rex mice at all in the feeder box. There were maybe 20 mice, of which maybe 6 were Chenille and the rest were your generic straight coat fancy mouse. No hairless either.

For another thing, they haven't produced any rex babies, only straight "normal" coats, and this short hair coat which always has that slight wave you can see. This could be coincidence, but it's another indicator.

In other words, all of the chenille I've seen (both from the original box and my consecutive litters) do have a bit of wave, but none of their standard coat relatives have any wave at all. This could be coincidence, but it's a whole lot of coincidence out of almost 30 mice in total.

Do you have any pics of yours?