Moulting that Baby Coat

[mousekateers]

Mice moult their baby coats at about 4 - 5 weeks of age.

For a lot of standard coated mice you may not be aware of this happening, but for the other coat varieties - *rex, *long coat, *long coat rex and *hairless it is very obvious.
Obvious also shaded and c-dilute, sable, fox/tan where the top colour is pale ie bone etc.

The moult starts from the top of the mouse and works its way downwards, this is classically seen with hairless mice.  The pups are fully coated then at about 4 weeks of age they start to lose the coat around the head and it progresses from there until they are completely bald or have a patchwork pattern. 
Common signs in long coated mice is the wearing of "skirts" which is where the coat moults from the head and the pup loses that fluffy, wispy, long coat which is replaced by a stronger and denser long coat.
Long coat rex will go from fluffy, long curls to a shorter rexing.  The coat regrows with stronger and denser hair.
At this stage too, rexes will often exhibit bald spots or a patchy coat pattern.

Below in the next few posts are a few pics showing before and after shots:


ABOVE: blue reverse Siamese showing as a black-eyed white with a blue base and dark ears at 11 days of age, and then at 4 weeks completely changed colour showing a definite blue topcoat with white points.

[mousekateers]

BELOW: Burmese long coat buck at 3 weeks showing an immature coat and then at 5 weeks showing the typical "skirt" often seen on long coat mice going through a moult to an adult coat.

[mousekateers]

BELOW: Squeakalicious Mousery (closed) hairless long coat typically losing coat as a young pup from the head first and showing a nearly completed moult after a couple of weeks.

[mousekateers]

BELOW: fawn sable shown as a lovely clear fawn rex at just before 4 weeks of age, and then just over a week later the sabling has begun to come through the coat.

[mousekateers]

BELOW:  Siamese longcoat doe shown at 4 weeks of age just prior to her moult into adult coat with no points obvious at that stage.  After the moult her points came through very strongly as shown in the photo to the right (shown with a long coat rex buck).



NB: Siamese are notorious for their moult patterns in later life and some lines show more prevalence than others.  In the show world the ideal is for the shaded mouse not to show any signs of abnormal moulting or mealiness of the coat.  Siamese are acromelanic which means that the colour of their coat can be affected by temperature (showing as moult lines).  It is therefore beneficial to keep them in a cooler climate which will give darker points and shading.

[greydawnbreaking]

This is all absolutely fascinating, and answers a question I'd had about how my longcoat babies were developing. I can now say that my lc bubs are all developing that skirt, so I can't wait to see how their full coats look. Now I just have to wait for my siamese pups to molt so I can see their patterns properly.

This is such an awesome reference, thanks for putting this together!

And while I would normally never judge any mouse on appearance...that hairless longcoat mouse is freaky. O.O

[sharky]

Awesome! Thanks for posting, very interesting and informative

[MojoMouse]

Thank you - this is an excellent guide to moulting and what to expect. There is often a big difference between juvenile and adult long coats, so it's good that new breeders are aware of this. Also, the moulting of siamese and reverse siamese is occasionally so pronounced that sometimes new breeders don't know what's going on. It's great to have this explanation.

[greydawnbreaking]

Oct 30, 2013 10:45:43 GMT 10 MojoMouse said:

Thank you - this is an excellent guide to moulting and what to expect. There is often a big difference between juvenile and adult long coats, so it's good that new breeders are aware of this. Also, the moulting of siamese and reverse siamese is occasionally so pronounced that sometimes new breeders don't know what's going on. It's great to have this explanation.

THIS. I can't even tell you how utterly baffled I was at having pink-eyed beige babies. I had no idea that siamese started out beige and then molted into their colors, I thought they started out like himis and then just darkened more dramatically.

I found one throwaway comment somewhere about what a siamese baby looked like, and then found some pictures, but before that I was utterly at a loss to explain them.

[anielka]

Very interesting, We have had some strange baby mice that seemed to have alopecia as they moulted that we thought might become hairless....and then recovered a normal coat again.

I must say found the moulting hairless strangely disturbing. I'm sure if I kept them I would grow to love them but there's something almost sad about them loosing their lovely fur like that. I believe some strains of hairless are used in research to investigate male-pattern baldness and treatments to reduce hair loss and induce new hair growth.