Lilac – an underrated variety?

by [log in to see names] | Jul 3, 2025 | Varieties | 0 comments

Lilac – an underrated variety?
I have recently started to show lilacs, not because I had set out to, but because they cropped up in my line of blues. I also did not breed blues with the aim of exhibiting them, but as an outcross to my pearls. Lilacs are hardly ever shown as, for some reason, they...

Line Purity

by [log in to see names] | Apr 24, 2025 | Varieties | 0 comments

Developing one’s own line of any particular variety, to me is one of the central elements of showing and breeding fancy mice. Apart from applying careful inbreeding and rigorous selection, one of the most important qualities of a line of show mice is line purity. If...

From the Archives

by [log in to see names] | Oct 9, 2024 | Varieties | 0 comments

The following piece comes from Fur and Feather, 14 May 1958. EdThe Latest FashionIs it responsible for many Best in Show awards?A thing which has intrigued me ever since I joined the Fancy is the way a certain variety has a run of taking best in show and other premier...

From the Archives

by [log in to see names] | Jul 7, 2024 | Varieties | 0 comments

I spoke to [log in to see names] recently—he can’t get to shows now, so it was lovely to catch up with him. He misses his mice! [log in to see names] was a regular contributor to NMC News, particularly with items from the archives. Here is one he provided 20 years...

Tan Varieties and Their Problems

by [log in to see names] | Jun 9, 2024 | Varieties | 0 comments

(Original article by R Hutchings) The Tan varieties have a remarkable capacity for improving their strength of tanning in successive generations, even without selection. This has often been commented upon by fanciers who have observed the effects of outcrossing, but...

The Tricolour That Was Not

by [log in to see names] | Mar 21, 2024 | Varieties | 1 comment

The Tricolour That Was Not
Interesting read in last month’s magazine about a spontaneous mutation in Ruth’s shed. I have indeed had a similar thing occur in my strain of red brokens. One of the breeding trios that I had given to Lewis Russell had produced a mouse with a red patch...

The Puzzling Pearl

by [log in to see names] | Nov 6, 2023 | Varieties | 0 comments

First published in Mouse Fancy Review, April 1984. The Puzzling Pearl The Pearl is a lovely, delicate colour, but I have found it a most reluctant breeder, and while the bucks seem normally fertile the does are frequently barren, or have litters that often fail to...

The Quest for Extreme Black

by [log in to see names] | Oct 8, 2023 | Varieties | 0 comments

The Quest for Extreme Black
Our blacks of today are very black. Sure, we’re fighting against every non-black hair, and those who breed blacks know it is a fight you cannot win. What we see on the show bench are those specimens that exhibit the least amount of non-black hairs and, if you show at...

The Challenge of Dutch

by [log in to see names] | Jul 5, 2022 | Varieties | 0 comments

The Challenge of Dutch
As I have mentioned before, producing a well marked Dutch mouse is a real challenge. The more I breed Dutch, and also from what I know and have experienced with other varieties of fancy mice, the more I realise they are the hardest and most challenging of all. Other...

The Argente Mouse

by [log in to see names] | Sep 8, 2021 | Varieties | 0 comments

The Argente Mouse
Original article published in Fur And Feather 20 Dec 1957, by N.A.Deakin I have chosen the Argente as the topic for discussion because in view of the big increase in any other variety classes at the countrywide shows in recent months, I would like to think it is the...