Faults& Disqualifications
Each standard has its own faults and disqualifications. The following information is a list of all factors that will fault, disqualify, or eliminate your mouse from competition.
Eliminations
Any mouse found with the following will be eliminated from the competition: Abscess; pregnant or nursing females; any respiratory disease; scabs, scaly skin, internal or external parasites; eye problems; whiskers too short or missing (except in Hairless, curling of whiskers is taken into consideration when dealing with other varieties); condition too poor for competition; injuries made prior to judging; improperly entered in class; animals shown under six weeks of age; biting.
Faults
General Faults - Nicked ears; over or underweight; stained or dirty coat.
Variety Faults – Satin, Longhair Satin, Rex Satin, and Texel Satin coats lacking the proper sheen; Longhair, Longhair Satin, Texel, and Texel Satin coats lacking in length; Longhair, Longhair Satin, Rex, Rex Satin, Texel, and Texel Satin coats too thin; Rex, Rex Satin, Texel, and Texel Satin coats lacking in wavy or curlyness; Fuzzy coat being too long or thick; Hairless having marks or scars on the skin; Hairless having small or watery eyes; Hairless having an excessive amount of hair due to molt; other faults as for respective color.
Self Faults – Faded or rusty color; mottling, mealiness or shading of color; light under parts; stray white hairs in the coat; tan hairs around the vent or behind the ears; white toenails.
Marked Faults – Head spots on Banded; white running onto legs on Banded mice; Broken, Even, and Marked Tan patches not sharply defined; Broken, Even, and Marked Tan brindling or intermingling of white hairs in spots or patches; Broken and Even Marked spots or patches not distributed properly; Broken Marked with color too heavily concentrated; Marked Tans with pale tanning or too little tanning; Broken Merle, Broken Splashed, and Broken Brindle white patches and other patches of color not balanced; Broken Merle, Broken Splashed, and Broken Brindle too few or too many patches of color or white areas; splashes running together so as to suggest roaning on Broken Splashed and Variegated; splashes to large or solid in appearance on Variegated; Broken Splashed and Variegated with too few splashes; Broken Brindle too light or too heavy of brindling.
Tan & Fox Faults – Rusty or faded top color; pale belly color for the Tan; any other color hair in the Tan or Fox; no distinct or clear line between top and belly color; brindling or intermingling of tan or fox hairs in top color; stray white hairs in the top color; tan or white on the top of the feet; white toes.
Ticked Faults – Agouti, Argente, Chinchilla, Cinnamon, or Cinnamon Argente with faded, rusty, or yellowish tinge; faded under color; ticking too heavy; mottled appearance to the coat; white on feet; under color extending too far up in the hair; over color too pale; Chinchilla with salt and pepper appearance.
Pointed Faults – Blue Point Siamese, Blue Point Himalayan, Burmese, Himalayan, and Seal Point Siamese with color too dark; shading on the tailroot; points too light; white on the feet; mottled color on the body; nose marking extending above the eyes; Blue Point Siamese, Burmese, and Seal Point Siamese with body color too light; points not dark enough to contrast with the body color.
AOCP Faults – Brindles with sooty body color to blend in with the brindling; brindling too light, too few, too heavy, or not well defined; Merle and Roan with white body spot; white on the tail; roaning too dark or too light, mottling of roaning; Merle with dark patches brindled with roan; dark patches not evenly distributed; too few or too many dark patches; Splashed with not enough background color showing; not enough splashes showing.
Disqualifications
Tumors; blindness in one or both eyes; missing one or both eyes; ears torn with a portion missing, either noticeably detracts from the general appearance; crooked or missing feet, legs, or toes; tail broken, kinked, permanently out of line, or with any portion missing; waltzers; neutered males; males not showing both testicles in normal condition; any dyeing, plucking or trimming designed to alter natural condition; any identifying marks that may hint to who the breeder or owner is, such as, but not limited to, tattoos, leg rings, ear tags, etc; white spot on the body for Self, Tan & Fox, Ticked Sections and Blue Point Siamese, Burmese, and Seal Point Siamese; white tail or white spotting on the feet for Self, Tan & Fox, Ticked, and Pointed Sections.
- Allison Hamilton. Used with permission.