self-tans: a^t/a^t - , a^t/* -
ticked tans: A/a^t –
silver-ticked tans: a^t/a^t - si/si, a^t/* - si/si

"Tans are recognized in any standard colour and the colour shall be as laid down for these varieties, The Tan belly shall be a rich golden orange hue, as rich as possible and there should be a clear line of demarcation between top colour and tan running in a straight line along flanks, chest and jaws. There should be no brindling or guard hairs. Eye colour shall be as in the non-tan varieties. Colour of feet should be inside tan, the remainder of foot the same as top colour. Wholly tan feet considered a greater fault than feet all same colour as top."

Breeding information below the pictures.

	The "basic" Tan; the Black Tan. SH Black Tan buck Noddyn Loki Jr. b: Satu Karhumaa, o: Anniina Tuura pic: Arttu Väisälä
	Pink eyed version of Black Tan, the Dove Tan. SH Dove Tan doe SNL Ch Rapunzel's Ballade b. & o: Anniina Tuura pic: Arttu Väisälä

Note: This article is old and waiting to be rewritten.

Quick Look

Ideal tans could be mistaken for a self when viewed from above and only when held upwards reveal the tan belly. Common faults are tan hairs behind the ears, around the tail root and tanned feet. Another persistent fault is a throat spot of the top colour.

Continuous breeding of tans with the richest belly colour to another leads to undesired spreading of tan. Therefore a breeder should keep also tans, which lack depth in the tan. When the belly colour has started to spread too much, mating with a self with equivalent top colour helps. However it takes several generations after such a mating before the tan is rich again. Any selfs resulting from tan to self crossing are better not used for breeding selfs.

The tan-gene is actually a very interesting one. It is dominant over a, and partly dominant over A. With A it is dominant on the belly and recessive on the top.

Although tan is recognized in any standard colour, there are a couple of colors which can not come in tan, or that can not be distinguished from self varieties as such. Clearly, Pink or Black Eyed White cannot come in tan (tans with white-looking back are genetically Silver Tans), neither can any c-locus recessive variety (Bone, Beige, etc., pointed varieties, Martens, Chinchilla, Silver Agouti, Argente Cream). Reds, Fawns and Argentes have tan-coloured belly as such, although sometimes you can see Reds and Fawns with clearly demarcated (poor) tan belly and Argente Tans have clearly non-silver ticked bellies.

Furthermore, the depth of the tan belly depends on the genetic make up of the mice. Thus Blue, Lilac and Silver Tans have much lighter bellies due to the dilute gene d's effect on red pigment. This is why the standard asks for "as rich as possible" colour!