I believe the Asia Minor (A. cilicicus) is also known as the Turkish ? The Tibesti or Seurat`s is definately kept privately. The Arabian and Egyptian were once very commonly kept, and the Golden (which is not Golden confusingly, but black) is very much like the Egyptian, as is the Mount Kulal in general appearance.
Asia Minor is indeed the same thing as the Turkish. Suspect you have got your wires crossed regarding the Golden Spiny Mouse, as it *is* pretty golden in appearance judging by the ones I saw at Zoo Magdeburg last year!
Yes you must be right, I am only going on the fact I was given some in the 80s which were said to be "Golden" at the time, but they were black, which I thought rather strange at the time. But I think this confusion must have been quite widespread because there were many other people keeping these too, which were all said to be "Golden Spiny Mice".
This may sound like a stupid question but... is the fur actally spiny? Or does it just have the appearance of being spiny?
The other alternative, of course, is that there may have been a melanistic colour morph in circulation.
the one thing that has put me off keeping spiny mice is the fact that there is so little info on species and subspecies. Most in private collections are labelled just as 'Spiny mice' with only a few interested in stating the species. I know of somebody with black/grey spiny mice who also said that they were Egyptian so who really knows?!