Based on @Chikahiro Cup-A-Foal by Chikahiro and Freeze Dried Fluffy by Chikahiro
Micros with tardigrade DNA for dried conservation.
I imagined with the new dna added it would have all its features more rounded up, body structure a bit more hunched over, fur more shallow, hair and tail tiny even as adults and even the wings and horn being more like cute bumps 
tardigrade
…does this mean they can survive the vacuum of space?
yeah i wonder how resistant those lil ones would be!
I like to imagine, that Watney Fluffies look similar to dogs with teddy bear haircuts.
I’m thinking I might have to do a full write up now. Head-canon to now, incomplete:
The Cup A Foal uses a variant affectionately known as the Watney Potato. These little potats after smaller than their bigger cousins.
The Watney is partly engineered from strain that was originally considered a failure in the market: the (name pending). These fluffs had literal birth control baked in, and could only breed if fed a special diet from Hasbio (available from you local vet or fluff mart). The US market rejected it entirely, deciding this to be too restrictive.
Fluffies with Dietary Reproductive Management got a second chance in Japan. Knowing it was only a matter of time until fluffies were illegally smuggled in to the country, Japan played hardball with Hasbio. First they were recognized as animals then labeled invasive with the full weight of the Japanese government behind the barn.
Then Japan went and began negotiating. They wanted a Japan only breed. Smaller, less problems, and layered, built in forms of reproductive management. These fluffies were engineered with several deficiencies that had to be addressed if they were to ever reproduce.
The special diet was kept, but was only sold to registered breeders. Additionally, the ability to make three key hormones for both sexual drive and reproductive capability were removed from their DNA but the need for them was not. The hormones are considered a controlled substance and are tightly regulated.
Taro from Fluffy no Go is one of these. They tend to be more natural, horse like in coloring by default.
NASA’s Watney is partway between the two in this respect. The diet was changed to simple supplementation, and the neutered sex drive was kept. There are a lot of improvements over normal fluffies with the Watney but for things NASA needed.
I’m not sure if they can reproduce with normal fluffies or not. Debating that.
The potats are based on an earlier research version of the Watney. They can do the hydration trick but the process is more industrialized. It’s harsher so really it’s only advisable to do it no more than twice unlike the Watneys which can do it as needed due to better genetics and a highly refined process.
Unlike the Watneys or Japanese fluffies they’re born sterile and asexual. They’re the seedless grapes of the fluffy world. Mares cannot lactate either, so they’re no good for that role. In some ways they’re much closer to the “biotoy” ideal.
Chikahiro Multiversal introduced them as a safer, more humane version of the foal in a can concept. They’re too expensive to be a real dietary option from the get go (sorry @FluffiesAreFood, they’re not foal ramen ) but are cheaper than getting a fluffy and getting it fixed later.
Sales are decent enough but if it wasn’t for NASA’s open research it might not have been possible. Some folks say there’s a nefarious nature to Chikahiro Multiversal and speak of project “Napowean and Hippowita,” traveling to other dimensions, alien intelligences, and somehow spam factors in. Plus the “Head Cannon,” surely a diabolical weapon.
I feel they would fit nicelly with the Boopco Munchkin breeds!
Don’t see why not!
I’m debating whether or not the Watneys are stand alone or meant to be mixed and matched to produce other breeds. For instance, I’m sitting on the idea of a breed called the Vanner used for making milk (converting biomass to protein) in the Mars setting.
After considering: maybe, but it’s not ideal. The actual dehydration process is time consuming and highly controlled.
A dehydrated fluffy could. Not a problem.
A hydrated one MIGHT but it’ll be a very physically and psychologically traumatic experience. Chances are it’d be cruel to rehydrate such a fluff and the chances of it reviving only to die painfully is high.
