The mouse hunter becomes the...mouse hunted?

So, I've been addicted to a great little game called Mousehunt recently. If the last 2 years can be classed as recently. It's a social game on Facebook, you build a mouse trap out of a trap and base and use it to catch mice, it's simple early on but it builds you up into there being multiple mouse types (shadow, fire, water, tactical, etc.) which need specific trap types to counter them. You can also get charms to buff your trap and craft improved traps out of parts you find, or you can smash traps for parts to new traps too.
Anyway! I was speaking to one of the artists over at Hitgrab (the company who produces Mousehunt from out in Canada) and, after a great conversation about his work, the company and how to break into the industry, he commented that, while he liked my style, they hired people with a more painted-style.
The below 3 images are NOT produced by me, but were the reference pieces I used in creating the upmost image. The top piece is some fan art I did of the middle piece, the Pathfinder mouse of the Nerg tribe.

As such, what do you guys think? Is my art going in the right direction here?
Did I capture most of the feeling of the Pathfinder mouse?
Do you like the bad-ass dreadlocks?
Am I finally using enough contrast?