Hairless ratties and stuff

[wolfy-hound]

Right now, I have a male hairless rat in with 4 females. Out of 30 babies born, one was hairless(sort of, since she's not lost the fuzz mangy coat look yet, but she's not looking great today?). I'm holding back all the females to pick out the most friendly and prettiest ones to perhaps breed to a hairless. Is this the right tactic for getting hairless rats?

I've gotten 3 male hairless, one per litter, from a certain bin of furred rats. I don't know the background of any of the rats in the bin.

I also still have this "silver" hooded male. I haven't got any decent picture of him, but he was sold to me as a feeder since the previous owner couldn't get him to breed. I put him in with 4 young females and he's produced crazy amounts of babies, about 1/3 of which are also the same "silver" hooded color. None have shown blue, none have been solid "silver".

The "silver" is a whitish grey, not a blue, very much ticked with the "white" hairs making him look even more "silver" and less blue. I haven't found any pictures online that look just like his color, perhaps because some of the examples are of young rats. But many of his young that I'm growing out are looking VERY like him, while some have a touch of brown color instead of the very pure looking "silver". I put one of his sons to some females, to see if he is as prolific as dad, but so far, it's not impressive. The females and he are still young though. The "silver" hooded females are almost big enough to try breeding, so I'll be setting them up soon.

Any ideas? I'm new to rattie genetics, and I'm trying to study up but most of the places I read up on will give a standard of what the color IS, but perhaps not how you GET the color. Many colors will state what you need to GEt the color, but no examples of what it looks like, or they use terms for colors I don't know, and can't find examples of.

One of the types I liked the look of mentioned "brown" but none of the other listed colors were "brown". It's frustrating. And many don't mention recessive or what combos you have to go through to get that color.

My new blazed rats are now getting big enough to breed too, I like how sleek and healthy they are. I still don't have rex rats, which I would love to get.

[snakesRkewl]

Right now, I have a male hairless rat in with 4 females. Out of 30 babies born, one was hairless(sort of, since she's not lost the fuzz mangy coat look yet, but she's not looking great today?). I'm holding back all the females to pick out the most friendly and prettiest ones to perhaps breed to a hairless. Is this the right tactic for getting hairless rats?

If you want hairless you want to use a male hairless and female gene carriers, so yes, that's how I would do it. Or you could just use a het X het and make 25% hairless by odds.

I also still have this "silver" hooded male. I haven't got any decent picture of him, but he was sold to me as a feeder since the previous owner couldn't get him to breed. I put him in with 4 young females and he's produced crazy amounts of babies, about 1/3 of which are also the same "silver" hooded color. None have shown blue, none have been solid "silver".

The "silver" is a whitish grey, not a blue, very much ticked with the "white" hairs making him look even more "silver" and less blue. I haven't found any pictures online that look just like his color, perhaps because some of the examples are of young rats. But many of his young that I'm growing out are looking VERY like him, while some have a touch of brown color instead of the very pure looking "silver". I put one of his sons to some females, to see if he is as prolific as dad, but so far, it's not impressive. The females and he are still young though. The "silver" hooded females are almost big enough to try breeding, so I'll be setting them up soon.

silvery blue like this?

The fact a rat carries a recessive eye color can lighten the coat color, as does actually having red/ruby/pink eyes.
Ruby eyed blue(platinum) is a pretty silvery light blue color but it doesn't usually have all the white ticking.

Any ideas? I'm new to rattie genetics, and I'm trying to study up but most of the places I read up on will give a standard of what the color IS, but perhaps not how you GET the color. Many colors will state what you need to GEt the color, but no examples of what it looks like, or they use terms for colors I don't know, and can't find examples of.

One of the types I liked the look of mentioned "brown" but none of the other listed colors were "brown". It's frustrating. And many don't mention recessive or what combos you have to go through to get that color.

The "what if" chart is kind of interesting
http://www.afrma.org/ratgenwhatif.htm

[wolfy-hound]

The two center rats are the "silver", the upper rat is one of my blues, and the lower one(trying to climb out) is one of my "reds".



This is the original "silver" male, he doesn't look this "brown" in real life.


Your pic looks more like a blue than these do. Mine tend to have a little brown tinge to them(the offspring of the original, he doesn't really have brown tinge to him). I also don't know which blues I have.

I appreciate the info, I'll be looking at the link you provided as well!

[PghBall]

Wolfy, I agree with what Jerry said about holding back females from that breeding. I brought in one Dumbo into my colony and held back a male to breed back to her. Things have taken off from there. Too bad Jerry and Brian are on the West Coast, I'd love to get some of their stock for my colony! Good luck!

[snakesRkewl]

The two center rats are the "silver", the upper rat is one of my blues, and the lower one(trying to climb out) is one of my "reds".

I see what looks to be A Russian Blue, 2 agouti's(in middle, probably lighter color due to carrying recessive traits) and a fawn(ruby eye agouti). The camera flash makes Red look somewhat beige but I suspect its a fawn.

Your pic looks more like a blue than these do. Mine tend to have a little brown tinge to them(the offspring of the original, he doesn't really have brown tinge to him). I also don't know which blues I have.

My blues are slate blue or American blue while yours is a Russian blue, quite a bit of difference and not compatible when bred together. Occasionally I have litters with both colors in them

[Michelle.C]

Rather than agouti, the two in the middle appear to be Mink with modifiers or just Silvered Mink. It's hard to tell, but I am not seeing any ticking in their coat.

Also, the darker one appears to be Slate Grey and not ticked like a Russian Blue. I am thinking English Blue.

This is just my opinion though.

As far as how I do my hairless. I do not hold back any visual hairless females. In most cases, they do not produce as much milk and most of the time, they are unable to raise their litters without help.

I had two unrelated bucks, both hairless, bred them to two unrelated dumbo girls. Held back a group of girls (carrying but not visual for the hairless gene) for each male out of the opposites litter. I have large litter productions from them with half of the offspring being hairless. Usually about 7 or so pups per litter.

[wolfy-hound]

Thanks guys! I have 5 "het hairless" females held back to grow up.

The blues don't usually have ticking, they're pretty solid.

The silver ones have lots of white hairs, I don't know if that helps.

I really appreciate all the help!! I'm learning a ton! Today I put more dumbos together and rearranged the reds so I have reds together too. I still have another red young girl, too young to breed yet. I've got some young blue girls in with a high white(blue) male too.

Also, I took two rats in to the vet, confirmed they have tumors, probably cancerous, but the vet couldn't say if they are malignant or benign. I'll be picking up flaxseed tomorrow to start them on it.

[wolfy-hound]

Here's a pic of a newer female rattie. She looked rex when she was young, now check out how shaggy she is.


Here's three babies I'm really looking forward to seeing bigger....


They were fathered by a high white daddy, and one is black/white, the other two are blue/white. Hopefully some turn out female, I have a heck of a time telling when they are itty pinkies!

I've been feeding all my breeders and potential breeders crimped oats with their lab block, sunflower seeds and such. I've also gotten flaxseed and started giving some to the two females who have tumors. I'll have to try to get a pic of the tumors to be able to compare as they go along, to see how they do on the flaxseed.