Rat genetics

[hypnotixdmp]

New to this whole thing, just have a question maybe 2.

So, I have some average solid color rats(scientific name unknown by me lol), and they are female, then I have a male albino hoodie dumbo, this is 1.3 in a tub. What will I get with this mixture? Will I get all 4 separate genes and mixed genes, are any recessive at all?

Also, how old do females need to be before they start breeding? I think females start younger than males from what I have read? Please correct me if I am wrong!!!

So there you have it, simple questions for all you rat breeders out there!!


Ball Pythons
0.3 Normals (Coilette, Athena and Mary Jane)
1.0 Pastel (De Sol)
1.0 Spider (Zeus)
1.0 Mojave (Prometheus)

Boas
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa (Stella)
0.1 Hog Island Boa (Kiyoko)
0.1 Dumerils Boa (Gloria)
0.1 Yellow Anaconda (Serenity)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

[MrLang]

What I think I know (feel free to correct me):

Color is recessive, but the 'base' colors come through if you don't have 2 of the colored gene. The base colors are brown and black. A peach to a blue makes black babies that are all het peach and het blue.

Dumbo ears are recessive, but a lot of fancy rats you pick up will be het dumbo if they aren't visuals... so you might luck out.

Markings are variable co-dominant traits, but not like we see in snakes. Less marked animals x less marked animals make super low marked animals. Full colored animals x less marked animals will make a mix of both. Hooded x hooded will make hooded and 'masked' which would be a further reduced hooded animal, as an example.

Eye color is variable too, I think. You can 'dilute' the eyes to make them more or less red. I'm not sure of this, but I think a red x black eye will give you dark red eyes, for example. I'm not too sure on this, though...

Curious to read other responses.

[sorraia]

New to this whole thing, just have a question maybe 2.

So, I have some average solid color rats(scientific name unknown by me lol), and they are female, then I have a male albino hoodie dumbo, this is 1.3 in a tub. What will I get with this mixture? Will I get all 4 separate genes and mixed genes, are any recessive at all?

I need to be sure what you mean by albino hooded. Albino is all white with red eyes and epistatic ("masks" or "covers up") everything else. If he is albino, how do you know he is also hooded? Or does he come from two hooded parents? (Which would automatically make him hooded.)

Can’t say exactly what you would get from the mix, without knowing what colors everyone is and what is in their backgrounds. Unless the females carry the recessive hooded gene, all should be standard-eared. I’ll say more about genetics below…

Also, how old do females need to be before they start breeding? I think females start younger than males from what I have read? Please correct me if I am wrong!!!

Males can be started younger than females. Females need time to grow. For production purposes, you are better off going by weight than age. When I bred pet rats, I went by age because I was not in a hurry to breed them, didn’t need to produce high numbers, and wanted time to see how they grew up and how their adult family members did in terms of health. For me, I bred females no younger than 6 months, but generally closer to 8 months. HOWEVER it is NOT necessary to wait that long, and would in fact be disadvantageous for you to wait that long if you are trying to produce food. I would have to look up the right weight, because I can’t remember it off the top of my head, but I THINK it is 250grams before breeding a female. (Someone correct me if that’s wrong! Lol)

So about genetics…
MOST colors are recessive. A few are co-dominant, very very few are dominant. After being a rat breeder for so long, and breeding for show, I might use different terms, so please ask if something is confusing or doesn’t sound right. I’ll use terms like “color”, “pattern”, and “markings”. In terms of show standards, these terms mean different things. In terms of pets or feeders, it doesn’t matter so much.

First, all rats are either “self” or “ticked”. “Self” is often used interchangeably with “solid”, meaning no markings, but technically it means the hair shaft is a solid color. The most basic “self” color is black. “Ticked” is also called “agouti” and means the hair shaft is banded. A basic “agouti” with no other genes or modifiers added is the basic “wild type”. Over all it looks like a brownish colored rat with a gray belly (unless it has markings, then it would have a white belly). The brown hairs typically have a gray bas, and then bands of orange and black.
Ticked is dominant over self. (In other words… Agouti is dominant over black.)

On top of your “self” or “ticked” you can add genes that will modify or dilute the color. I’m going by memory at the moment, so I might be forgetting a few, but here is a basic run down. ALL of these are recessive. The dominant version of each of these genes will default to black on a self animal, or agouti on a ticked animal.
* Blue – overall a grayish/blue colored animal. On a microscopic level, this gene works by putting the black pigment into evenly spaced clumps throughout the hair shaft. Lots of different shades possible. Other names include American Blue, British Blue, Slate, Powder, Sky, Silver, and I can’t even remember the rest of them. Combined with agouti it is called “Blue Agouti”.

*Russian Blue – overall a darker grayish/blue animal, resembling the color of denim, often has a “heathered” or “ticked” appearance (but is NOT ticked in the same way as an agouti). On a microscopic level this gene works by moving the black pigment into unevenly distributed clumps throughout the hair shaft. Not very much variation in shades, though this color is prone to “browning” out. Combined with agouti it is called “Russian Blue Agouti”.

*Beige/Buff – Gives a cream/beige/tan colored animal with red/ruby eyes. Eye color can be so dark it appears black, and has partially to do with other genes and modifiers the animal may be carrying. Also comes in various shades. The gene is called “Ruby-eyed dilute”. When combined with agouti, it is called “fawn” or “topaz”.

*Mink – Gives a brownish/grayish animal. Shade is highly variable and depends greatly on other genes and modifiers present or carried. Different strains that may or may not be compatible (conflicting information out there, depending on who you ask). Often divided into “UK Mink” and “American mink”. UK mink tends to be more grayish with black eyes. American mink tends to be more brownish with dark ruby or black eyes. Combined with agouti it is called “cinnamon”.

*Chocolate – Gives a brown animal resembling the color of dark chocolate. Not very common in the US, though gaining in number and popularity. Color is not variable, and eye color is always black.

*Champagne – Similar to beige, except gives a lighter cream animal with pink eyes. Combined with agouti it is called “amber”.

In addition to these colors, you have the colorpoint patterns and albino. These are also recessive.
*Albino – all white with pink eyes. Albino “masks” or “covers up” all other colors, so genetically you could have a blue animal that appears white with pink eyes. Genetically this animal has two copies of the recessive albino gene.

*Siamese – A cream/beige colored animal with darker colored points (ears, nose, feet, and tail) and pink eyes. White markings will cover up/remove some of the points. Can be combined with any other color, but lighter colors will wash it out and points won’t show up. Genetically this animal has two copies of the recessive Siamese gene (scientifically this gene is actually called the “Himalayan gene”).

*Himalayan – a white colored animal with darker colored points and pink eyes. Like Siamese, white markings will cover up or remove the points. Also like Siamese can be combined with any other color, but lighter colors will wash it out and points won’t be visible. Genetically this animal has one copy of the recessive Siamese gene, and one copy of the recessive Himalayan gene.

Markings come in a couple forms. The most common markings are the co-dominant H-locus markings. There are also some dominant spotting genes (linked to megacolon) and evidence for truly recessive markings. These are not as common though. The most basic H-locus marking is the hooded gene. Two copies of the hooded gene makes a hooded rat (colored head and shoulders, the “hood”, and a colored stripe down the back, the “saddle”, ideally the saddle would be a solid stripe all the way down the back and into the tail, but realistically this is highly variable with most being broken into a line of spots). One “colored” (no markings) gene and one hooded gene gives you a Berkshire (colored with white feet and belly, sometimes white tail tip and/or headspot or blaze on the nose). Multiple other genes and modifiers on this locus give you a number of other markings, including Irish (English and American), variegated, bareback, Dalmatian, masked, capped, and more. The genes on the dominant spotting locus can give markings that resemble these, and genes from both loci can be combined as well.

Less common colors and patterns include:
*Merle (co-dominant if memory serves me correctly and works only with mink)
*Pearl (co-dominant, but homozygous lethal and works only with mink)
*Burmese (co-dominant and works only with the colorpoints)
*Black-eyed Siamese (dominant and works only with the colorpoints).
I’m sure I’m forgetting a few.

In addition to colors, markings, and patterns, you have ear set and fur type:
Dumbo – recessive
Rex – co-dominant
Hairless – recessive
Satin – recessive

In a nutshell (or maybe a watermelon...), that’s your basic rat genetics lesson.

[satomi325]

New to this whole thing, just have a question maybe 2.

So, I have some average solid color rats(scientific name unknown by me lol), and they are female, then I have a male albino hoodie dumbo, this is 1.3 in a tub. What will I get with this mixture? Will I get all 4 separate genes and mixed genes, are any recessive at all?

Solid colors = "color name" Self
Solid colors with white bellies = "color name" berkshire

I'm going to guess you mean triple dilute hooded male. Albinos have no color or pattern. They are an entirely white animal with red eyes. Triple dilutes look similar to albinos but they are not pure white (since it's not albinism). They're off white and you can see the patterns.

Depending on what genes your rats carry, your offspring can be anything.
Most colors are recessive.
Lets just start simple:

Agouti (wild type) x Blue = Agouti babies 100% het blue
Agouti het blue x Blue = Blue agoutis, agouti, blues

Dumbo ears are recessive. So breed a daughter with the male to make more dumbos (unless your females are hets).

Can you take pictures of your rats?

Also, how old do females need to be before they start breeding? I think females start younger than males from what I have read? Please correct me if I am wrong!!!

Males can breed as young as 5 weeks of age. But I generally breed males that are a similar size or larger than the females.
Females can breed a little older than that, but it's not healthy.
I breed females at around 5-6 months or around 200 grams.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

For all the color mutation question you may have. http://www.afrma.org/fancyrm.htm

Soome quick stats: They are sexually mature at 5 to 6 weeks, optimum breeding for female is between age 3 months to 10 months. Gestation is about 21 days. Average litter size 6 to 12.

As far as breeding I like for my female to start breeding around 200/250 grams. I do not go by age (I breed for food), males being place with females are about the same size to prevent them from being beat up by a much larger female.

My females average 12 to 17 babies per litters at their pick and they get retired when the production falls below 5 babies.

The key is having strong genetics to start with and holding back animals coming from female that have large litters (any of my holdbacks come from litters of 14 minimum.)

Other important things when holding back and building your colony is temperament, being non chewer, genetics, and health.

I produce beige berkshire, beige hooded, blue berkshire, blue hooded, black berkshire , black hooded, agouti berkshire , agouti hooded, albinos and all come in the Dumbo version as well. I have many multiple recessive animals, I used to have some rex but never care much for them so they slowly disappeared from the colony.

Rats genetic are fun even if they are not pet.

[hypnotixdmp]

Nice, thanks for all the info everyone!! I am also wanting to breed for the art of it, as well as feeders. I can hold off some females but most are actually already full grown.

Also, I am sorry, I meant females are ABLE to reproduce earlier in males, didn't mean when should they breed, but now that I know they should not breed till a little older I will separate my male from them.

I will check out the site and probably read everything here like 20 more times to get it to stick lol.

Thanks again for all the replies, I will reply with more questions after I do more research IF I have any more questions!!!

[hypnotixdmp]

Also, I guess he's not albino but here check him out!!




Ball Pythons
0.3 Normals (Coilette, Athena and Mary Jane)
1.0 Pastel (De Sol)
1.0 Spider (Zeus)
1.0 Mojave (Prometheus)

Boas
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa (Stella)
0.1 Hog Island Boa (Kiyoko)
0.1 Dumerils Boa (Gloria)
0.1 Yellow Anaconda (Serenity)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

[hypnotixdmp]

Also here's my big boy on the top, I think he's a gorgeous black rat!!



He's with a black and whit hooded and a chocolate girl, about to put the second hooded with them soon too!!


Ball Pythons
0.3 Normals (Coilette, Athena and Mary Jane)
1.0 Pastel (De Sol)
1.0 Spider (Zeus)
1.0 Mojave (Prometheus)

Boas
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa (Stella)
0.1 Hog Island Boa (Kiyoko)
0.1 Dumerils Boa (Gloria)
0.1 Yellow Anaconda (Serenity)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

[sorraia]

Looks like your little hoodie boy might be a champagne or amber with those pink eyes of his!

[snakesRkewl]

Looks like your little hoodie boy might be a champagne or amber with those pink eyes of his!

That'd be my guess too, looks like a champagne.