First blue litter pics!

[littleindiangirl]

Here are a few photos of my first blue litter in my colony. I dont know really what blue these are as I have never seen blue in person except at petsmart, and that was what I consider a sky blue.

The mother of this litter appears to be a very metallic blue. I would call her grey actually. Here are her pups at 4 days, the darker ones are black for comparison.





And here they are at a little over a week old, a blue, a black, and a weird in between blue and black color.




And here are a few shots of Psycho, my proud momma! (The flash really washes out her steel blue color. )





So any thoughts on color?

[SatanicIntention]

She's a Russian Blue Wedge-Blaze Husky.. Likely the worst possibly color/pattern combination to breed because of the high prevelance of megacolon. She's gorgeous, but not something I or any other rat breeder would ever consider breeding(especially without a pedigree).

When RBs are bred, you get blacks and more RBs. What did you breed her to? I hope the babies do ok for you.

[littleindiangirl]

Well, we bred her to a himalayan male. I know of the risks of breeding her, exp since I dont know her pedigree or history, but until I raise up other girls, she may end up having one more litter in her life time. She is a bit neurotic, amptly named psycho. But she has never been aggressive. Her first litter was 13, and 3 are berkshire blue, 1 self/possible irish blue (cant tell yet) and 1 self blue. (I forgot there are a few black berks in there) The rest appear to be PEW so far. We'll see how it goes from here. I already have a few blues waiting from a breeder down in detroit for november pickup, so I'm still wondering if I want to pursue these blues yet. I guess time will tell.

[Ginevive]

Hopefully the babies do ok for you.. do you breed for color in order to sell them as pets, keep, or feed off? Just wondering, because if you do sell them as pets, it is a bit unfair not to know their lineage very far back if they could be carryinga higher risk of megacolon..
Just wondering. I used to breed for pretty rats until I actually researched the risks of megacolon. Now, it's all solids/berks. I have one hooded that I can trace back to the original breeders I purchased from a friend of mine who breeds, and she and her mom had many litters.. still, I am not keeping anything of hers to breed on once she is gone.
If you do want to add spark to your feeders in case you plan on keeping some or selling as pets, why not go berk Rex? Rexes tend to be nice and hearty, strong rats in my experience.. just don't breed rex x rex or you risk the negatives of trying to prodice hairlesses..

[littleindiangirl]

I actually have done quite a bit of research into rat color coat markings and the genetic illnesses tied to the high white, blazes, roan/banded/husky, and certain lines of blue. We breed for feeders. I have no plans to sell these as pets, even though I care for each of the breeders like they are a part of this family.

There is nothing wrong with keeping several of these animals alive to see if there are higer cases of megacolon in this pairing. In fact I would consider it responsible to understand thoroughly the genetics of all my pairings, which is exactly what I have in progress right now. Every litter is being documented, and will help me further a stronger breeding program farther down the line.

I'm fairly certain that these blues will not be kept for breeding, but the jury is still out on that one. I have some other blues "in the making" for me from another breeder down south. But I may keep the self blue, we will see. The russian blues dont have the same pros and cons like the traditional english and american blues, so i was happy to hear becky's judgment on color. If anything, I can outcross/inbreed till I have a healthy line of blues.
Being a blue doesnt mean it is going to be sickly.

Thank you for the concern though, I do have a plan behind everything.

[Ginevive]

Sounds cool then My male himself is a berk blue rex. He has sired strong, healthy babies thus far. I am glad that you are not just one of those people who gets pretty hooded rats at Petco and breeds them without researching.