My breeders and future breeders

Ok here is the picture of one of my two pair of current breeders.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/6...0178vt2.th.jpg

Now here are my furture breeders.
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/5670/img0169xb2.th.jpg[/URL]

And lastly my hairless rat babies.
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/2...0161dy1.th.jpg

The petstore I bought my breeders suggested that I buy the hairless since they have a larger litter and healthier babies. From what I have read on these forums though the hairless were a bad choice. Although I have yet to have a problem with the hariless rats as parents. But when i first got them I used pine shavings as their bedding, but withing the first few days he got redness around his eyes. It seems to no be going away.. I have change his shavings and everything. I will try and get a picture of this for you guys for an guess as to what this is

Alright here is the picture of the male hairless rat eyes.

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/2...0179gw2.th.jpg

Also he was sneezing a lot when I had him in the pine shavings, once i moved him into the new shavings his sneezing have decreased in frequency. I was wondering if it will stop all together if I keep using the new shavings.

Very cute hairless!!! I hope to have some babies soon!!

Thanks a lot Pork Chops,

The hairless rats are more laid-back compared to the normal rats. When I need one of their babies for feeding they let me take one out without trying to bite me. On the other hand though the normal rats I just stick my hand in there and they go right for it. I have tried taming down the normal rats with no success yet. So i guess I will have to stick to tricking them to get their babies.

How many litters have you had of hairless? Any problems?

The redness is called porphyrin and it is just their nasal/ocular discharge. It is normally red. He could have allergies to the dust(most likely as it is pine and can cause alot of problems, especially in animals that do not have fur to protect them from the oils in pine), he could be stressed, or he could have an allergy to something else. Get rid of the pine. That's the first thing to do. Make sure the diet is ok and they have enough water. Ventilation is a common problem, and rats need ALOT of it.


You should have done your research before getting hairless rats thinking they would be good breeders. Your pet store "friend" isn't too bright. He may be breeding rats that look normal, but carry the hairless gene, therefore he gets hairless babies. Hairless rats, about 99.98% of the time, do not do pregnancy/birthing/rearing well. They may carry a pregnancy to term, but delivery can be a very big problem leading to hemorrhaging(bleeding out), eating of babies because of stress, and the mothers usually do not produce enough milk to feed any number of babies. I bred a hairless female ONCE. She had around 8 babies, but ate all but two. She barely produced enough milk for those two, and while they were growing, they were thin and slightly dehydrated. As soon as I could, I weaned them(3 weeks or so) and they bounced back. They are small rats now(around 190-200g), and I think the malnutrition at birth contributed to their stunted growth.

www.rattiusmaximus.com

Maybe use a hairless male and breed him with normal looking females. Then raise the female babies(they will all have hair but will carry the hairless gene) back up and breed them back to their father. You will get half hairless and half haired.

Just some things to think about.

Plus, feeding hairless rats to snakes wouldn't be a very fun experience. No hair= no roughage to hold feces together= fun, runny poo. WHEE!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

The redness is called porphyrin and it is just their nasal/ocular discharge. It is normally red. He could have allergies to the dust(most likely as it is pine and can cause alot of problems, especially in animals that do not have fur to protect them from the oils in pine), he could be stressed, or he could have an allergy to something else. Get rid of the pine. That's the first thing to do. Make sure the diet is ok and they have enough water. Ventilation is a common problem, and rats need ALOT of it.


You should have done your research before getting hairless rats thinking they would be good breeders. Your pet store "friend" isn't too bright. He may be breeding rats that look normal, but carry the hairless gene, therefore he gets hairless babies. Hairless rats, about 99.98% of the time, do not do pregnancy/birthing/rearing well. They may carry a pregnancy to term, but delivery can be a very big problem leading to hemorrhaging(bleeding out), eating of babies because of stress, and the mothers usually do not produce enough milk to feed any number of babies. I bred a hairless female ONCE. She had around 8 babies, but ate all but two. She barely produced enough milk for those two, and while they were growing, they were thin and slightly dehydrated. As soon as I could, I weaned them(3 weeks or so) and they bounced back. They are small rats now(around 190-200g), and I think the malnutrition at birth contributed to their stunted growth.

www.rattiusmaximus.com

Maybe use a hairless male and breed him with normal looking females. Then raise the female babies(they will all have hair but will carry the hairless gene) back up and breed them back to their father. You will get half hairless and half haired.

Just some things to think about.

Plus, feeding hairless rats to snakes wouldn't be a very fun experience. No hair= no roughage to hold feces together= fun, runny poo. WHEE!

---

I was hoping that you would post in this thread, seeing how you have so much knowledge on this subject. I changed substrate about 1.5 weeks ago and it has yet to clear out.
Yea you are right I should have done my research, but since the owner and the employes of the petshop said that hairless are a lot better mother, I thought I could believe them. I will not make that mistake again.

As you said I have noticed the babies growing at a much slower rate then my normal rats. The picture of the two baby rats i posted in this thread are going to be the replacements for the hairless rats.

Pork Chops,
I have only had one litter with the hairless and as I stated up they are growing at a much slower rats as compared to the normal rats.