Question about "hairless rats"

Is hairless rats genetic? I have been breeding rats over a year now and have never messed with hairless, they are very ugly to me. Two weeks ago I had a mama have a litter of 11 babies, we cleaned today and one of the babies is a hairless!! How did this happen? He seems perfectly healthy.

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Originally Posted by FatBoy

Is hairless rats genetic? I have been breeding rats over a year now and have never messed with hairless, they are very ugly to me. Two weeks ago I had a mama have a litter of 11 babies, we cleaned today and one of the babies is a hairless!! How did this happen? He seems perfectly healthy.

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I think they are genetic, not sure how, but I hear they are terrible breeders/mommas and not good to breed.

I don't know how it works, but I had a hairless male 3 years ago in my rotation (died a year ago) and still to this day one pops up every once in a while....also the double rex is a hairless ( it looks mangy though, with patches of hair)...I heard that it was not good to feed BP's the hairless, due to the fact that they use the fur for ruffage......

Yes they are recessive.

I got about 75 breeders given to me from a pet store getting out of breeding. I guess there were some hets in there, just funny how just one has poped up.

I get hairless rats once in a while. I don't use them as breeders. My Balls don't seem to notice the difference.

They are cute when they are babies....but when they get older the ugly factor kicks in.