Pearl andPearl Merle Rats - Info/Picture Thread

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Originally Posted by Rhasputin

Oh! So the 'roan' is technically a recessive gene separate from the dominant 'merle' gene? (that explains my confusion)
I think in mice merle and roan are both recessives that are attached to one another. They act a lot like splashed, if splashed was recessive.

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I'll just pull a copy/paste from NFRS about Roan Rats.

"A strikingly marked bi-colour variety, with roan colouration, symmetry and contrast being important impressions. Clearly distinct from existing marked varieties. Roans are born solid coloured, but from the age of about 4-6 weeks they start to exhibit roaning.
This is a steady increase in the amount of white hairs intermingled with the solid colour, starting with the face, sides and tail root on the juvenile, then working its way up to the nape of the neck with the moult. With each moult the rat becomes progressively lighter, the final effect not really complete until the rat is well into adulthood. The roan effect is most pronounced on the face, around the rump and the sides.
Pattern: The Roan shall have as symmetrical markings as possible. The underside should be completely white.
Head: A wide inverted V shaped blaze, including the whisker bed, coming as close to the eyes as possible without touching the eyes, and coming to a point between the ears. Jaw line and underside of the head must be white. Eye colour to conform to base colour standard.
Body: From the head, the colour runs back covering the ears and continues along the body extending down the sides. Belly to be white.
Tail: Unmarked tail preferred.
Faults: White spots in coloured fur/ coloured spots in white fur. Brindled demarcation line. Lack of white on face and head or a completely white face or head.
Genetics: Due to an unproven recessive gene not on the H locus with the amount of colour controlled by modifiers."

I wish roan rats were like roan horses, and held their color. Then I'd seriously consider roan rats.

But seriously, I want some good merles. Mink is one of my favorite colors in rats, and the pearl and merle just make it better! Next thing I need are more chocolates.

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Originally Posted by sorraia

I wish roan rats were like roan horses, and held their color. Then I'd seriously consider roan rats.

But seriously, I want some good merles. Mink is one of my favorite colors in rats, and the pearl and merle just make it better! Next thing I need are more chocolates.

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Do you still have your Chocolates?

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Originally Posted by Michelle.C

Do you still have your Chocolates?

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Sadly no. :(

I want some fancy colored rats. Wish I could find some close-ish. I do have a mink female though.

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Originally Posted by sorraia

Sadly no. :(

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You are Nicole of BWR, correct? I certainly wouldn't mind shipping out to you under a pet breeding contract.

Here's an interesting gene in deer mice called 'ashy' that sounds very similar to the 'roan' gene in your rats.

http://stkctr.biol.sc.edu/mutant-stock/ashy.html

I feel like at the very least, the genes are misnamed merle and roan. I wish JAX would get their hands on some merle and roan and tell us what was really going on!! :P

My light phase merles don't have nice spots as they grow like the dark phase ones. I can't tell what else I've got in there though. I tried to work it out with Nicole but my merles are from unknown lines and there seem to be other genes at play there.

My question - do you think the rats that have higher expression of the dark spots pass that to the babies or is it totally random? I've been selecting for darker spots for a few generations and pretty sure they're only on top of mink, but they just don't get the way yours are there. Happy to share pictures etc. if you want to take some guesses on what I've got? Here are some pics of mine:

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/69.../imag0118c.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psc77b8d3c.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps8c6d2a83.jpg

This guy's sib expresses the merle much better than he does but he has some dark spots on him:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps8dd82b98.jpg

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Originally Posted by Michelle.C

You are Nicole of BWR, correct? I certainly wouldn't mind shipping out to you under a pet breeding contract.

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That would be me! Thank you for the offer to ship, that makes me super excited! With it being tax season and I had a recent surgery, I'll have save up some extra money for the shipping, but we can keep in touch and get it figured out. :)

Goodness rhasputin, mice come in so many amazing colors! I wish they didn't smell so strong, I'd love to work with some of those. (I think I just have a really sensitive sense of smell, but I can't stand how mice smell. When we do mammal trapping at work, I know when its a mouse before I even open the trap, just by smell. Half the time I can even tell what species by the smell! Weasels too, they stink pretty bad. )