Hairlessness...

I asked my breeder friend, Chrissy, about this, and here is what her input was:

"
From my experience they are not the same

Double rexes are simply rats that carry two rex genes and it causes their hair to break off close to the skin, therefore giving them the appearance of being a hairless

Patchworks or ‘morphers’ do not produce rex babies like a double rex does. They respond similar to the hairless gene that can be carried over a dozen generations and suddenly pop up when you least expect it. When you breed adults to standard coat rats you will not make rex babies, ever. So they are definitely different than double rex in that aspect.


Now I have not been able to get this patchwork girl pregnant so I can not attest to how her genes will play out – but I can tell you that I have had sooo many hairless pop up recently in lines that I had no idea even carried hairless that when I think back on what I was told about patchwork/morpher genetics, it makes a lot of sense……because it sounds just like these hairless genes do.


Every breeder has their own opinion on rex and hairless genes. I have had one breeder in CA tell me repeatedly that rex can be carried. This is completely wrong – but I just agree to disagree cuz arguing with them never gets you anywhere. :-P "

I know that there are alot of opinions and thoughts flying around the community regarding this. But bottom line, until the AFRMA recognizes "patchwork and morphers" as its own genetic trait, meaning it must be bred out to prove it is (through many generations and be consistant)... it is not anything other than a DR. And I am more inclined to go by AFRMA standards, and so should breeders... no rat should be sold as anything named xxxx when it is not proven. At this point, patchwork and morphing are cutesy names given to make selling DR's easier cause ppl think they are getting something else more exotic. I have to question what anyone says about this because no one has yet proved that what she (Chrissy) and others call patchwork and morphers is anything different than DR genes. Since anyone has yet to prove it out, it is assumption on her part and others ppls about the genetics, maybe even hope they found some gene that has yet to rear its head.. they all want to be the "one" to prove out something. If this patchwork and morphing were different than DR, then why has these names not come out sooner than now? Furthermore, the rex gene is a form of alopecia (sp?). Meaning it is a genetic defect.

Chrissy Says: Patchworks or ‘morphers’ do not produce rex babies like a double rex does. They respond similar to the hairless gene that can be carried over a dozen generations and suddenly pop up when you least expect it. When you breed adults to standard coat rats you will not make rex babies, ever. So they are definitely different than double rex in that aspect.


Again, this depends on if the standard carries rex genes or not. Because I have produced rex from a standard coat that carries rex genes to a rex or even another rex gene carrier that is standard in coat itself.
Example:
RxStandard(no rex gene present)= standard coat that carries rex gene
RxStandard(rex gene present)=standards,rex
Standard(rex gene present)xStandard(rex gene present)= some standards and some rex

I would definately be interested in seeing more info on how patchwork and morphing are different than DR, and proof of it. Because when I did a search for patchwork and morphing, I came up with nothing. Other than a few sites saying that DR are at times called patchwork. And morphing was never mentioned either.

Wow, this is pretty deep! I admit, I was not too knowledgible when I snagged these two rats up. But seeing them at the store, I just had to pick them up.
The breeder my friend got them from, swore that they would end up losing all of their hair. I do not know how true this is, but I guess it stands to reason that they could, since they are a product of the method of breeding a hairless male to a haired male, then breeding the female hets to hairless males. Who knows though? :) Even if they remain the way they are, it's OK with me.
I scrapped the idea of breeding them just yet. I will breed the male to one of my haired females once she is old enough.

Becky, the little blue guy is a doll; I am thinking that he just may be a dumbo, since his father is. Oddly enough, he came out of a litter whose sire is a dumbo siamese, and the dam was a gray hooded. (she's the one who died.) He had one hooded sister and the rest are all whites. So I guess that the solid blue came from mom's line? I decided to hold off on breeding him to anyone since he is pretty young yet and I want to give it time and see how his build looks when he is a bit larger.

I will keep ya's posted about the "hairlesses" and their hair situation. :)