Feeder, Not Such a Feeder

so i just had my first rat give a litter of seven, and three are hairless. she is haired, with red eyes and a tan mask. i think a semi hairless got her preggo. how this happen?

Get rid of the high white rat and it possibly won't happen anymore? She likely carries hairless and when bred to the mock hairless male, the babies inherited the gene

High whites are not safe options for breeders as they may carry the genes for megacolon and other problems. You can end up with entire litters of suffering and dying pups who slowly starve to death because their colon doesn't work properly(no nerve signals). Can't use them as feeders either as they are not healthy and haven't been able to properly digest any nutrients.

so high wites are are any white masked rat? because I have another female that i think is preggo that is white, with a black mask but black eyes, unlike the red.

how are white rats bred then, if all high whites shouldnt be bred? can you show me different examples of high whites?

anyone?

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23. What is "megacolon?"

Megacolon is a disorder of the nerves of the colon occurring during fetal development of the rat and thought to be genetically related to certain coat colors. You see it more with BEW (black-eyed white), husky, blazed, split-capped or other high-white lines of rats (excluding albino's generally). The rat will appear normal at birth but when it is old enough to eat solids it will not thrive as it cannot absorb nutrients properly nor defecate normally. Sometimes it is late onset, 2 to 5 months instead of 3 or 4 weeks of age. It is suffering so please put it down promptly and humanely. If you are getting any megacolon in your litters do not re-breed the adults that produced these offspring.

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from the stickie above. They are more pron to megacolon, and other nasty deseases! And hooded rats arn't considerd high whites either.

so then why do i have to get rid of my female? That is absolutely rediculous. Never seen a pic of my rat, but shes automatically a high white? I just dont understand. What makes a High White. I dont care about megacolon, i care about what a high white is

and what sticky is that from?

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Originally Posted by patthesnakeman

so then why do i have to get rid of my female? That is absolutely rediculous. Never seen a pic of my rat, but shes automatically a high white? I just dont understand. What makes a High White. I dont care about megacolon, i care about what a high white is

and what sticky is that from?

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You should care about megacolon! You can have suffering rats, that arn't getting any nutrients, and that goes straight to your snakes. Post a picture and maybe we will tell you if its a high white or not. No need to get testy. Becky knows a heck of alot more about rats, there care and health than any of us. Good luck with your rats.

not tryin to get testy at all. a friend of mine, that breeds thousands of rats and mice, has never even heard of megacolon. And he has a ton of white rats, its where i got the female im talking about.

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Originally Posted by patthesnakeman

not tryin to get testy at all. a friend of mine, that breeds thousands of rats and mice, has never even heard of megacolon. And he has a ton of white rats, its where i got the female im talking about.

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As long as you know the lineage of your high white rats, you shouldnt have a problem with it. It will kill some/all your babies at around the weanling stage, because they cant absorb the nutrition they need too live. Which in turn means your snake wont get the nutrients it needs!

I still do not understand what a high white is. Can you post a pic?