A few cute males I have decided to keep...

I have decided to keep a few males from my recent litters. So I thought I would share ;)

1st up is Gunnar. Believed to be a Blue Agouti Dumbo.
http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/...s/100_2032.jpg
http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/...s/100_2033.jpg

Next up is Phantom. We believe he is a Blue Agouti.
http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/...s/100_2028.jpg
http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/...s/100_2024.jpg

And finally is Rebel. He is believed to be a Blue Agouti Hooded Dumbo.
http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/...s/100_2029.jpg
http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/...s/100_2030.jpg

However, i do have a question about Rebel. Is the break in his stripe severe enough to make him high white? Just need to know who I can breed him with and who I can't.

Does the linage have Russian Blue or Blue in it? Some don't strike me as blue agouti. A second opinion is needed lol.

With Rebel it depends on how long you've bred the line. If you've had issues with high whites in the past then don't breed him. His litter mates are not high whites and IMO your in the clear. He's just variegated.

Their undercoat is blue. But I don't know the lineage other than the mom and dad of this litter. Mom is an agouti with the same hue of blue for undercoat. Dad is a black hooded with a very broken stripe( a dot of black between shoulder blades and stripe from mid back to tail base).

Jerry taught me that you will get darker slate agoutis from black lines and fiery red from dilute lines. They don't look like blue agouti. Maybe they can be russian blue agoutis but I haven't seen them in person. Take a look at these...

http://legendsofrockrattery.weebly.c...ti-colors.html

http://www.fancy-rats.co.uk/informat...ject=varieties

http://www.dreameyce.com/eagleseye/r...rat_colors.htm

http://www.spoiledratten.com/breedingrats3.html

Ok. I THINK now that they may be just wild type agouti. The slate undercoat deceived me. LOL They have no blue in the top color. Just undercoat and belly. But some of the pics, of the russian blue agouti, on those sites, do look like my rats. But you can never REALLY be sure from pictures. The descriptions are what have me thinking they are just regular agouti. But I do think I have some nice specimens, if I do say so myself. ;)

They look like regular agouti's to me and yes they look like they have some nice conformity to them, good looking kits :gj:

Agouti, 2 blue agouti and a blue
http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/PICT8672.jpg

Blue and Blue agouti
http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/a...z/PICT2748.jpg

Hooded rats are fine to breed even with broken stripes :)

@extremeballs,
Most definitely, you have some great looking hold backs. Compliments to the chef~ :) If you want to make them even more slate or blue agoutis try to throw in more black rats in your line. Deep blacks will darken the shades. Credit to Jerry lol.

Not to hijack this thread but the colour topics are similar. We took photos on our visit today and I'd love some guesses on the middle two! I know we have agoutis and blacks.

http://i55.tinypic.com/2ezjwxi.jpg

So I can increase the blue in them by breeding them to say, a black self or berk? Cause that is totally possible as I also have some young female deep black berks. I would absolutely LOVE to accentuate that slate blue!

I have no idea what you have there bokuza... I usually can't tell till they get a bit more fuzzy. LOL But I will take a stab in the dark and say the second out of the four is a blue hooded. The third I would guess is black. But can't tell much else about it other than 2, 3, and 4 look like they each have a head spot. Such cute little buggers! :)

Jerry, I am starting to see how the agouti's differ. Thank you! And it is such a relief to know it is ok to breed Rebel! :D

And thank you both for the compliments on my boys, it was so nice of both of you.

I'd agree the two in the middle look like blue and black.

I've found my brightest American blue rats come from either BEW's or Siamese rats, but I've thrown some amazingly light blue rats from all of my moms.
For dark Russian blue rats the best have come from my agouti's or from my black moms.

@extremeballs
I have a strange habit of running into the essex gene. Seems mom has it. To my knowledge it's dominant. They all have have it. And your welcome. Theres nothing better than seeing some great looking animals! Id love to see how your lines advance and turn out too. :gj:

@snakeRkewl
:) My best blue was thrown from a Siamese. Almost silver!


Check out todays! Most of the litter is black & agouti but the last few stick out sorely. All the pups have a brown tint though.
We sexed them again today too. Only 3 females.

Lights & Darks
http://i56.tinypic.com/2l95bwo.jpg http://i52.tinypic.com/2643qc2.jpg

It's always tempting for me to keep some. But I have before, and I became overun with rats. I have a rule now: no keeping rats no matter how cute they are.

But those guys are adorable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bellabob

It's always tempting for me to keep some. But I have before, and I became overun with rats. I have a rule now: no keeping rats no matter how cute they are.

But those guys are adorable.

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It's difficult to choose hold backs and feeders!

I am trying very hard to expand right now... Or I wouldn't be keeping them. These were the most striking of the males out of my last 2 big litters. I am keeping every female I produce till I reach 200. So far I have 47. But only 11 are old enough to breed. So yeah, gonna need a few males for my girls LOL

Quote:

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Originally Posted by extremeballs

I am trying very hard to expand right now... Or I wouldn't be keeping them. These were the most striking of the males out of my last 2 big litters. I am keeping every female I produce till I reach 200. So far I have 47. But only 11 are old enough to breed. So yeah, gonna need a few males for my girls LOL

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Its a long road but hey youve got a good plan! With that many hold backs your going to have some really awesome agoutis. :) Maybe you'll even find out some mystery genetics!

I sure hope so! My black hooded just dropped 14 new babies for me today! She gave me 2 Siamese with her last litter of nine, I wonder what kind of surprises she has for me this time!? I can't wait to find out! And she and her babies from her last litter are the absolute sweetest rats I've got.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by extremeballs

I sure hope so! My black hooded just dropped 14 new babies for me today! She gave me 2 Siamese with her last litter of nine, I wonder what kind of surprises she has for me this time!? I can't wait to find out! And she and her babies from her last litter are the absolute sweetest rats I've got.

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Very nice! I love surprises. I remember a mother I had that threw my sweetest pups. She used to always want to be with me even when she was heavily pregnant.

I too just had a siamese drop! She dropped 15! all dumbo and half/half dark eyed and red eyed. I'm very excited because it appears there are blacks, siamese and two other dilute colours.

Youll have to post photos of your litters ya know!

Most of my moms have given me rex's! I love it! These are still my starting breeders (none of the off-sping are old enough to breed yet), and they keep throwing out rex's. My first rex was also one of two of my first siamese! That was exciting! My agouti moms gave me some great agouti rex girls(which means they qualify as keepers), along with my agouti boys from the original post. I love figuring out who carries what genes!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by extremeballs

Most of my moms have given me rex's! I love it! These are still my starting breeders (none of the off-sping are old enough to breed yet), and they keep throwing out rex's. My first rex was also one of two of my first siamese! That was exciting! My agouti moms gave me some great agouti rex girls(which means they qualify as keepers), along with my agouti boys from the original post. I love figuring out who carries what genes!

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In all honesty the gratification from finding out their genes and using them is why I breed. Yes yes snake food blah blah but most of the rats we breed go for pets or breeders. I set good litters at $5 wean age. Good meaning good starter genes. Awesome rats go for higher, if they pass my awesome test lol.