My new ratties.

Got to love them rats...I picked up two select rats from work tonight. More than $25 a week on rats to feed my snakes is getting quite straining on the pocketbook, so I figured I can easily lessen the strain by breeding a few of my own.

The pair's cage is a roomy 40 breeder for the time being, because it wasn't used for anything else. Eventually I will move them all over to the lab style caging. But these two will remain in a tank to be pets first and foremost.

Names for these two came quite easily. Since I'm intrigued by Japanese history and culture I named the female Inari, which means Goddess of food (provider of feeder ratties :))...and the male is of course named Splinter because I'm quite obsessed with TMNT (Raphael *the redfoot* has his master!), another reason for his name is for the splinter shaped marking on his head...plus he just looks so wise. :P

Pictures...
Splinter:
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...Splinter01.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...Splinter02.jpg

and Inari: (Hooded Markings)
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...on/Inari02.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...on/Inari01.jpg


These two should make for some interesting looking babies eventually.

-Jason

Oh he's a nice Husky with that blaze face on him and she's a lovely little Beige Hooded though with those dots of color rather than a stripe I don't know what the rat experts would call that exactly LOL. We have a couple of female Husky's and I do really like those markings. Just make sure your female gets some size on her before you let her have her first litter....big momma's make big babies LOL.

Husky markings are soooo cute. I've got a lot of them..

That hooded just has a broken stripe.. still a hooded!

WoW, I've never seen a pattern like that before! That is so neat how his back is all black and then his sides are white. Love it!

That pattern is called berkshire.. Splinter has high white sides. Berkies are one of the most common rat patterns.

I was pretty sure Splinter was a berkshire, but I had never seen a berkshire with the facial markings he has.

And I knew Inari was hooded, she came from our hooded breeders at the store, I just hope the pattern is the only thing she gets from her parents :) (they're nasty buggers). She's still got some size to put on, but she'll build quick I'm sure.

Right now I have them both on Critter Cubes mixed with some dry pasta. I'll be mixing together Satanic's rat food sometime this week.

Yeah I use a mix similar to Becky's for food. Works great!

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Originally Posted by Shelby

Berkies are one of the most common rat patterns.

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interesting that ive never seen one before! very cute

Very nice lookin rats!

She does look tiny compared to him, I would separate them until you intend on breeding them. She should really have some more weight and size to her before she is bred.

Also, rats who have the blaze, usually carry a gene for megacolon. I would refrain from breeding that male with any other female that looks like him. However, this may not keep you from producing babies that have it.

The male rat is a husky and not a berkshire. Husky breedings routinely produce babies with megacolon issues, and being a blazed husky just adds to the risk. It will just give you carriers or very unhealthy babies that fail to thrive and either die a week or two after birth, or wait until they are weaned and then die.

Get some nice black or beige hoodeds and you won't have any problems. Or get a pair of pink-eyed whites(PEW) and you will have nice big litters of healthy babies.

That female looks to be about 5-6 weeks old. I hope you don't plan on breeding her until she is AT LEAST 4 months old, preferably 5 or 6 months. It would be like a 12 year old girl getting pregnant, it can be done, but is it the healthiest situation? No...

While they are growing up, it would be wise to get another pair and house them in same-sex groups. Having a buddy helps immensely and they will be much less likely to get sick and be stressed. They will grow faster and eat more if they have a friend to play with.

Plus, getting a normal looking male rat will significantly reduce your chances of megacolon. We already have enough of that in the good breeders' lines, why make more rats that carry the gene...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JBallPython

More than $25 a week on rats to feed my snakes is getting quite straining on the pocketbook, so I figured I can easily lessen the strain by breeding a few of my own.

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Nice rats Jason! But I would have to question why you are carrying a pocketbook. :)

Hm I thought husky was a berkshire modifier gene. Rat genetics are a bit confusing since each rat typically has a few things going on.

I'm going to cull out some from my colony so I don't have issues with megacolon.

Thanks for the information everyone! I have no idea really about rat color variations and such, so its good to know! I had to wait until today to separate them, picked up a 10 gallon for the female, and she'll be getting a female companion next week so no worries about breeding them too young.


Becky, thanks for the info on the megacolon issue, I'll read up a little more on it. I plan on getting a few more ratties, the first male is going to be more of a pet than anything. We have a really friendly good looking male hooded at work. By the way, you were dead on for Inari's age she's 5 1/2 weeks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jglass38

Nice rats Jason! But I would have to question why you are carrying a pocketbook. :)

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It's very European. ;)

Our current stud rat, Casanova. He's actually a lot bigger now...I'll have to weigh him LOL (gotta keep the breeder males from being too chubby...not good for them at all). He's a big black hooded and most of his females are either beige or black hooded or self (all one color) and one albino (great breeder but they tend to be nippy and very protective mothers). We did just get a litter of 16 from crossing this black hooded to a black/white husky female (no blaze) so I'll watch for indications of megacolon and let you know how that went.

Glad you are getting them both cagemates as rats seem to just wilt if left alone in a cage. Whenever Casanova is between females we just give him one or two of his sons from the feeder/grower tubs to hang out with and it keeps him occupied till ummmmm duty calls (LOL....nice way to put that I thought!)

Here's Nova in all his big ole boy glory....
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...t-Casanova.jpg

One of his ladies (HoneyChild) with her litter of 15 from a few months back....
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...honeychild.jpg

Flash a few days before delivering her first litter from a breeding with Casanova (11 nice ones out of that group if I remember right)...
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...ytodeliver.jpg

Glad you are waiting to breed the female till she's properly grown. I haven't been breeding rats for years or anything, but I am finding, at least for a small home breeder, that the time spent to properly and humanely care for my rat colony pays off in consistently big, healthy litters with almost zero losses of any sort (we've only lost 1 rat at birth so far other than the wreck of a litter we got from our pet store preggie rescue Alita a few months back). I think happy rats make better babies and better babies make for happy snakes :) (plus I'm a big softie and I love my breeder rats....very neat creatures!)

How can you tell if it's a husky if it has no blaze?

Darn I like my lightning bolt faced rats.. but I don't need megacolon.

Far as I've ever known April being a Husky has nothing to do with having a blaze face or not. Blaze is just the face marking though pretty common in Husky, not all have it. Some Husky's have a face blaze others don't. Husky refers to the white areas of the body being much different than the Berkshire.

My understanding is a Berkshire should have a lot of white on the belly but never extending up the sides of the body as it does in a Husky. Also with Berkies the front and back feet/lower legs have some white but again not extending to the sholders/hips as is common with Husky marked rats.

As far as megacolon and Husky's. I've always been told to avoid Husky to Husky and Husky to High White or Albino matings and you'll cut those odds way down. Not sure how scientific that is though.

Dang wish I had my camera unpacked as my black/white Husky and black/white Berkshire are perfect examples of the difference in coat pattern.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Oh he's a nice Husky with that blaze face on him and she's a lovely little Beige Hooded though with those dots of color rather than a stripe I don't know what the rat experts would call that exactly LOL. We have a couple of female Husky's and I do really like those markings. Just make sure your female gets some size on her before you let her have her first litter....big momma's make big babies LOL.

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Broken stripes I think.

Ah Husky! I never knew the name. I have a few and we call them badgers :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Far as I've ever known April being a Husky has nothing to do with having a blaze face or not. Blaze is just the face marking though pretty common in Husky, not all have it. Some Husky's have a face blaze others don't. Husky refers to the white areas of the body being much different than the Berkshire.

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Correct. Husky and blaze genes are two different genes, however..both carry megacolon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

My understanding is a Berkshire should have a lot of white on the belly but never extending up the sides of the body as it does in a Husky. Also with Berkies the front and back feet/lower legs have some white but again not extending to the sholders/hips as is common with Husky marked rats.

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Again, correct in description.

Hrm... so is it best just to feed off Huskies and Blazes?

I wouldn't go that far Bryan without further information/research. I use a Husky breeding female and she herself is fine and her 16 young seem fine. I will watch them at weaning though just to be certain but thus far the cross of this Husky female to my Black Hooded male (who wouldn't be called high white as he's got loads of color on him) has produced a big healthy litter. Since I don't care much for the albino rats anyways I'm okay with a bit of Husky bloodline I think.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SnakeySnakeSnake

Hrm... so is it best just to feed off Huskies and Blazes?

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Just dont breed husky to husky or blaze to blaze or blaze to husky. Cross them with other patterns/colors..etc. But be aware, there is still a possibility that the off spring will still carry the megacolon issue, it may or may not cause problems for the off spring, and later breedings (off spring) with any other rat that carries the megacolon gene may produce more megacolon issues in thier off spring. I never used huskys or blazes in any of my rattery projects because I did not want to carry on/pass on the issue seen in these two genetics, I feel it does a dis-service to any rat at all. The goal in breeding should always be to make the species/breed better, not worse.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jeanne

Just dont breed husky to husky or blaze to blaze or blaze to husky. Cross them with other patterns/colors..etc. But be aware, there is still a possibility that the off spring will still carry the megacolon issue, it may or may not cause problems for the off spring, and later breedings (off spring) with any other rat that carries the megacolon gene may produce more megacolon issues in thier off spring.

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Will note this for sure. I plan on only holding back select babies from repeat-excellent mothers. I only have a few blazes, not sure on huskies. I think all of my blazes are females too.

Just editted my post above, at the end, please see it.

Good points Jeanne. I'll have to be very mindful of this with my two Husky females, Alita and her daughter Panda. If I see any indications of megacolon, they'll both be removed from the breeding colony and just become pets. I'd hate to cause any animal to suffer and that megacolon just looks awful from the pictures I've seen of it.

Definitely valuable information! It would be helpful if this information was put together in a sticky thread in the feeder section. I'm sure there are more members out there who would appreciate the info as well.


So if I breed my Blaze male (Shredder) just make sure he isn't crossed with a Husky or Blaze female, correct?

Blaze/Husky X Hooded or Albino should result in healthy babies but possible carriers of megacolon?