What spiffy varieties do you have?

Purely out of curiosity, I was wondering what everyone had in their colonies. I'm not breeding for feeders, but, I know some of you guys have some interesting rats in your collections!

My current collection: blues, rexes, white facial markings.
My future collection: same as above, but will include true hairless, siamese, dumbo and dwarves.

So, add what you have in your collections and even what you would like to get.

I have Blue, Dumbo , Rex, Beige Hooded, Black Hooded, Albinos, Beige, Lilac, Agouti

Himalayans, Blues, Dumbos (4 types of coat and colour patterns),Siamese, Black and tan and agouti selves (athough technically I don't think that an agouti can be a self), Black - blonde and agouti hooded, black and white blaze faced dalmation huskies, and the ever present black and blonde and agouti berkies.

Oh I have one Naked Rat that just runs around my house but isn't a breeder...

Bruce

Seems like you're looking for alot of problems breeding blues, high whites and hairless(true hairless at that)...

Why would you even do that when there are alot of reputable breeders from the US and UK with stable lines(PEDIGREED LINES) of high quality rats in their ratteries?

Plus you don't use bedding.. Good luck with that!

If you didn't get your rats from a quality breeder(QUALITY not BYB), then you're just making more mutt rats who can potentially have alot of problems. American Blues have immune system problems and the babies rarely thrive. High whites have megacolon in their genes, so if you want to end up with litters of babies dying from malnutrition because they can't absorb nutrients, and bloating because of the gas build-up, then go ahead. Blue blazed rats are a good combination of both! They generally get heart-related and lung-related problems. Hairless rats DO NOT make good mothers. They rarely lactate(if they do, it's not enough to support a litter more than 1 or 2 pups) and don't carry enough fat on their bodies to support themselves AND a litter.

TRUE hairless, which you will not have unless you go to a laboratory and get them, which isn't possible, do not have a thymus, therefore they don't have a good immune system. They have very short lives. True hairless do not have any hair or whiskers whatsoever, unlike the fuzzy hairless(albeit however hairless they may be) most people are aware of. Fuzzy hairless always have whiskers, even if they are short and curly or broken off. Neither breed very well, if at all.

I recommend for you to get some hoodeds or berks, or just not get rodents at all if you can't keep them on any sort of bedding for THEIR COMFORT AND HEALTH.

Excuse me...? Umm, I'd like to know how you know exactly where I'm getting my BREEDING stock from. Yes, I have some rats from the petstore, they're in my colony, they are not breeding, thank you for your concern. Believe it or not, but, yes, some people do breed these rats in an attempt to make them healthier, to weed out the ones with megacolon and other genetic issues.

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Hairless rats DO NOT make good mothers. They rarely lactate(if they do, it's not enough to support a litter more than 1 or 2 pups) and don't carry enough fat on their bodies to support themselves AND a litter.

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Hence the reason why there are breeders out there attempting to eliminate the health issues of hairless rats. And, believe it or not, but hairless carrier females do not have the same problems hairless females do, and, shockingly, a hairless bred to a hairless carrier produces hairless babies...


I appreciate your concern. Now can we get back to the subject of what varieties people have in their colonies? Thanks.

When I was like......9 years old? I Had a hamster that had 27 babies. It was nuts.

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Originally Posted by Bettacreek

Excuse me...? Umm, I'd like to know how you know exactly where I'm getting my BREEDING stock from. Yes, I have some rats from the petstore, they're in my colony, they are not breeding, thank you for your concern. Believe it or not, but, yes, some people do breed these rats in an attempt to make them healthier, to weed out the ones with megacolon and other genetic issues.



Hence the reason why there are breeders out there attempting to eliminate the health issues of hairless rats. And, believe it or not, but hairless carrier females do not have the same problems hairless females do, and, shockingly, a hairless bred to a hairless carrier produces hairless babies...


I appreciate your concern. Now can we get back to the subject of what varieties people have in their colonies? Thanks.

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It seems to me that if your breeding for the Fancy, then wouldnt you want to start out with lines that are already far beyond the mixed bag pet store rats?

Meaning.... buying from a quality Fancy Rat breeder who has the pedigrees of many generations?

It's one thing to breed for feeders from pet store rats all willy nilly, but Fancy people take great care to ensure their animals are thoroughly documented in concerns to health and genetics to help carry on and improve future generations.

And I simply cannot understand your refusal to use newspaper bedding for the health of your animals. If you can't keep them off of urine and fecal matter (that is there, whether you see it with a naked eye or not), then why keep them at all?

What do others in the rat fancy think of your housing and breeding efforts?

If you want to dissect my breeding, go do it in the thread I made, have fun...


Now, back to the actual subject, what varieties does everyone have?

I think it's amazing you can assume a position of nonchalance and friendship when in your no-bedding thread you clearly stated you didn't use ANYTHING but rather sprayed down the tubs every few days, and go on as if no one remembers. :confused:

Hey. I've only got 4 retired breeders now here. I did have some rats with the thin white blaze on the face. They all seemed to grow well, although I never bred FOR them. I did use a male with a thin blaze face as a stud, and he threw a lot of blaze face babies, and they all seemed to do quite well.
Also, I had two hairless rats(the typical "hairless", not whatever rare breed only found in labs that no one was talking about "Hairless") that were great moms. I never did have them produce hairless babies, since I never bothered to get a hairless carrier male to use as a stud. But they threw litters of 8-12, usually with those thin terrible looking coats, and nursed them fine. One lived to be 3 years old in fact, one of my oldest breeding females, although she did not have as many litters. I really like hairless, cause they're so cute and warm.
I never have had any luck with blue rats. No matter what, every blue manages to die. So I gave it up. I have had several dumbos, but I don't care for the look, so I never tried to breed for it. Tons of hooded of all colors.
Right now I have one male retiree, he's a dumbo with a soft brown coloration. I don't know colors on rats, so he's just "soft brown" and not anything special, but he's cool. The other three retirees are all white red-eyed rats. One has the thin coat, she might be a half-hairless one.
I bred for feeders, but I liked keeping the most interesting ones for breeders(as long as they produced). I also tried to treat them as cherished pets, as far as their conditions. Lots of toys, chew things, treats, good food, and fresh bedding constantly.
I've since been told that my temps here might just be too high to do very welll breeding rats. I might try breeding my own at some point, but right now, I don't have time to take care of 50 adult breeding females plus assorted male studs, and raising young to feeder size. No time.
I love rats as pets, highly entertaining and clean pets.

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Originally Posted by binknit

When I was like......9 years old? I Had a hamster that had 27 babies. It was nuts.

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I think the most I've had was around 22 in a rat litter. Can you imagine having that many children in one go?! *Shudders*

Only shady pet rat breeders, who have no concern for the well-being of their colonies, get rats from pet stores and introduce them into their existing lines. Fancy rat breeders take great pride in their rats and the established pedigrees they have molded over years and years of selective breedings. If you want to get rats from breeders and breed them, then by all means, be responsible about it and GET PERMISSION(not likely). But DO NOT ruin those breeders' lines by going and getting "pretty" pet store rats that "you" may feel are good quality(when they're not whatsoever) and breed them into those existing lines. That's very disrespectful and irresponsible.

Ask ANY GOOD breeder, such as Bellaratta's Nest in Florida, Cammarattery, SkyClyde in California, Alpha Centauri in UK, and quite a few others, would NEVER go get a "pretty" rat from the pet store and use it for breeding.

And I'm sorry, but unless you are a laboratory wanting to experiment on said True Hairless rats, then there is NO possible way for you to obtain True Hairless (athymic) rats.

I also wasn't talking about hairless CARRIERS(haired rats that carry the gene for hairlessness). There is a big difference. I'm talking about hairless rats, not double rex. Double rex don't seem to have the same problems, or at least as often.

Are you really so full of yourself that you feel no need to read anybody's posts before jumping on some ranting, raving lunatic attack on them for something that they're not even doing? I'm glad you like to run off on your little tirades and ruin threads that could be fun just to get your jollies off, but, maybe sometime when you grow up, you'll realise that you're only making yourself out to be an illiterate jerk who can't even read a post properly. Have fun being a jerk blabbering about something that doesn't make sense or have anything to do with me except for the fact that you don't like me and are making incredible leaps of assumption.

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Originally Posted by Bettacreek

Are you really so full of yourself that you feel no need to read anybody's posts before jumping on some ranting, raving lunatic attack on them for something that they're not even doing? I'm glad you like to run off on your little tirades and ruin threads that could be fun just to get your jollies off, but, maybe sometime when you grow up, you'll realise that you're only making yourself out to be an illiterate jerk who can't even read a post properly. Have fun being a jerk blabbering about something that doesn't make sense or have anything to do with me except for the fact that you don't like me and are making incredible leaps of assumption.

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That is enough - and your only warning in this thread.

As far as I can see, there are thoughts and opinions being discussed in a civil manner - you simply just don't like what's being said, so now you're resorting to name calling and personal attacks.

Now, some of you have differing thoughts and opinions - and you've expressed them, so lets please get this thread back on track.

Thank you.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/libel

Lets see, back to the point...
I used to have one tailless rat which just passed, she was awesome.
I have a few (3) double rex (agoizit (however it's spelled), blue, and dalmation)
A few quasi-rex (5) mostly all dalmation or hooded
One GIANT albino
A rex blue dumbo
and a few other odd-ball dumbos
That's it for the legal rats! I also have two Gambian rats i was able to get from a friend who had an 'accidental' litter. It was bred in the U.S. so it doesn't matter!

I LOVE pouched rats! I forget the exact name of the one species, but it's a smaller species, and ohh so adorable!
The tailless rats still look funny to me, they remind me too much of a hamster, lol.

I have more rats than I can count and all different varieties. Of course I don't know what half of them are really called. Cinnamon, Fawn, Hoodeds..Blah blah..I like the rats a lot and Amy and I both spend a lot of time taking care of them and just taking them out to pet them. We were both excited to finally see Blues and Dumbos. I haven't had any pop up in my breeding over the years. The Dumbos are because we finally broke down and bought a Dumbo male at Petsmart. $14 but well worth it to finally see a Dumbo baby!

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Originally Posted by Bettacreek

I LOVE pouched rats! I forget the exact name of the one species, but it's a smaller species, and ohh so adorable!
The tailless rats still look funny to me, they remind me too much of a hamster, lol.

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He he he, my tailless was great! She was the most well behaved, best trained ever. I got her for my ex-fiance and when my ex went off to school she couldn't take the rat with her.
Yeah, my Gambian are like little cats. If i hear a crash i know it's not my cats but my rat. They like to climb into my closet and play dress up :-D
So far, though, my favorite breed has been dumbo. They are so smart and very agile! Every one i have had seems to be able to turn its back foot completely backwards for climbing. I have a little black one with a white belly i call Ninja, because she is super strong, will get out of her cage, hides well in the dark, and i'll wake up and find her on my ceiling fan! She is nuts! I always recommend dumbo to anyone, they are great.
P.S. were you thinking of the Emin's Pouched Rat? I want to find one soooo badly.

Yeah I've got 1 fawn self, 1 black self, 1 black blazed, 1 agouti hooded, 1 dalmation agouti, 1 cinnamon hooded, one siamese something or other lol and one fawn hooded (I think lol)

I'm pretty sure it's the Emin's, they're absolutley adorable. :D

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Originally Posted by Bettacreek

I'm pretty sure it's the Emin's, they're absolutley adorable. :D

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Absolutely!