Pearl andPearl Merle Rats - Info/Picture Thread

[Rhasputin]

I might be drawing false parallels between mice and rats, but I feel like something is going on in there with the rat merle gene.

[Wapadi]

I wish you guys could box up some of these guys and send them to me !
My collection is mainly hooded rats and Siamese rats. Sigh.....

[Michelle.C]

Pearls, Pearl Merles, etc. can be a HUGE pain in the butt to get right. Out of all of my lines, I've had to work the hardest on getting the right shades with them. To be honest, it looks like you are working with UK Mink. They look the right shade and it could explain you not being able to get lighter Pearls while maintaining splotches. The second and third photos definitely lead me to believe this. The first photo is tricky because the darker babies don't match UK or US Pearls that I usually see. The lightest baby in the first photo could be Russian Pearl, which could also be lightening your splotches along with the base coat.

My first suggestion would be to find an American Mink to out cross to. My guess is you'll see a few black bubs (meaning the guys you have are UK). Remember, American Mink produces (by far) the best Pearl Merles. Breed the off spring back together and you should start seeing some American Mink, American Mink Merle an American based Pearl Merles. From there, select towards the darkest splotches, lightest Pearls, darkest Minks. American Mink is relatively easy to find, but you might have to out cross to a black to try and weed out some of the other dilutes. ALL other dilutes are a negative thing in a Pearl Merle line. You only want the dilute of American Mink with the Pearl and Merle modifiers.

The number of Splotches and Spots are completely random. But the shade of the Merling can be selected for. Just choose the darkest Splotches to carry on the next generation.

So you are saying you think you only have Mink Merles? I disagree. You obviously have Pearl at play, it's just low penetrance. In my UK line, I had to out cross to get a lighter Pearls. But the most important thing for you to do is find an American Mink and work away from the lighter splotches.

In the first photo I see very dark phase Pearls and the lightest baby looks either Double Mink Pearl (US Mink, UK Mink and Pearl) or Russian Pearl (Russian Blue, Mink and Pearl), depending on her eye color. An adult picture might tell me more though.

In the second photo the light brown Merle baby looks UK Pearl Merle. The other Pearl baby looks either UK Pearl or Double Mink Pearl. It's hard to see the others. Is that a diluted Black or Mink on the left?

Third photo is DEFINITELY UK Pearl Merle.

Last photo also looks UK Pearl based.

I'll post some various shades of UK Pearl below. Keep in mind that both American Mink and UK Mink is extremely variable, thus leading to a variability in the shade of Pearl you'll see. That doesn't even count possible further dilutions or unknown modifiers.

My light phase merles don't have nice spots as they grow like the dark phase ones. I can't tell what else I've got in there though. I tried to work it out with Nicole but my merles are from unknown lines and there seem to be other genes at play there.

My question - do you think the rats that have higher expression of the dark spots pass that to the babies or is it totally random? I've been selecting for darker spots for a few generations and pretty sure they're only on top of mink, but they just don't get the way yours are there. Happy to share pictures etc. if you want to take some guesses on what I've got? Here are some pics of mine:







This guy's sib expresses the merle much better than he does but he has some dark spots on him

[Michelle.C]

Medium Phase UK Pearl, she carries American Mink though, so..I have gotten a few nice Pearl Merles out of her.


Light Phase UK Pearl.


Low penetrance/Dark Phase UK Pearl, also a Harley.


UK Dark Phase Pearl, Harley.


UK Russian Pearl.


UK Dark Phase Pearl.


Believed to be a UK Dark Phase Pearl Merle.


Comparison - American Mink on the left, UK Pearl in the middle, UK Dark Phase Pearl on the right.


Undercoat of a Pearl. It should be cream/white.

[ballpythonluvr]

I don't know a damn thing about rat genetics but those are some of the prettiest and cutest little ratties I have ever seen. God, I love baby rats, they are just too cute!

[MrLang]

Wow thanks, going to look at what i've got and take some more pictures and get back to you!

[ALWE]

Hi Everyone,

I hope you don't mind I resurrected this thread, there seems to be some experts on here and I am a little stumped!

What color would you say momma rat is? This picture below doesn't show her true color (mom and babies are showing much darker here because of the shadow), but it does show the comparison between her color (very creamy) and her babies (more grey). She is mink based I would assume, she was bred to a mink merle male and has had 2 litters of all mink/pearl (?) babies, such as below.




This picture of momma below is more true to her color, very very pale almost to the point of being white.


And this picture below is of two of her boys, which is also showing more true to their color, very light grey with merle spots.


And this is dad, a mink merle. He is massive!



A little background - we responded to an add on kijiji a few months back from someone giving away baby rats (we keep them as pets). He had a litter, mom and dad all in the same cage and didn't seem to know too much about them at all (ie. how to tell male/female, when to separate, how fast they reproduce!). We took a female as planned, but also took the only 2 merle boys as well, as they were so striking. Interestingly (awkwardly?) he kept in touch with us, texting updates everytime momma got pregnant again. I guess it got way out of hand and he asked us this weekend if we would take mom and dad, he had had enough. We brought them home and in better light I realized that momma is such a beautiful and distinct color. I assumed her babies were pearl merle, but what color would she be? I am guessing we might be expecting a litter from her within the next few weeks, she was living with the male and weaned her last litter about 2 weeks ago.

My pictures are not great yet, both mom and dad are still pretty shy. I can take more pics as they warm up to me though if that would help.

Thanks for any insight!

[ALWE]

Sorry, it looks like my pictures didn't post... lets try again.

Mom and babies (all look darker than they actually are). Mom looks creamy/warm, while boys look grey/cool. Mink based.
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