Surprise! You have hairless rats!

[artgecko]

Soo... In my second litter, 4 out of 11 pups ended up being hairless. At first I suspected double velveteen because the litter also contained velveteens, but the father is standard with not even 1 curled whisker. After talking to other breeders, the consensus is that the breeder's line the parents come from must have been carrying recessive hairless.. She wasn't even aware of it herself.

Here is a pic of one of them at a little over 2 weeks old (will be 3 weeks this Wednesday)


They are covered with a thin layer of peach fuzz, which they appear to be loosing. I'm curious to see how they end up.

I don't actually like how hairless look and wasn't planning on breeding them, but I'll have to consider it because I've heard they're popular to sell as pets.

Have any of you guys had hairless females actually produce milk for you, and also have any of you had recessive hairless that retain pigment after their hair falls out? These appear to be Russian blue (2 of them) and beige or cinnamon. The RB ones still appear dark on their ears / tail and the fuzz is dark as well. I think I could stand them better if they retained a little pigment.

[JoshSloane]

I have never worked with hairless rats, but I have done some research with nude athymic mice. They are basically normal except for a compromised immune system.

[artgecko]

Interesting. I hope these guys don't have any immune issues.

[Darkbird]

I have had some hairless crop up in my lines, in fact I have an albino male named Pinky that I have raised as a pet. But I know squat about the different breeders of rats. I just gave him a friend who has some fuzz, and has kept her pattern so far, so I will let you know how she turns out.

[artgecko]

Darkbird- Thanks! I'd love to know how yours turn out. I think I'll be keeping at least 2 of the 4 to do a test breeding and just see how the mature. If they kept more fuzz, I'd be more interested in them.. Not sure I can handle completely nude rats lol.

The odd thing is that these 4 have the best personality out of the whole litter.. They seek out human contact, etc. My husband thinks they are compensating for their appearance lol.

[wolfy-hound]

I acquired my recessive hairless the same way. I bought quite a few adult rats in a colony bargain, took them home and divided them up into harems(rather randomly). It was a complete surprise to me(and to the former owner) when hairless rats appeared.

I have not had any health issues with the hairless and the skin pigment doesn't seem to vanish, although it's much lighter than you'd expect if you're used to the bold colors of furred rats. I even got a solid black hairless once, although he was more greyish than "black". The moms nurse the babies BUT I do keep harem style and so it's been extremely rare to have just one mom with a litter. I always have furred moms in with the hairless moms.

I cut back my rat colony for the summer, and only kept the hairless line. Right now almost my whole colony is hairless carriers and I therefor end up with quite a few hairless. I've not seen a great demand for them as pets, not for any price that would make me want to bother.

I like the little chupacabras. I do think the babies seem a bit slower to grow than the hairless brethren. Maybe they have to expend more energy to keep warm? No idea.

[artgecko]

Thanks for your feedback Wolfy-hound. I did some more reading and several sources say that they need more fat / protein because it takes more energy for them to keep warm.. Which makes sense. I use an 18% protein diet for all my rats, so I think that should be enough.

Have you had any eye issues with yours? Some of the sources I found say that they can have eye problems due to lack of eye lashes and getting debris in their eyes.

[wolfy-hound]

Never have seen any issue with their eyes.

Actually, I've never heard of "they don't have eyelashes". I went to go look and the hairless rats do have some whiskers and some light peach fuzz around their face, so I'm going to assume they have eyelashes. I tried to look for eyelashes but couldn't SEE any. But I got a regular furred rat and also couldn't see any eyelashes on her either. So there's that.

I would call that one a myth.

Also a really fat hairless will crack you up. I think every fat hairless should be named Jabba.

[artgecko]

Heh. I just read that on 2-3 sites from people that breed / own them, so I thought it might be accurate, but I guess you can't trust anything you read online. :/
Here's an updated pic of one of them tonight. I tried taking pics of the whole litter and only came out with 2 good ones.
Here's a pic of one that I think may be solid mink (possibly)


Here's the whole litter confined in a bin. I think you can see all 4 of the hairless, although some are moving.


Either my sexing skills or my luck is really bad as well.. From what I can tell, all the males are hairless and all the furred are females. Now, I may be mistaking some "sagging skin" on the hairless for being males, but I figure I'll find out for sure in about a week. My other litter was not this hard to sex. I'm almost positive none of the furred rats are males though.

Also, the hairless are loosing hair each day. The one in the pic has the least and is smooth on his sides and back but the others are loosing hair as well. I'm considering keeping the darker one (near the center on the bin pic) and one of the lighter ones that has a white blaze.

[Megg]

I actually think they're kind of cute! I've known a few people with the hairless ones as pets. Don't think they're in huge demand, but some people love them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk