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  1. #21
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    Re: Back in the Game

    Quote Originally Posted by CloudtheBoa View Post
    Thank you so much! The AFRMA link just said marten was dominant (unknown) and I couldn’t find much else on it so I thought it would be dominant. XD So I assume all the babies would be 100% het marten? Rat/mouse genetics don’t seem as straightforward as snake genetics....

    Now, if I were wanting to add individuals or replace my colony with known genetics, what are my best options for doing so? Would an AFRMA certified breeder be willing to sell to me, or mentor me, knowing I’m also breeding for snake food? Or just keep looking on Craigslist for sellers, checking pet stores, etc.?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    In Texas, AFRMA is a joke. Most of the serious breeders of rats don't mess with AFRMA and the few rats I've seen from their lines are horrible messes. Low litter count and weird proportions based on what they consider "ideal". Also, a lot of pet breeders don't believe in culling in any form, so snake food breeders are kind of their own group.

    There is a group on Facebook called "Feeder Breeder Enthusiasts" that will answer 99% of all your questions without too much issue and with out any judgement. I raise a number of feeders outside of Rats and am expanding, and it's one of my favorite groups. In regards to mentoring you, I've mentored more than one novice rat breeder and am happy to answer any questions I can for you either on here, or on Facebook if you want to find me. Send me a PM and I'll link you my profile.

    Color Genetics for Rats are not any more complicated than Snake Genetics, but it's the genetics of Pattern that will get you all wound up. I personally don't like patterns outside of Hooded and Blaze, so I've done my best to cull out anything other than those, but those two genes interact well with Self, Irish, and Berkshire patterns, which are most of my collection.

    I'd get onto FBE on Facebook and post that you're looking to get "Founding Stock" for a rattery. Go entirely with known lines and genetics as inbreeding isn't an issue and make sure that whoever you buy from has the genes you want. If you were closer to me I'd help you out. But you can find someone within reasonable distance. It's worth EVERY PENNY to get good, known lines out of the gate to avoid having to breed out things like Maternal Aggression and any temperament issues.

    Best,

    Paul

  2. The Following User Says Thank You to pbenner For This Useful Post:

    CloudtheBoa (10-08-2019)

  3. #22
    BPnet Senior Member CloudtheBoa's Avatar
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    Re: Back in the Game

    Quote Originally Posted by pbenner View Post
    In Texas, AFRMA is a joke. Most of the serious breeders of rats don't mess with AFRMA and the few rats I've seen from their lines are horrible messes. Low litter count and weird proportions based on what they consider "ideal". Also, a lot of pet breeders don't believe in culling in any form, so snake food breeders are kind of their own group.

    There is a group on Facebook called "Feeder Breeder Enthusiasts" that will answer 99% of all your questions without too much issue and with out any judgement. I raise a number of feeders outside of Rats and am expanding, and it's one of my favorite groups. In regards to mentoring you, I've mentored more than one novice rat breeder and am happy to answer any questions I can for you either on here, or on Facebook if you want to find me. Send me a PM and I'll link you my profile.

    Color Genetics for Rats are not any more complicated than Snake Genetics, but it's the genetics of Pattern that will get you all wound up. I personally don't like patterns outside of Hooded and Blaze, so I've done my best to cull out anything other than those, but those two genes interact well with Self, Irish, and Berkshire patterns, which are most of my collection.

    I'd get onto FBE on Facebook and post that you're looking to get "Founding Stock" for a rattery. Go entirely with known lines and genetics as inbreeding isn't an issue and make sure that whoever you buy from has the genes you want. If you were closer to me I'd help you out. But you can find someone within reasonable distance. It's worth EVERY PENNY to get good, known lines out of the gate to avoid having to breed out things like Maternal Aggression and any temperament issues.

    Best,

    Paul
    I thought I was in that group, turns out I’m not! Sent a request. The other groups I’m in have almost no activity.

    For now, my group works well for feeder breeders, but without knowing their genetics 100% I don’t feel comfortable selling as pets.

    I also want to have a whole host of feeders for the snakes (as well as myself). I’m currently in the process of finding a house, and I’m looking for a place with enough space to have rats, mice, rabbits, chickens, pigs, goats, quail, ducks, and anything else I’ll need. Rabbits have been hard to find lately, perhaps the FBE group will be able to help. I’ve only found one breeder, in TN. :/


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    8.3 Boa imperator ('15 sunglow "Nymeria," '11 normal "Cloud," '16 anery motley "Crona," '10 ghost "Howl," '08 jungle "Dominika," '22 RC pastel hypo jungle "Aleister," '22 pastel normal "Gengar," '22 orangasm hypo "Daemon," '22 poss jungle "Jinzo," '22 poss jungle "Calcifer," '22 motley "Guin")
    1.4 Boa imperator; unnamed '22 hbs
    3.3 Plains garter snakes
    1.2 checkered garter snakes (unnamed)

    ~RIP~
    2.2 Brazilian rainbow boa ('15 Picasso stripe BRBs "Guin" and "Morzan, and '15 hypo "Homura", '14 normal "Sanji")
    1.0 garter snake ('13 albino checkered "Draco")
    1.0 eastern garter ('13 "Demigod)
    0.0.1 ball python ('06 "Bud")

  4. #23
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    Re: Back in the Game

    Quote Originally Posted by CloudtheBoa View Post
    I thought I was in that group, turns out I’m not! Sent a request. The other groups I’m in have almost no activity.

    For now, my group works well for feeder breeders, but without knowing their genetics 100% I don’t feel comfortable selling as pets.

    I also want to have a whole host of feeders for the snakes (as well as myself). I’m currently in the process of finding a house, and I’m looking for a place with enough space to have rats, mice, rabbits, chickens, pigs, goats, quail, ducks, and anything else I’ll need. Rabbits have been hard to find lately, perhaps the FBE group will be able to help. I’ve only found one breeder, in TN. :/


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Good luck! Once you're in the group and make a post I'm sure you'll find someone. There are lots and lots of members in there.

    I've got Rats for the snakes, but am going to get some Mice and ASFs going soon. Outside of the snake stuff, I have Dubias, Hissers, Mealworms, Superworms, and Wax Worms currently. We've also had success in breeding snails, but I think they'll grow too slowly to be decent as a food option for lizards.


    I looked again at your pictures. Your girls are Marten for sure, but they're not homozygous martens. They've both got one marten gene, and the other is likely to be Himalayan or Albino, so all your babies will carry one or the other and you won't know which. It's like breeding a Candino to a normal, you've got 50% that are het for Albino and 50% het for Candy, but don't know which are which.

    I'm going to have my first Homozygous Martens soon, probably around Christmas time. As it sits right now, I've finally hit pay dirt on my Tonkinese breeding projects.

    Best,

    Paul

  5. #24
    BPnet Senior Member CloudtheBoa's Avatar
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    Looks like Calypso's litter has been weaned, and I only found 3 males out of her litter of 10. Those males have been moved to their own tub, and Calypso and Misery will be moved back together and the other litter separated when Misery's litter is also weaned. I have put Doc in with the other 2 females, and by the time they're ready to give birth, I should have all the young rats culled off for feeding. Getting that second rack is going to take a bit longer as it's a lot more expensive than the smaller one. :/

    I'm hoping they'll do ok over the winter. Last time I bred rats, they were kept outside in a carport. They still had babies except at the absolute coldest temps and could keep themselves warm even in the negatives, but they were in a much larger cage with bedding deeper than these rats' tubs are. If the cold does turn out to be an issue, I do have space heaters to put next to the racks, but the room is too large to heat. Still crossing my fingers we'll be able to start looking for houses again next month.
    8.3 Boa imperator ('15 sunglow "Nymeria," '11 normal "Cloud," '16 anery motley "Crona," '10 ghost "Howl," '08 jungle "Dominika," '22 RC pastel hypo jungle "Aleister," '22 pastel normal "Gengar," '22 orangasm hypo "Daemon," '22 poss jungle "Jinzo," '22 poss jungle "Calcifer," '22 motley "Guin")
    1.4 Boa imperator; unnamed '22 hbs
    3.3 Plains garter snakes
    1.2 checkered garter snakes (unnamed)

    ~RIP~
    2.2 Brazilian rainbow boa ('15 Picasso stripe BRBs "Guin" and "Morzan, and '15 hypo "Homura", '14 normal "Sanji")
    1.0 garter snake ('13 albino checkered "Draco")
    1.0 eastern garter ('13 "Demigod)
    0.0.1 ball python ('06 "Bud")

  6. #25
    BPnet Senior Member CloudtheBoa's Avatar
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    I just wanted to update with some of my favorite pics/rats. XD Turns out the rats I thought were hooded are indeed mismarked hooded, but I do also have variegated and Berkshire in my lines. I'm still trying to figure out what all I'm working with, and still have quite a few that are stumping me. I've been advised to work on temperament and structure with my rats, so I've got quite a few holdbacks with good temperaments, but I think I'm going to some more testing with them and try to thin out my males a bit more. It's easy when I find males with better temperament, but I don't know much about genetics so it can make choosing who to keep a bit harder.

    We've put an offer on yet another house, so maybe we'll be moved before I have to make that decision, and I can finally expand. I'm only working with 2 rat racks, and 4 100 qt tubs (when I get this last tub set up). So not a whole lot of room for breeding. But I want to make a couple of large colony cages for each sex, and keep the racks and tubs just for maternity and grow outs.

    Doc, my starter buck. Silvermane Berkshire. I'm probably going to try working on separating my SM into a separate line from my C-locus stuff now that I have so many males. He is one of the most gorgeous SM I've seen, and would like to have more like him.



    Misery, one of my starter girls. Marten dumbo rex. Beyond that, I'm uncertain.



    A close up of Calypso's fur, she's another of my starter females. Suspected to be silvermane marten dumbo rex.



    Luna, my recessive hairless. I'm still not sure gene is giving her the red eyes, but I'm going to keep a doe and a buck from her litter. They're extremely flighty, but I'll just have to be careful with them and work on their temperament. But I really want to continue her line as she's the only true hairless I have. Only problem is all of my other rats seem to be rex, so I don't want to mix her hairless with them, meaning I may need more standard coats to further her line if there seems to be issues when I begin linebreeding.



    I also received two drex rats (one male and one female) and an albino (also male) from a friend of a coworker who had the 3 in a bird cage outside in the middle of winter. They were very skinny, dirty, and dehydrated when I got them, and had mild RIs. After some TLC and a round of antibiotics they've been doing great since. I never got pics of the albino as he was rather flighty and I never intended on keeping him, but he did father the female drex's second litter. I have also culled the drex male due to aggression issues when he was introduced to one of my groups of males.

    The female - she may or may not stay permanently. Agouti hooded drex.



    Male drex. I am thinking his color was black and pattern Berk, but nakeds can be hard to tell, and he was already hairless when I got him. The female threw nothing but agouti hooded when paired to the albino, and she threw both black and agouti with this male. Some hooded, some with what appear to be Berk pattern. In this photo, he had an odd eye issue that was treated before he was introduced to the other males, upon which he was promptly culled.



    My oldest holdback male from the first round of litters. I have no idea what he is for sure, but I've been assuming pearl. lol



    A female from one of the more recent litters. I'm thinking marten, but beyond that I'm lost, too. lol



    A holdback male from one of the more recent litters, brother to the female above. Again, no clue what he is. Only feedback I've gotten is someone who called him cinnamon pearl when he was younger, and someone who called him blue now that he's older. He still has that brownish tint, it's just hard to pick up on camera.

    Younger pic:



    Recent pic:



    I also have an oddeye buck, and a potential lilac blaze male pictured below. All from the same litter as the two above.

    Younger pic of the "lilac" male:



    And a recent pic of him:

    8.3 Boa imperator ('15 sunglow "Nymeria," '11 normal "Cloud," '16 anery motley "Crona," '10 ghost "Howl," '08 jungle "Dominika," '22 RC pastel hypo jungle "Aleister," '22 pastel normal "Gengar," '22 orangasm hypo "Daemon," '22 poss jungle "Jinzo," '22 poss jungle "Calcifer," '22 motley "Guin")
    1.4 Boa imperator; unnamed '22 hbs
    3.3 Plains garter snakes
    1.2 checkered garter snakes (unnamed)

    ~RIP~
    2.2 Brazilian rainbow boa ('15 Picasso stripe BRBs "Guin" and "Morzan, and '15 hypo "Homura", '14 normal "Sanji")
    1.0 garter snake ('13 albino checkered "Draco")
    1.0 eastern garter ('13 "Demigod)
    0.0.1 ball python ('06 "Bud")

  7. The Following User Says Thank You to CloudtheBoa For This Useful Post:

    67temp (02-12-2020)

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