Question about Genetics

[Jay_Bunny]

My friend has a male blue rat that she wants to breed. (I believe she wants to breed for feeders as well as holdbacks)

I'm giving her one of my unbred females. Neither are ready for breeding just yet, but will be in the next month. One is a berkshire and the other is a black hooded. I was wondering what colorations and markings either of those breedings will produce. I've never had a blue in my colony so I have no idea how the genetics work for blues.

[littleindiangirl]

blues are recessive.

[Drew87]

littleindiangirl knows everything about rats where would we be without her haha. i had no idea

[Jay_Bunny]

So therefore if you bred it to a black hooded, you would get black hoods, het for blue.

If you bred it to a berk, you'd get....berks het for blue?

[littleindiangirl]

The hooded gene is a recessive, but there are many modifiers to the hooded gene that creat irish, berkshire, hooded, bareback, capped....

It's almost impossible to say without knowing what each rat carries in regards to modifiers on the H locus.

But yes, breed a blue to a non blue or non het for blue, you would get all blacks het for blue.

[SatanicIntention]

Pet store blues are not healthy, they are incredibly inbred and have alot of health problems, namely lung/heart problems.

I would not encourage her to breed him.. Just because he's pretty, doesn't make him a good candidate.