Double Rex vs True Hairless

[Fearless]

How can a person tell if the hairless rat they have is either a true hairless or the double rex. I ask because over the last year of breeding I have slowly been holding back some rex females, and as they grow older there curly hair diminishes and they begin looking like regular rats. So got confused on who was who and what was what and as long as my snakes had food i was happy. Well over the last 3 months, I have produced a total of 6 hairless dumbo rats. Which the initial one I figured was a double rex cuz it came from one female that I remember as a baby having curly hair. Well the next four came from a litter that I am almost positive wasn't rexes cuz every single baby was also dumbo. And then ended up with one single one from another litter, which had a different father. Also as they are in the fuzzy stage they have peach fuzz all over them, and by the time they about 4 weeks old they have become completely naked. So any in sight on deciding the genetics of these ratties would be great.

Thanks you for reading my long run on post!

[truthsdeceit]

I have a pair of Double-Rex boys and their hair falls out and grows back in patches so that they spend some time naked and then sometime with hair and always look a little scruffy.

I don't know much about it but it's my understanding that Hairless stay naked all the time. and Double-Rex (mock-hairless) hair does the fall out grow back thing. So if your babies are always naked then they are hairless.... but then again maybe enough rexes together creates that... who knows..

But if they're only 4 weeks old the hair might grow back in a week or two.

I'm curious too. Hope someone who actually knows what they're talking about gets on here.

[littleindiangirl]

Female rexs will not retain very curly fur as they grow up. The males tend to stay a lot more curly. There is also variability in rexes, some are wavy, some are barely noticeable asice from curly whiskers, and some are little poodle rats.

If you plan on keeping the hairless, I would recommend as pets only. The lack of fur causes them to be prone to eye infections, nicks and cuts, and also they need to be kept warmer and fed a higher fat diet to keep up with their higher metabolism. The same can be said for super rexes, but the supers do tend to be more patchworky with regards to their fur.

If they lost the fur around 4 weeks and none has grown back, I would say it's a good chance they are true hairless.

[Fearless]

Thank you

Another quick question is how often does the hair fall out and grow back with patchwork hairless rats?

[katiadarling]

This is Boocals (with Winnie peeking) = ) Boo was a double rex, dumbo girl. Her face is furry in this pic and her whiskers are crinkly. Their fur doesn't really fall out, it more breaks off and then regrows. It really depends on the rat as to how fast the fur breaks off and regrows. Boocals pretty much always had a furry face and rump, but sometimes it was more patchy and sometimes it extended more down her neck onto her back.... Mostly I just felt like posting her pic

[truthsdeceit]

I'd say my rats take about a month to go throught the whole cycle. But it's so subtle that I've never managed to keep good track of it.

And yes the hair actually breaks-off not falls-out. The science behind it is that rexes have curly hair, and double rex hair is so curly it's fragile so once it reaches a certain length it breaks off at the root. So the rats go from say 1/4inch long hairs to naked then it grows back slowly till it reaches 1/4inch again and the whole process restarts.