Color changing rat?

[LotusCorvus]

I've never seen or heard of this before. I picked up a few rats a couple weeks ago, including this cute dumbo girl with a split cream mask. I thought it was neat that the spot near her nose was darker than the spot further up her head.

Now her mask is dark brown/grey at the nose, and almost completely faded out further up. I don't have a pic from when I first got her, but the mask was very definitely a solid cream color. Even in these two pics taken 3 days apart, you can see a bit of change.




It looks almost like a himalayan marking, just only visible in the mask areas. Do himalayans change color as they mature? This is girl only about 6-7 weeks old right now.

[EvergladesExotics]

She's probably some sort of marked siamese

[LotusCorvus]

I would be ecstatic if she's got siamese (why do I always call it himalayan? lol, grew up around too many cats I guess) coloring to her, its a favorite of mine. She's going to be a feeder-breeder once she's mature, so I'll have to keep an eye out for a suitable male for her group to keep that coloring visible in the babies The other three females in her group are a cream (with a grey-cream hood, almost invisible, its neat), a champagne/silver husky-pattern, and a girl that I would almost call a black/white husky, but with an almost-full mask with a white cross in it. They're definitely going to be breeding the pretty babies, haha.

[Rhasputin]

She could be a marked siamese, or a marked himilayan, it's hard to tell. But she is one or the other for sure.

[EvergladesExotics]

I'd suggest breeding her to a self or hooded male though, to reduce the risk of megacolon among her pups. You should get a siamese male for her haha

[LotusCorvus]

Well, looks like I've got a goal for what to buy at the next Wheaton Expo I go to I'd love to get some siamese/himalayan babies out of her. Of course then I might end up holding them all back instead of feeding any of them off, haha.