Help ID my rat litter

[MrLang]

OK I think I have this somewhat figured out but I'm really not sure. I'm wondering about an ID on the very light colored baby but the others as well.

I bred what I was told was a merle, and she does have some dark spots that are harder to catch in a picture as well as the babies having clearly different types of coats, to my male blue berkshire.

Mom:




Dad, he is a light blue more like the baby in question but not as light by a fair amount:


The babies were 4 dark mottled fur, 4 dark blue, 1 black, and 1 very light mottled blue.

Here are the 4 that look like mom and the 1 I am wondering about


Here are 3 of the 4 types (black one moved to another mom... but it is clearly black...)
Top to bottom, Dark blue regular fur, baby in question light blue, dark blue mottled like mom:



Baby in question, she has more dark patches but the flash torched them... the closed eye shot shows better:



So what I THINK is the case here, and looking for confirmation:

My female is a russian blue (self?) merle het american blue het dumbo

My male is an american blue het russian blue dumbo berkshire

Babies are 4 merle russian blue, 1 merle american blue, 1 miss (black), and 4 russian blue...



Any bold rat aficionados care to confirm or deny?!

[MrLang]

OOHH I just found this shot on the web:


Which says left to right American Blue, Russian Silver (both american AND russian double blue), Russian blue

So my 'merle' is american blue het russian, baby in question is a russian silver, and my male is actually a russian blue het american?

No merle at all and the american blue is just ticked compared to the russian?

my head is spinning.

EDIT: figures after a week of scratching my head and digging around on the web I make a post and 5 minutes later find something online...

[threezero]

i just want to say your ratite look so cute. and the colour is awesome, remind me of the blue color you get in some pit bulls

[MrLang]

i just want to say your ratite look so cute. and the colour is awesome, remind me of the blue color you get in some pit bulls

thanks lol, we call the boys our little 'puppy men'

[sorraia]

I'm seeing Russian blue and American blue in those rats. The pictures might be throwing things off, but it looks like mom is AmBlue and dad is RBlue. RBlue has heathering, which looks like ticking, AmBlue does not. AmBlue comes in a variety of shades, RBlue is ideally very dark, like the picture you found, but can come with some variation, some resembling the color of denim jeans (not as light as faded or light wash, but approximately equal to medium to dark wash jeans). Combined, you would get the Russian Silver.

Merle only works on Mink colors. What confuses me, it looks like several of your babies are Russian blue, but it ALSO looks like they do have merle spots. I've never personally worked with merle, so I only know as much as I've read about it. I'm not sure what else to tell you about those.

I am really inclined to say your lighter baby is some Russian Blue variation though. In the flash picture, she does look kind of like a Russian Silver, but in the picture just before that, it looks like she could be Dove (Russian Blue + Mink).

[satomi325]

On my pc, the mama and one of the trio looks mink. But on my phone they look like blues. The dad looks Russian.

I was wondering if you can post some natural sunlight pictures? The flash kind of saturates the color. And without flash, its just dark.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[MrLang]

Yeah I can take some tonight if the sun is still out when I get home. The dad has a very even blue tone but he does have white hair mixed in. The mom is blue but has really dark and light patchy areas. The babies show the contrast of dark and light patches better than the mom does, but they are the same combination, whatever that combination is. The light blue baby is really light blue but she's also patchy with some darker spots like the other babies, just less noticeable because of the light colors.


The babies with the 'flat' color are darker than dad. The patchy dark and light babies look just like mom. The light blue baby is nothing like either parent, which leads me to believe it is this Russian Silver combo.

What throws me off too is the appearance of a black baby. This lets me know the parents are NOT the same type of blue. This is why I started to suspect I might not have a merle.


I'll take some more pics but I'm glad you guys agree this is not a clear cut identification.

[sorraia]

I really wish you weren't across the country! I'd ask to stop by and take a look at these guys in person. It's intriguing!!!! And if it weren't so darn expensive, I'd ask you to save a couple of those splotchy babies to send to me!