A Rainbow of Dumbos

[Magick]

All hail Craig's List!!! An ad that stated "Free Female Rats" turned out to be a guy that was giving away the five sweetest sub-adult Dumbos. There is a light blue hooded? A fully masked dark blue/black, a black blazed, a mink hooded, & a cream. Sorry the photos are not the best, but I'm thrilled that I found these little gems!! I now have everything I need to work towards my goal of Blue Point Siamese Dumbos... hopefully some day!!

[wolfy-hound]

Sweet!! What a score!! I wish I could find some free rats.
Wolfy

[recycling goddess]

where do you live wolfy?

congrats on those beauties... we are going to need more pics though

[SatanicIntention]

They're gorgeous, for pets. They are much too high-white marked to be bred though, especially if you don't know their lineage. They could be carrying megacolon in their genes(which is very likely if they are originally pet store rats).

The hooded girls should be fine, but not the masked, wedge-blazed, lightning blazed, etc. Too much risk.

[wolfy-hound]

I'm in Florida, near gainesville.
Wolfy

[Magick]

They could be carrying megacolon in their genes(which is very likely if they are originally pet store rats).

The hooded girls should be fine, but not the masked, wedge-blazed, lightning blazed, etc. Too much risk.

Thanks for the info. Now I have a question that may cause ethical issues, but it's only a question & not my intent. IF I were to breed the high whites to a solid self male, would I still run the risk of megacolon? Is megacolon obvious? Would there be risks to using a rat with this disease as a feeder? Is megacolon a dominate trait, ressecive, sex-linked, or unknown? Any good sites with more info?

I'm just trying to learn by asking rather than doing. The different types of rats (Dumbos, Blues, etc.) are very hard to find in my area & I am very interested in breeding for pets as well as for feeders. I hope I won't be judged to harshly for these questions. This is the best pet/feeder site I've found.

Thanks!!

[SatanicIntention]

I still wouldn't breed them, even to a self male, because you don't know their lineage(which is EXTREMELY important when breeding for pet quality animals). It only takes one rat's genes to create megacolon babies, and even if the other babies weren't outwardly showing MC, they would still carry the genes for it.

It just seems very unethical to me to create any rats that could potentially carry this gene. I breed rats, very occassionally, for pets. One female, I waited for an entire year to breed her(she has two babies now), just so I could see how her temperment rounded out(she's a complete moosh...). I am very selective on who my rats are bred to and won't take unnecessary risks just to make pretty rats. I knew both of the parents' lineages, all the way back to the great-great-great grandparents. The lines never showed any problems such as temperment, health, longevity, etc., so the rats were bred and there aren't any issues yet. If there are, they won't be bred again and neither will the offspring.

To me, it would just be very unfair to bring rats into the world that have the MC potential. If you adopted out rats to people, who then bred them, not knowing they carry that gene(possibly), and MC popped up, how would you react? I think I would be devastated just knowing that I was the one who wasn't selective enough when putting rats together, and that nasty gene was carried on.

I still breed high-white rats sometimes(so hopefully you're not thinking I'm a hypocrite, haha), but ONLY if I know their backgrounds to a "T". If there are any problems in those lines, the WHOLE line is kept as pet only, or spayed/neutered and adopted out. I don't want those problems being carried on, as our goal here is to better the species as a whole.

[Magick]

Becky,

THANK YOU for reading my post as it was intended!!! I was afraid to ask, but risked being flamed for the sake of the info. I'm heading out to take more photos now. Would you mind if I e-mailed you for some breeding advice? I started the whole breeding rats as feeders, but have completely fallen for them as pets as well... guess that makes me a hypocrite of sorts, but the snakes & monitors have to eat too. I am not planning on breeding any of the high whites. I'll post more photos of the blue hooded to see if it's really a hooded, or a high white husky (keeping my fingers crossed she's a hoodie). Thanks again!!

[SatanicIntention]

No problemo And don't worry about being flamed, that is not what this site is here for(I WILL get out the hose...).

And you're definitely welcome to email me or my other rat breeding buddy for advice anytime.

Your blue hooded girl looks hooded, no doubt, just make sure she doesn't have a headspot or anything. The agouti/cinnamon agouti girl in the back of the picture looks safe to breed too, as agouti is a generally recognized "safe" color. I, myself, DIE for agouti marked rats... They are just an absolute sin :-D

I currently have babies from a blue agouti capped dumbo harley coated male and a blue-based platinum satin rex top ear female. The babies should be satin harley, one is a dumbo, and both are boys. I'll post pictures in another thread as they get bigger

And yes, I know my snakes and others need to eat, which is why I breed mice I can mess with their colors/patterns/whatever without the fear of creating bad genes and death. Besides, I can't bring unquarantined rats into my house anyway, so if one of my snakes needs rats(such as the two boas), I buy frozen in bulk from shows, and it's easier on me.

I guess I need to post pictures of all my fuzzbutts

[Magick]

Here's the Blue Hood? Please let her be hooded... Anyone?