This has been a very eye-opening post for me. I never knew about this in rats. I knew about it in horses fom talking to my friend who deals with a herd of 100-150 apha mares, colts, and fillies. I know about he horrific possibility of breeding high white x high white.. the poor mare will go through a full term pregnancy and give birth to a dying foal. That kind of thing just makes me want to cry. I would never want to cause an animal to suffer that.
I know that with Paint horses though, it is common to breed the high-whites to a solid/mostly solid stud. I know that there are a lot of high-white Paint/pinto horses running around out there (I own one, but of course she will never be bred.. first and only breeding was my "friend's" doing and was to a solid black stud..) So would it be the same with the rats then; being OK to breed them to a solid sire? If so, would a Berk be close enough?
Can the high-white rats be compared to the "Impressive" line of Paints that are known for carrying Hypp?
I do know mom's lineage in this litter; she is a black hooded. In 2003, I got a male Gray dumbo Self; he was solid gray, not blue; and a female black hooded from my friend. She got them from a local woman who breeds; I don't have her information but I remember talking to her. It is hard to remember because I do not keep dates of breedings; I just go by the female's weight and size to determine when she's ready to breed. I raised this dam out of this lineage with no problems.. The mom I have now.. has to be at least 5-6 generations from the original pair.
Now, the dad, I recently bought his dad at Markheim pets. He is a gray Berk rex dumbo. They only had blue/gray rexes and himis in his breeding colony.
My best female breeder? My himi girl.
Edit: the offspring in this post, I do not plan to breed. I am only planning/asking about re-breeding mom; she has been a great breeder thus far; this is her second litter.