Finally a Blue Dumbo

[catawhat75]

Adorable Sean, nice to see all your hard work paid off. That siamese is beautiful.

[SiscoReptiles]

That's odd that there seems to be a common health issue related to the blue rats. I have several in my breeder racks, actually one bin is just blues and blue dumbos. We produce several variances of rats because local petshops buy our excess rats to sell as pets. We have never seen any health issues with the blues. The ones we seem to have issues with are the normal albino rats.



Rick

[lord jackel]

That's odd that there seems to be a common health issue related to the blue rats. I have several in my breeder racks, actually one bin is just blues and blue dumbos. We produce several variances of rats because local petshops buy our excess rats to sell as pets. We have never seen any health issues with the blues. The ones we seem to have issues with are the normal albino rats.

Rick

Do you know what type of blues you have? (American, Russian, etc.). American Blues are the ones that we see most of the issues in. This is not to say they all have issues but the majority seem to have less then stellar health...pry similar in concept to the head wobble in Spider Balls.

[littleindiangirl]

The whole basis of blues being sickly is from the idea that pet shops around the country saw that the english/american blues were a huge hit, and from there they were mass produced and not selectivly bred. The major inbreeding and line breeding brought about poor immune systems, inheritable conditions and just a poorly bred and adjusted rat.
Many blues bought from the pet store are said to be sickly, mean and die young.
I think on the good side, the rats being bred for feeders aren't (usually) being bred for color, and whatever color or pattern we get is purely random. That outcrossing for several generations, and the "survival of the fittest" idea could very well have given you a line of healthy american blues.
Outcrossing your own blues is different than intentionally picking out a blue rat from a pet store situation and expecting it to breed and be healthy.

[littleindiangirl]

This is where I read about the blues
AFRMA- Blue rat

[SiscoReptiles]

Do you know what type of blues you have? (American, Russian, etc.). American Blues are the ones that we see most of the issues in. This is not to say they all have issues but the majority seem to have less then stellar health...pry similar in concept to the head wobble in Spider Balls.

Honestly, I am not sure what type of blues they are. They pop up now and then in my colony and now and then I see one I like so I grow it out to become a breeder. I have heard people who purchased them from me call them Russian Blues (hooded, marked face/blaze, dumbos, rex, etc), but honestly I don't get into the genetics of rodents too deeply. I just breed for a rodent that is healthy, fast growing and docile. I used to try to breed just the plain normal agouti rats so that my wife wouldn't get 'attached' to them, but over time I realized it is harder to sell off the excess if they were all agouti. If they are fancy dumbos, hooded, etc., they sell easily. I also stopped breeding the agouti (wild type) rats because if a neighbor complains about a loose rat in their house or garage, it's easier for me to say "If it's not fancy colored, its wild and not one of mine"

Rick

[littleindiangirl]

As for albino, are you talking about a simple recessive albino? Or a Pink eyed white. The PEW are just many dilutes in a rat and can have some complications tied to it. The albino is a simple recessive and the only problems I have heard are poor eye sight and smell. I could be overlooking some major problem, but that's all I can think off the top of my head. But, so far your system of the biggest and best seems to be working well, so props to you!

[Larry Suttles]

thats pretty cool. I've got an off blue line almost purple in color that doesn't have any health issues.

here's a young super rex dumbo purple

[ZEKESMOM]

Awwwww...she is sooo stinkin cute