Rare rats, Who has them?

[Jyson]

I have recently retired three of my female rats, and have been wanting to get some variety in my colony. Soooo, I was wondering who actually owns Black eyed Leucistic rats, and the blue rats? And, how can one attain a rat like those when local rat breeders don't have them either?

[stangs13]

I have me some blues with some crazy genetics...still havent figured it out, the father was bought as a beige rex hooded male...

[Morphie]

I have a blue dumbo girl who, when mating with my cream colored male, gives me nothing but blue dumbo babies.

If you're nearby, I can toss you some blue. I also have rex rats from time to time. I've got siamese in the mix but I haven't bred her yet.

[DZBReptiles]

I had some Blues but fazed them out. They were not the best parents, plus they would die a lot while giving birth. Black-eyed whites on the other hand are cool as long as they are not co-dominate. The co-doms are prone to mega colon. I have been selectively breeding hoods and capped and have gotten it down to just a very small amount of gray around one eye or ear. Getting rid of that last little bit of color has been tough. Just start with the highest whites and line breed the black or beige out. Takes a few generations but no Mega colon. Good luck. jeff

[Shadera]

I've got some blues. If you say where you're located, at least the state, I'm sure someone near enough to you would be happy to help you get a few of those rarer ones.

[wilomn]

Plenty of blues out here SoCal way.

[Jyson]

Dumbos are another one I am looking into as well. I am located in Brooksville, Florida.

[nova2door]

you can make blues by breeding black and gray together then breed the babies to each other

[Morphie]

I am no longer keeping any female fawn colored rats. Every last one of them has died during birth, and, besides being a huge waste of resources, it's pretty depressing.

So far no problems with the blues.

[m00kfu]

Stick to blues from an established line. English blues from petstore lines still have problems hemmoraging during birth. We had that happen recently here.

Really, your best bet is to get from a feeder breeder that knows the health of each color they are carrying. Like Morphie knows that her fawns don't birth well, but her blues are fine.

Things like that will go far into improving your colony, not filling it with crap rats.

Regardless, make sure you QT new rats. You don't want to bring some home only to have it infected with many of the diseases rats have, and wipe out most or all of your colony very quickly.

BTW, there are no lucy rats, it's called a black eyed white, and it is a very high white rat. High whites are a very high risk for megacolon. Google it.