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Cool new baby rat!

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2.9K views 7 replies 3 participants last post by  JayRo626  
#1 ·
Okay, so I was checking out my rats new litters(6 and 4 days old.) And the breedings were a blazed blue variberk dumbo buck standard coat to a blazed blue variberk dumbo doe standard coat, and a blazed black dumbo doe standard coat. Well, the black girl had four, two boys, two girls, and one boy died. The blue also had four, all girls. I was checking them out, and I noticed while all the other were starting to get their dark colors, one was still really light. I looked, and she has pink eyes! Albino? It's the only thing I could think or, since all the parents are black eyed. (She's from the blue girl.) That's not the cool one though.

So, I was looking at another one of the blue ones girls, and I noticed that she only had one eye! At first I thought she might be odd eyed, and have one pink eye, but nope! She only has one eye. I also noticed that she has really short, curly whishers. Could she be a hairless/rex/double rex? How, if both parents are standard? Also, I now really want to keep and breed her, because I think the whole one-eyed thing is really cool.(I'd have to find a foster mom if she is hairless though.) So, I was just wondering, do you think she could pass it down/could it be genetic? And, would it be okay to breed her, or even her parents again? Thanks! (I'll try to get pictures as she grows.)

Oh, and any name ideas?!
 
#2 ·
Bad bad bad :( Never ever breed any rat from a blazed line to another blazed rat or rat from a blazed line.... Unfortunately you will likely have babies in this litter who will have to be put down due to megacolon.
When breeding any blazed rat the mate MUST be from a known non-high white line...
Please feel free to message me here or email me at bluemoonrattery@live.com for more info or with any questions you may have in regards to breeding rats. I have been breeding rats for 6 years and have done tons of research on their genetics.
 
#5 ·
Hairless is a recessive trait and so both parents are carriers.
I am NOT trying to be rude so please don't be offended when I say this, I am just trying to help but I do not think you should be breeding until you have a better understanding of rat genetics. Already about 25% of this litter will suffer with megacolon and you will have to take them to a vet to be euthanized if you are not able to do it humanely at home..
Take a couple months to do some research and learn a bit more about them and their genetics before jumping into breeding.. :)
 
#6 ·
I have done plenty of research with breeding since then, I just didn't do a whole lot of research on how to get hairless, since I didn't want to get or breed any. And I admit I shouldn't have bred those ones quite yet though, and I will not again in the future. I'm planning on going to a breeder about two hours from me to get some new bloodline. This is a feeder breeder, but in my experience, small scale feeder breeders who breed for their own snake collection(While they rats are a little more skittish.) Usually have healthier rats, since for most people, the whole point to breeding their own feeders is knowing where they came from, and making sure they're healthy. Plus, I think I saw some chocolates in the pictures :)

I'm going to the feeder breeders, since the only other breeders near me are

A: The breeder we got these rats from, and hour away.
B: Won't sell their rats as breeders, or
C: They're about 4ish hours away, and don't even have a good variety as far as colors and such goes.
 
#8 ·
Well, how do you think they got manx rats and mice? Or hairless, or any colors and varieties other than standard wild agoutis and such? They're all just deformities, and someone came along and said, "You know what, that's pretty cool. I want more like you." She probably just had a birth defect anyways, and I highly doubt she would have passed on the single eye. She was a runt too though, so as much as I daydreamed, I knew breeding probably wouldn't be an option. Since I had to have my rats foster some mice(Bad mom, ended up getting rid of all of the babies and her.) The two runts(Mouse runt and rat runt.) didn't make it. Out of the litter of seven mice, five made it(But one I am pretty sure was a male pied brindle, and those always die, right?) Out of two litters of four rats, three from each litter made it. One runt, and one little boy that disappeared after a day or so. Considering at the time, I had only ever had one other litter of rats, and it was my first mouse litter, I considered 4 out of 25 babies to not be bad for my first four litters. I had horrible luck with my ASF's though, stupid things kept eating their babies. Ugh. I no longer have those though.

Out of the remaining six rats from those two litters though, I ended up keeping three, the only boy(Blue variberk dumbo w/headspot.) the albino girl, and another girl(Blue variberk dumbo with almost perfect blaze.) And the other three girls all went together to a lady who drove almost two hours to get them. All are almost three months old, and none have ever had any health issues. I don't think I've ever had a health issue with my rats(Other than runts etc. But I mean sicknesses.) Other than my very first rat who had a URI, and my.... Over 2 year old girl who died of a tumor, which she had when I got her. Her sister is still alive though at 27ish months old. The pair I got as pets, not breeders so I won't be passing on any tumor-genes. I still have not seen any signs of any megacolon in my rats, and the parents around around 6/7/8 months old, babies 3 mo.

Okay, that was a book.