A Question about High Whites?

[blackie sage]

I hope this is the right place to put this. I'm quite new. :roll:

And since I'm quite new, I've been reading people's posts about how you should never breed pet store rats because of the risk of megacolon. Now, I already know a lot about MC that it effects rats with high whites and blazes and such, so I'm not wondering that exactly.

My question is if a rat is, say, a self mink of unknown origin, will she have the chance of producing high white offspring with, say, a male seal point siamese of unknown origin?

I'm not really thinking of breeding or anything, I'm honestly just wondering. When I was younger and my calico cat had kittens, there were tabbies and calicos and blacks in there. When my tabby had kittens, she had three tabbies, a calico, and a white kitten. They all had coloration traits that the mother (and father) carried in her genes.

Is it the same way with rats? Could there be PEWs, hoodeds, or high white colorations mixed in there due to the unknown origins? Or would my theoretical pairing just produce minks, seal points, or mink/seal point mixes?

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this kind of question! Everyone seems so knowledgeable here.

 

[xxchelle]

You'll need to know the recessive genes, not just the dominant genes, in both parents as well, to predict the litter outcome.

 

[blackie sage]

Okay, so it is just like cats... and humans. hahaha.

Thank you very much!

 

[Rachael]

The parent could be one colour but carry various genetics.

 

[jorats]

A long time ago, people assumed that high whites came out of only rats who displayed high white markings. This was proven wrong when a breeder in Quebec bought a berk from a pet store and the coupling produced a litter of high whites and MC.