High-Whites and MegaColon?????

[virgo2882]

I am so lost right now,
I know plenty about rats compared to the average Joe.... however Im still learning about all the different colors, and types of rats...
I have a 1+ year old Male Rue, who I know is a cream colored hooded rat, and he has red eyes if that matters at all...... and he just 3 days ago unfortunately got a hold of my baby girl snoopy who is about 3 months old.... she is a black hooded rat that I adopted with her 3 sisters....
We dont know yet if she is pregnant.... we are totally hoping shes not cause shes just a babe herself but we are preparing
I was reading about megacolon and high whites and I am kinda freaking out, even though I don't even necessarily know what High-whites refer to.... I just generally took it as rats that have a lot of white fur......
Which 3 out of 5 my rats do
However Snoopy has another sister who is gray hooded rats, and none of them have ever showed signs of Megacolon, and rue never has either
ANd as I stated before I'm not even sure if them being white even has anything to do with megacolon and the high risk, but I just dont want the babies to have anything wrong with them....
I hope this makes some sense, I just want to know if I should be worried at all since the parents do not have it.... or maybe I can be explained what is really is.....
Thanks so much for helping a consfused rat mommy.....and maybe grandma...

 

[jorats]

High white is usually described as rats with blazes and head spots. But if berks, hoods and selfs are from parents with blazes/head spots, they could very well be high white as well.
Most selfs, hoods and berks are not from high white and unless you know for a fact that they have parents or siblings with blazes or head spot, then I wouldn't worry about it.

My three boys are high white:

 

[virgo2882]

Thanks so much for the info
Those boys are TOOO cute!!!!!!!!!

 

[Willow Bean]

You should post pictures of the girl with her sisters (if they are from the same litter) as well as the boy. It is *sometimes* possible to tell a high white from a picture. If they are not showing the high white we may not be able to tell you but if they do, someone will be able to tell you pretty quickly. Hooded rats aren't very often very high risk though, so I wouldn't worry too terribly much about the daddy.

 

[MumsyRat]

This is a little darling girl who I lost to megacolon:

Little Gwenivere:


It's a horrible disease and a heartbreaking experience.
Poor sweet little baby! I had to PTS at 8 weeks.

I still have her brother, Arthur. He grew up healthy and strong.

 

[virgo2882]

This is the dad Rue below

This is the possible momma below

This is her sister squirely below

Her sisters bailey and beauty are the same color below

 

[Willow Bean]

It doesn't look like you have any high whites there. Unless the moms or dads of your ratties were high white, I wouldn't be worried in the least about having a high white litter. I don't know how many cases of non high white parents having mega colon babies there are, but I should think it's pretty low. We'll all be hoping and praying that she didn't get pregnant but, if she did, we will all be here for you to offer advice and beg for more pictures of the babies. I can tell you, also, that you have very, very good looking rats on your hands!

 

[jorats]

Looks to me like you are pretty safe.

 

[lilspaz68]

I would say Not High White either. They are adorable

 

[virgo2882]

Thanks so much guys,
I know you arent support the Human parents, but I appreciate it so I can calm down and figure out the right thing to do for my ratties
I am taking Rue the dad to get his check up today so he can now get neutured, and i am taking snoopy as well (IN A SEPERATE CAGE) lol to see if I can get an E-spay scheduled ASAP it at all possible with this vet... because i am having trouble finding a vet that let alone works with rats but one who actually performs surgeries
I know I would raise the babies and be so happy if she can deliver them healthy with no problems, but alot of people are saying she is just too young..... and i just could not live with myself if she had complications and got hurt or died in the process.....
So ill let ya know if the vet can do it or not
I called another vet this morning and they wont even see her til tuesday and wont consider an EMERGENCY spay an emergency and would make me come back wednesday and after tuesday its more than a week that she would be pregnant.....
so Blah!
Fingers crossed!!!

 

[papercrow]

Here's one more question. I remember reading somewhere that if the coloring was ticked (had mixed colored hairs) then the rat was not high white. I have a foster mommy rat with two eepers and I wanted to get your input as to whether you think she is high white because her color splotches are very mixed. The poppa is a black hoodie (we think). Is there less of a chance of megacolon if only one of the parents is high white? Does it matter if the eepers have high white markings? Your input is appreciated.

Taquita mommy:

 

[Willow Bean]

It's kind of hard to say about the babies without seeing them but it looks like you *might* be safe from high white with that one, the white hairs in the markings are, if I remember correctly, a sign of Non-high-white. ^_^

 

[jorats]

There has been situations where only one parent was high white and they produced a litter of MC babies. Anytime a high white is bred, it's always tricky and should always keep a close eye on the babies, no matter the marking.

 

[Willow Bean]

Originally posted by Vanessa in the News and Links area:
http://www.spoiledratten.com/highwhitecont.html

before the first pedigree on the page there is a picture showing white ticking behind a rat ear. Read that paragraph especially but I found the entire page to be of interest. I think that this might help you with identifying them. Remember though, even if your rat doesn't show any high white markings at all, it is still possible for the rattie to carry the MC genes. I think that rat breeding is something best left to the professionals (responsible breeders, not pet stores or "back yard breeders who are breeding for a profit and not to better the genetics that they have), usually the responsible breeders will have a great insight about the health history, who was bred to whom, where this marking came from, etc. That's the best way to be sure that you don't get MC in any babies.

***Thanks for letting me rant, I almost lost my little Willow when I was trying to breed her without knowing the full weight of my actions. I would have been devastated without her, and most of the reasons why everything when wrong can be linked back to that she was a High White. ***