Rat Types and Coat Colours

[lilspaz68]

Chocolate is a rare colour, but brown isn't. I am sure we can put out a call for brown rats and see if we can find one thats not a bad black.

Bear can be the silvering pic?

 

[Shelley]

Yeah, I've never seen a real Chocolate rat. We'd probably have to ask on Goosemoose and put out a call to see if anyone has specific colours. I know between just a few of us we'll have a good variety though, and even more if other people contribute. I think a Hairless and Double Rex page is needed with different examples

 

[Bati]

I had a chocolate, Albert. I have him on my bank-card too

 

[Bronwyn]

Oh no, this will make me reevaluate my dream rats won't it, lol. Fantastic idea about making our own records!

Shelagh - Totally with you on the mink! Right now they're mink, but for a time they had caramel guard hairs which seem to have disappeared with age or something. Is that a mink thing?

 

[Lise]

Rusting can occur in all different colors, not just black.

My American Blue has light caramel/beige colored hairs on her bum, and I asked about it thinking she was a special color... turns out that it is just rusting. Sometimes there is more, sometimes there is less. At the moment she is almost blue again.

 

[Bronwyn]

Oh cool! I've never heard of that before, thanks for clearing that up!

 

[Moon]

Well, the new girls are both berks, apparently... that's a new marking for me! Plus they're my first dumbos!

Emma I guess is a varigated... and Maggie is a hooded... but not quite. So I can donate pics of those markings.. not that almost everyone else can't. :roll:

 

[LA]

So would Hazel be an Agouti hooded?

 

[jorats]

So would Hazel be an Agouti hooded?

Yes, she is.

 

[Fidget]

I get very confused about all these categories, and especially because different sites have different expectations for them to fit a category.
And as people breed one kind to another don't the lines keep getting further blurred as new types or diversions from types come into being?

 

[jorats]

This is true. When you are breeding nilly dilly, anything can come out of it.
I remember last year a breeder was showing off her litter and she didn't even know what the colour really was. She was calling it coffee. :roll:

 

[Melissa]

She was calling it coffee. :roll:

:giggle:

Don't look at my descriptions then of Starla's litter! :lol2:

 

[jorats]

She was calling it coffee. :roll:

:giggle:

Don't look at my descriptions then of Starla's litter! :lol2:

lol ...but you aren't an experienced breeder who should know exactly what you are breeding. In fact, you saved sweet Starla!

 

[Bronwyn]

All we need to know about those tikes is they're cute. ;D Which is always the case with rat babies!

 

[Melissa]

Aww, teehee.

And you know what? Their colours are changing even more!

 

[Bronwyn]

You're just going to make me bug you for more photo updates with news like that. :lol:

 

[LA]

You know, the parents of Ruby and Hazel. The father Damian is a red eyed hooded fawn (I think that's what it is called very light like beige) and the mother is exactly like Hazel. Most of the litter was like Ruby and Hazel although I am sure some of them were also fawn hooded.

 

[Sorraia]

Colors can be VERY confusing, EVEN for experienced breeders. The more dilutes you have in a line, the more variation you can expect. Unexpected colors or color dilutes can also occur. For example:

I bred a litter between a Russian blue male (Bobet) and a black female (Aiko). Bobet was known to carry mink and Siamese, but nothing else. Aiko was known to carry blue, Russian blue, and Siamese. Her background shows she possibly carried mink, and may have been an unexpressed Burmese (her sire is a blue Burmese). Basically I expected black, Russian blue, seal-point Siamese, and Russian blue-point Siamese in the litter. This is what I got:
one Russian blue
two mink
two beige
one dove
one Burmese
two Russian blue Burmese
two Russian blue-point Siamese
two dilute Siamese

The beige were a COMPLETE surprise, since there was no beige in the pedigree for several generations, Aiko had no beige siblings, and the sire had not previously produced beige nor had beige siblings. It wasn't an impossibility for either of these rats to carry that gene, but it was less likely without the necessary evidence. In addition, the dilute Siamese were extremely hard to identify at first. Genetically they HAD to be Siamese of some color (pink eyes, like a Siamese, but as babies were white like a PEW, genetically they could not be PEW), but while they were young I did not know what color. I kept calling them one color then another, and finally settled on "dilute Siamese" when they never developed points, only a pale creamy shading over their backs. To this day I do not know what color they are genetically, and unless bred I will probably never know. In addition, the dove and Russian blue Burmese kept getting called a couple different names, simply because I had not seen the Russian blue Burmese before and did not know what they would look like (as babies) compared to the dove.

So all that said, if anyone wants to make a database of colors, you are going to have your work cut out for you! Keep in mind that not all possible colors are standardized. In addition, those colors that are standardized can be extremely variable. We see that most often with black, which can be a very nice, dark black, or may be faded to "brown", or may be heavily silvered. ANY color can have variation, but some colors have more than others. Regarding adding genetic information, this can also be tricky, as some colors CAN be acquired in different ways. For example, platinum is described genetically by different clubs as being a/a g/g r/r AND a/a g/g m/m. Apparently those two genotypes also have slightly different appearance, but I guess are close enough to be standardized as the same. Lilac is another color I see described in different ways, depending on what club you look at. Some clubs call lilac a "genetic mink with modifiers to lighten color", but I have seen other colors call it "a/a g/g b/b". It can get downright confusing!

If you do choose to make a database, around here I have black, chocolate (true genetic chocolates, though a little darker than the preferred standard), Burmese (two shades, one lighter and one darker), Russian blue Burmese, sable Burmese, and dove (mink-based). In the future I expect litters that will include these colors as well as Russian blue, seal-point Siamese, Russian blue-point Siamese, black-eyed Siamese, dove (chocolate-based), and possibly other colors (depending on how soon I can work out the dilutes I don't want).

 

[Melissa]

Wow, that's so interesting!

I'm having a hard time myself trying to figure out what colour my babies are. I swear they keep changing colout everyday.

 

[Bronwyn]

The only change I remember is my baby boy rex fawn that looked like a little fireball. He was stunning. But as he grew it faded. Now Atrus has him and he looks almost beige, hehe.

What I found really cool was when the agouti rex x self beige gave a litter that had very unique babies. As soon as their fuzz grew in it was clear no markers would be needed! *tried to remember*...

Agouti rex
Black hooded standard
Beige rex
Beige standard
Black berk rex
Black hooded rex
2 beige hooded standards (stripes easy to tell apart)
Beige hooded rex
Fawn rex

Okay I'm a bad mummy I forgot one. :shock: I guess that list looks not so interesting but to see them together...you'd see what I mean, lol.