# some of my rats



## WomaPythons (May 30, 2011)

hi everyone im breeding rats for my snakes and came across some nice little 1s for pets what do u guys think of them


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## killimike (May 30, 2011)

Cute 

That yellow colour is very interesting, and I like the hooded one.


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## saximus (May 30, 2011)

Haha they're so cute. I can't bring myself to kill them at this age. They need to be younger or older. I agree the yellow colouring is interesting. Is it just the light? Selling them as pets can be more profitable than selling for food too if you've got excess


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## Khagan (May 30, 2011)

Interesting, never seen a yellow rat before lol.


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## abnrmal91 (May 30, 2011)

I have had a couple of rats that were yellow according to my bredli they taste great, slight hint of lemon hahaha


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## Bez84 (May 30, 2011)

Be worth keeping and selective breeding with... i breed rats for my snakes aswell but also mess around with selective breeding interesting rats...currently working on rats with blazes and white head spots that i produced from a freak mutation out of my standard black and white hooded rat line lol..


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## Torah (May 30, 2011)

too cute


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## saximus (May 30, 2011)

How many generations does it take to get interesting stuff to show consistently?


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## WomaPythons (May 30, 2011)

that litter of rats was from a choc coloured hood and a little bit lighter 1 but thats what they look like no light they are really gold im keeping these for pets mess around with abit


this is the rest of the litter


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## CamdeJong (May 30, 2011)

Can't wait to take a few off your hands and help out with the breeding effort =)


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## harley0402 (May 30, 2011)

They are so cute. my rats also had babies a couple of week ago, they are a little bit bigger then the ones in the photo. They are too cute at that age hey. One of my girls had 13 and the other had 6, both their first time. Good luck with your babies, they make great pets.


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## Asharee133 (May 30, 2011)

omg they are SO CUTEEEEEEE!


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## WomaPythons (May 30, 2011)

i had 38 from 4 first time breeders and.......cam u can have the plane 1s for food


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## Bez84 (May 30, 2011)

saximus said:


> How many generations does it take to get interesting stuff to show consistently?



After a few years of breeding a black and white hooded line, one day a blazed baby came out and been trying to produce a female with his same pattern but having no luck lol, have produced only males with great head spots/blazes etc and females with low quality smudges lol...
Last litter was awesome finally got a heap of interesting ones that had white noses/faces, a white blaze running up there black head and no black back stripe...them the mum killed the lot....


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## saximus (May 30, 2011)

Oh damn I hate the mothers like that. I really hope I can get my setup working well enough to be able to actually selectively breed rather than just taking whatever I can get


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## WomaPythons (May 30, 2011)

when these goldy 1s can breed im goin to put the brightest together and see if i can get it brighter just see what happens might even put a really light brown hood with a few this is only a first gen so i got a few to work with now

these were just throwen together cause i only had 2 hoods and the rest a plane white but now i got a heap of different 1s in the other litters aswell so ill be able to have some fun with them


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## Bez84 (May 30, 2011)

Just took these then to show what im messing with in my setup.. First 2 pics are of the freak blaze that poped out of my breeding line... third pic are the best 2 male blaze/head spot that i have been able to produce from him so far and last pic is best female ive got so far....currently breeding that female back to him and produced a awesome litter that she wiped out so no waiting for new litter ( over half of the litter that got wiped out had white noses blazes and zero back stripes)... would of had better results sooner but for some reason it took a while for the obvious idea of breeding the original male back to the offspring to happen...
Also cant see it in photos but there bottom jaws are completly white only the top half of skull is black..


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## -Katana- (May 30, 2011)

Looks great...nice rats everyone!

I'm a bit miffed at the moment...it would seem that one of my females must have some wild rat in her because she is thowing bubs that have the typical wild rat coloration. Looks like all offspring are going to be feeders and I'll cull her before the summer heat.


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## MsMoreliaMagic (May 30, 2011)

Very cute, I have never bred any that had that colour, Will be interesting to see how that line turn out. Keep us updated womapythons


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## WomaPythons (May 30, 2011)

i think it was a freak thing jo but ill keep u posted


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## lace90 (May 30, 2011)

I'll buy two!! I'm picky with what rats I choose for pets, and they are some of the best!


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## happyherps (Jun 2, 2011)

in my rat book it says that you r very lucky if you get different patterns and then can isolate that pattern to make a new line because their dna is so stable meaning that they havent changed much since they came into existance so it might be only one in 10,00 that throws a freak one so for both of u to have gotten fantastic patterns on your rats is imo just incredible hope u suceed with breeding them colours


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## ingie (Jun 2, 2011)

saximus said:


> How many generations does it take to get interesting stuff to show consistently?



It is just like snakes  The parents have to either display or carry the genes for the different colours, patterns and coat types. There are SO many different colours and variations available. Some are recessive and some are dominant just like in reptiles - so you could try pairing up your rats in different combinations and you might get lucky to have something recessive pop up  The genes are quite complex but it is really fun when you start to selectively breed... I have been been selectively breeding for different patterns etc. for about 6 months now and have some amazing ratties  

Black lightning blaze and wedge blaze variegated rats





Black wedge blaze berkshire rats




Agouti wedge blaze variegated, mismarked split cap, and other things lol




Dove blazed berkshire, mink banded hood




Blue based cinnamon silk berkshire





All these patterns are easy to breed once you understand the genetics and purchase rats who you know display or carry these genes.



Akwendi said:


> Looks great...nice rats everyone!
> 
> I'm a bit miffed at the moment...it would seem that one of my females must have some wild rat in her because she is thowing bubs that have the typical wild rat coloration. Looks like all offspring are going to be feeders and I'll cull her before the summer heat.


 
That 'wild rat' colour is agouti, it doesn't mean there is any wild rat in your rat at all, it is just another colour and happens to be dominant over black and other colours people seem to like. Agouti rats with pink or ruby coloured eyes have a lightened coat that can be bright orange and other pretty colours. The coat colours change when the eye colour changes - for example a genetically black rat with pink eyes is a very pale champagne colour  Have a look at the info on coats, colours, genetics and markings on the website 'Sunshine rats'. That is where I learnt some really useful info about selectively breeding my babies.


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## saximus (Jun 2, 2011)

Aww that first picture is awesome Ingie. Thanks for the info too. I'm really looking forward to getting into selective breeding so I can get some results like the people on here. Just need to work out an effective way to keep them cool during summer so they don't all die :/


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## lace90 (Jun 2, 2011)

Awesome work Ingie  Do you keep many as pets?


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## CentralianKing (Jun 2, 2011)

They look like most of my coloured rats, what you want is weird patches and unusual patterns, I've tried line breeding for patterns but after 1000's of births I can tell you patterns are just random, no genetics involved, I've bred thick saddled rats to thick saddled rats and had rats come out with no saddle? I do like to mix colours though, keeps the litters colourful and interesting.


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## snakebag (Jun 2, 2011)

I've been trying to find the thread with the link to the auto water nozzles for rats can anyone let me know the products name


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## ingie (Jun 2, 2011)

Patterns are passed on through genetics. Occasionally you might have something weird pop up but it is certainly not a case of complete randomness. Of course there will be variation in each litter though but you generally see a trend. If you look into rat genetics you will see that some patterns mask others (bareback masks saddle, black eyed white masks all colour), but these patterns don't come out of nowhere they are hidden in there somewhere! It is not as straight forward as simple dominance and recessive in some patterns though... I am trying to breed consistent rats that are all white with black eyes and black spots, but it is hard to get the spots regularly in places other than ears. These rats are called 'mismarked black eyed whites' and they are produced when the masking BEW gene is faulty and lets bits of the masked colour be expressed. Then there is all the business of headspots and blazes - they are not completely predictable, but even so are genetically inherited. If I breed together 2 headspots I might get some black eyed whites (BEW) and some blazes, and if i breed a blaze and headspot or 2 blazes or a BEW I can get better bigger blazes and maybe a wedge... Haha rat people are as crazy/crazier than reptile people...



lace90 said:


> Awesome work Ingie  Do you keep many as pets?


I do actually  I keep all the biggest healthiest ones with the desired markings, and the rest are for food... I have favourites that will never be food - I would re home them as a pet if I couldn't keep them any longer. I play with my rats all the time and treat them like any other pets (except for the culling part which still makes me sad).

Three of the most common patterns are 'hooded' (hh), 'berkshire'(hH) and 'self'(HH) rats.... Everyone knows the typical hooded rat; berkshire is when the rat is all one colour on top with a white tummy; and self is when they are all one colour with no white on the tummy. If you breed two normal hooded rats (hh) you get all hooded babies; if you breed two self rats (HH) you get all self babies, and if you breed two berkshire rats (Hh) you get all three patterns. Different combinations of the three patterns have different expected ratios of each marking per litter, easy to work out with a simple punnett square


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## icedmice (Jun 7, 2011)

They look fawn to me. But might be argente, but I'd still lean towards fawn as a better response.

Fawn is ruby eyed agouti. Ruby eyes also dilute the coat.
SOOOO badly want some of those blazes. You know how hard it is to get a good one, or even to get them to live over 1.5 years!



ingie said:


> Haha rat people are as crazy/crazier than reptile people...



I'm offended....I'm not crazy....the politically correct term is "phycologically challenged".


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