What variation are available in Oz?

[Kim]

Who ever told you that PEW's were not Albinos must not know much about rats.

Aug 11, 2008 19:41:16 GMT 10 @misskooky said:

What happened to him?

I have no idea. He was found in a pet shop with what were thought to be his 2 brothers.

They had mites and Neo had already had some of his ears eaten away by them, you may notice his ears especially in the last photo are different to the other guys.

Hayley the lady who found them revolutioned all 3, not long after one of the boys passed away. A few weeks later I went to Sydney and picked up Neo. Hayley kept the last boy.

A few months later this boy Hayley kept had also passed away.

Neo lived the longest, living to be 8 months old and passing away on May 21st 2008. Which is also the anniversary of my mothers death, so it was an extra sad day for me.

Hayley estimated that they were around 9 weeks old when she got them, although Neo was smaller than my 7 week old rats at the time I brought him home in November 2007.

So I had him for about 6 months before he died. He showed no sign of illness before he suddenly got sick and couldnt breath.

Of course I know of at least 9 other BEW's, within NSW and Vic, both male and female who seem perfectly fine and one is 18 months old already.

For Neo it may just have been a bad combination of genes or something else.

Even standard rats can have faulty genes and die for unknown reasons, so at this stage I wouldnt say its something that is in the BEW's

I'm actually looking forward to the day I get another BEW.

As Neo had such a wonderful personality.

[misskooky]

That must have been so sad. But at least he spent a good deal of his life with someone who cared about him.

I had no idea mites ate their ears either. That's not good.
I think I saw some rats with mites. What happens to them if they are left untreated? Are mites long and red and tiny?

[Kim]

Aug 11, 2008 23:43:53 GMT 10 @misskooky said:

I had no idea mites ate their ears either. That's not good.
I think I saw some rats with mites. What happens to them if they are left untreated? Are mites long and red and tiny?

Those are lice.

Which a rat can get even if you have the cleanest cage in the world.

They especially show up when you have an unhealthy rat and then they tend to be passed on to every rat that rat comes in contact with.

Mites look like pimple bumps on the rats ears and tail.

If left untreated they will eat away the whole ears and the tail.

Its simple to treat both mites and lice by putting a small drop of kitten/puppy revolution on the back of the rats neck.

Its best to treat all your rats at the same time though, not just the effected one, also you need to do one rat then let the revolution dry a little bit before putting that rat back in with other rats as they will lick the yucky smelling stuff off each other, which is no good for the rat and wont help to rid them of the mites or lice.

[wulfyskingdom]

Aug 12, 2008 0:29:07 GMT 10 Kim said:

also you need to do one rat then let the revolution dry a little bit before putting that rat back in with other rats as they will lick the yucky smelling stuff off each other, which is no good for the rat and wont help to rid them of the mites or lice.

I find putting the revolution on all at the same time at the beginning of play time or free range time is handy. I sit with them of course and if one tries to lick they are distracted by a hand wrestle or a treat lol

[Kim]

...lol... well yeah its probably easy to do it that way when you have a small number of ratties.

I tend to think in large numbers and forget that others dont have as many as me.

Its a bit hard to do them all at once for me though as I have over 30 girls and over 30 boys.

[wulfyskingdom]

Ah yes, thats a good point lol... I did actually think of you when i was writing that... i cant imagine that'd be an easy task

[barrya]

That black eyed white is really special . Despite being owned by rats for 15 years i have never seen even a photo of a b e w in Australia before .
Another way of decribing the genitics of p e w is to explaining that a black rat with a white jumper will appear white but when you remove the coat you still have a black rat underneath . I would be interested in knowing what to expect if you mate 2 b e w together. Do you get all b e w or can you get any colour that the white is masking . I have found that when i mate p e w together most of the offspring are p e w , is this just my lines or do other breeders find the same results .
Barry and Julie

[Kim]

Barry thats also a really great way to describe a PEW to someone, I never though about using a jumper to describe the white masking.



As BEW isnt a masking gene like PEW is, if you mated 2 BEW's together you are likely to get BEW's and Barebacks.

BEW's originated from Blazes but especially bareback blazes.

I know of one litter in NSW where a lady used a BEW father and bred him to his daughter who was a bareback blaze and she got 7 BEW's and 3 Barebacks.

So with a BEW you are actually not hiding any marking or colour, which is why you get BEW's who have at least a spot of colour, either on the coat or on the ear or tail, or a few coloured hairs on the coat somewhere.

Those BEW's that dont have any colour spots at all would be considered perfect BEW's those with colour spots or hairs would be considered a mismarked BEW.

In the same way that a berkshire with only a small white spot on the tummy is a mismarked berkshire.



I think thats were BEW's are going to get a little confusing for some people as most people who know that the PEW gene is a masking gene that hides the rats actual colour and marking may also think the white of the BEW works in the same way.

Which of course it doesnt as BEW isnt a masking gene so doesnt hide any colour or markings.

Basically with the BEW what you see is what you get.

[jaderattie]

Just some interesting information that i have observed that might come in handy to people interested in Black Eyed Whites. I love genetics and spend heaps and heaps of time studying.

So the way a black eyed white is developed is: You take a rat with dark eyes and minimal coat colour markings, so lets say a bareback or capped rat. Over generations you mate rats with the minimal amount of markings together and eventually you'll get black eyed whites.

A black eyed white is then really a coloured/marked rat with solid markings bred out. Now this may be off track a little but in horses it is called Overo and some horses are born with only solid coloured ears and the rest of their body is white.

But, and this is the interesting part! There is a condition in horses called Lethal White Syndrome where individuals who inherit too much white or something to do with genes attached/associated with the Overo marking kill the foals at an early age. I'm pretty sure a test is available to screen parents before mating to show the likelyhood of having a lethal white foal.

Now i'm not saying that this is the problem with Black Eyed Whites in Rats but it may be possible, and may be the reason that some live full and healthy lives whilst others die at a young age.

Its the same as inheriting colour genes from parents, a foal has to inherit the lethal gene from both parents for it to take effect but there have been all white horses found who have two copies of the lethal white gene and have survived.

And under 25% of two lethal white matings will produce a lethal white foal.
Any horse of any colour, even fully solid coloured horses can carry the lethal white gene.
A horse who carries the lethal white gene can show but not always, a spotty coat pattern on some sections of its coat, described as dalmation looking.

In rats we all know about megacolon, it usually kills rats when they are very young, well i found a great site which actually talks about delayed megacolon, which may be what is killing our Black Eyed Whites, this condition can spring up at 10 months, and it can be in some cases controlled by diet.

Here is a site with information included on delayed megacolon.
www.ratguide.com/health/digestive/megacolon.php

If i find any other information, i'll post it here.

[Kim]

Actually Jade maybe you could start another thread on just BEW's as this is probably better to talk about in its own topic so it doesnt get lost among talk of varities.



It is agood topic to talk aboutthose, especially for those members who have not heard of it before.

[minniecarrie]

How common are the patchwork rex's? Are their breederd who specifically breed patchwork and double rex rats in Australia? I'd love one so much!

[Kim]

As far as I know, I'm the only person currently breeding Patchwork Rex ... I also have never seen in person any Patchworks Rex rats that are as Patchy as mine...

Many people still call Patchwork Rex ... Double Rex ...

And there are a number of people breeding Double Rex...



But as I have tried to explain to people ...

Double Rex = thick curly coat and whiskers - they can get patchy and naked during their first moult but as adults they should never have bald patches, although thin patches are possible.

Patchwork Rex = curly coat and whiskers - they should be patchy and naked during first moult but as adults they should always be moulting in and out of patchiness.



But because many people continue to call Patchworks, Double Rex, there are probably a number of Patchworks out there that people dont realise are Patchworks.

[lz]

back to the AI comments it would be interesting huh... tho I'd wager most people would consider the price too much for a rat.
its a touch demoralizing how out of reach some of the cool American varieties are (I'd put my order in for a masked rat)

as fer coat types it can be a little confusing sometimes, it can seem as tho every second breeder has a different idea of what certain pattern varieties or coat type means. I mean i suppose there isnt really a right or wrong as to what you call it... but one breeder calls one thing a double rex and another will have a different idea.

[gabrielleb]

AI would be so awesome in rats Imagine all the varieties we would be able to have!

[ithinkismellarat]

so many varieties, so hard to choose!