RRR Breeding Program - Ratty Rat Rattery San Diego, CA

Ratty Rat Rattery San Diego, CA

Ratty Rat's Breeding Program

The varieties and colors we breed and our breeding goals:
*The genes responsible for each trait are listed in parenthesis

Ears

Dumbo (dudu)
My goal is for most of our ratties to have dumbo or carry dumbo ears. This will likely take some time and several generations. Dumbo is a recessive gene, so a ratty must have two copies of the dumbo allele to have dumbo ears, but a ratty can carry just one dumbo allele (heterozygous), and pass it on to their offspring. We are working on nice large, round, properly set, and smooth ear shapes

In the first picture, CMMR Epic's ears could be a little rounder, but show nice size, no creases, and are set perfectly on her head, not too high or low.

In the second picture, HGLR Annapurna's ears are nice and large, no creases, perfectly round, but are set too high on her head

The third picture is of a Russian blue kitten, and shows how deceiving photos of rats can be. From a profile this rat appears to have nice smooth, perfectly round ears, set a little low, but great shape.

The fourth picture here shows the same Russian blue kitten from the front. You can see that the ears are actually very creased, and even fold back a little. One ear is set higher than the other.

RRR Kit kat here is showing very nice round ears, she is holding them forward, they are set correctly on her head. They could be a little larger, but overall are good.

Standard Ear (DuDu)
Standard ears are the dominant ear set. We do have some standard ears, and some lines that will be more standard eared than dumbo eared

Coat Type

Standard
We strive for nice shiny coats that aren't too long. Most of the rats born at our rattery are standard coated

Rex (Rere)
I THOUGHT our rex line wasn't curly enough....but from what I've seen on most other rex rats, it's pretty darn curly. It's a rex gene that starts off SUPER curly at 2-3 weeks of age, sometimes the coat sheds out at 4 weeks, and grows back in by 6 weeks. Males are generally more curly than females. Our rexes have shown to retain their curls, and not get a very thin coat as they age. Currently this particular rex gene is in our dwarf line, but we have brought a rat in from another breeder to get the rex back to our standard rats. I'd like to note there are LOTS of Rex/curly genes out there. Some when combined produce extra curly coats (though I have owned a rat that was a double rex, he was not super curly, nor was he a patchwork hairless, he just looked like a "bad" rex. Some when combined, create patchwork hairless. It's probably safe to to say many breeders have different rex genes from each other, I know mine is different than other breeders.

Hairless (hrhr)
We are working on bringing hairless back to our rattery. We have the gene, we just need to breed the right rats. I hope to have a hairless born in our rattery before the end of 2012. I only work with well-documented hairless lines, which is why it's so tough for me to find any! We had a gorgeous hairless line when we began, but ended it due to a rat in the line having a mammary tumor at 1 yr old.

Satin (recessive)
We just recently acquired two satin rats from HGLR. We look forward to introducing satin soon

Colors

Black (aaB-)
We strive for a nice rich black color with little silvering. We currently have a black self and black marked line.

Blue (aagg)
I recently had to restart my blue line. I have two separate blue lines. One is a self line from CMMR and the other is a down under line from RG/BFF. I strive for a nice dark blue with little silvering.

Russian Blue (aadd)
I have been phasing out Russian Blue. It pops up, and is in our burmese line, but I no longer breed specifically for it.

Mink/Lilac (aamm), Pearl (Pe pe), and Merle (Meme or MeMe)
I've just started working with a pearl/mink merle line. I'm really looking forward to breeding this line, they are gorgeous. I'll be working on better type and size for this line

Color Patterns/Markings

Self (HH)
A self rat is one solid color. We strive for color all the way down to the nails, with little silvering in the coat.We breed self rats in black and American blue. Colors that may show up are Russian Blue, chocolate, and mink.

Down Under (Dudu or DuDu)
Down Under is a dominant gene that causes the markings on the back to be mirrored on the belly of the rat. Right now we have Berkshire, but will be working toward blazed variegated down under.

Black Eyed Siamese (ch/ch w/ black eyed gene)
Our black eyed Siamese line is a strong focus in the rattery. Right now I only breed for Seal point, using Burmese and Black self to cross into it. Future goals for this line is to breed blue point. The rats in this line are BIG rats, very robust, with really great type.

Black-Eyed Himalayan (c/ch w/ black eyed gene)
Another strong focus of mine. I plan to present this variety to AFRMA for standardization before the end of 2012. I LOVE the big black eyes and white coats of this line, they are simply striking to see.

Burmese
I have quite a few Burmese rats, specifically agouti based. They are a great, healthy out cross for my rats, and they have been line bred to have GREAT type. All around, they are really great rats

Dwarf

I have a small dwarf line (no pun intended =-) I only breed a small handful of all dwarf litters a year, and they produce VERY small litters. I do sometimes breed dwarf carriers, so there are usually a few more dwarf in those litters, but dwarf that is available for adoption if few and far between. They come in a rainbow of colors right now, I'm not breeding for any specific colors at this time.

Before we focus on color, we always breed for the following qualities first

Health
First and foremost, we breed for healthy rats. There are far too many rats out there with health problems that were bred indiscriminately of health. We will immediately stop a line if any tumors or other serious genetic health problems come up. We encourage adopters to contact us should their rats have any serious health problems. We also select for Mycoplasma resistant ratties. That doesn't mean our rats won't have any health problems, no breeder can guarantee that, any rat in the wrong conditions can become ill. But we try our best ensure we breed healthy rats.

Temperament
We breed for happy, playful, outgoing rats that have a calm demeanor. When pairing our ratties, it is the first thing we consider aside from health. What good is a beautiful ratty if it doesn't make a great pet too? We use a 1-5 numbering system to evaluate our ratties' temperaments. When pairing ratties for breeding, the combined temperament score has to be 9 or greater. Meaning if a ratty scores a 4 in temperament, it can only breed with a ratty that scores a 5. We especially love to breed our 5+ ratties, they have extra special personalities.

Type (Conformation)
Overall we are focusing on show quality type. We are working on shortening noses and widening muzzles, broadening shoulders, widening ear sets, rounding tails, and increasing body size. We show regularly to have the type of our rats evaluated, and they must be given breeder status by AFRMA to breed

Longevity
I strive to breed longer lived rats. Any rat that lives a natural life of under 2yrs old is not acceptable. We have rats that have lived for as long as 3.5 years, and we are working to create more rats that live that long. Most rats I keep here at the rattery for their entire lives make it well past two years old. I regularly keep in contact with many adopters, and have many whose rats are well over two as well.