Rattie Colors

Question

4 new babies   QUESTION: Hi, I was wondering if you could tell me what color my rats are. I have 6 rats, and 3 that I can't identify. The first one is Tabitha and from what I've read and seen I'd call her beige, but I always change my mind, and am not sure. I realize its very difficult to distinguish from photos so I thought if I told you what I see when I look at them it might help.Tabitha, seeing her in real life, she is very very pale, but definitely not white, and she has darker shades between her shoulders and down her back, more towards tan than gray. She has ruby eyes, they're very dark, but distinctly ruby. In #2 she is next to Gucci, our agouti, I thought that might help for comparison.

The next one is male, his name is Bo, I think you'd say he's capped with a blaze. In pictures he really looks like his cap is just black, but in real life it looks to be a very dark gray, completely solid, no ticking or change in the hair color from the tip to his skin, and it has a distinct blue cast to it.

The last one, I swore he was black when we got him, just 2 weeks ago (he was about 5 weeks old). He's a berkshire, but I can't tell you what color for anything! He looks very dark gray too, but his fur doesn't have the blue cast to it at all, it's more chocolatey. I also thought he was silvered or had ticking in his fur because some hairs (all through-out) look shinier and lighter than the rest. 4,5,and 6 are all him because he's such a chameleon. Sorry about the last picture, I just had to send it because it shows his coloring(at times) so well.

Thanks for your help.

-Jessica

ANSWER: I would agree that Tabitha is a beige. If she's very, very light she may be a platinum, but normally plats have pink eyes and her eyes are considerably darker. I'd say beige.

Bo looks black in the picture but if he looks blueish gray he is either charcoal or russian blue, though to be honest I'd guess charcoal before russian blue. RBs are normally pretty hard to find. If you can send me a better picture of him, I may be able to give you a better answer.

Your third boy looks like he could be melanistic: or rather, phenotypically mink genotypically black. I know this sounds confusing, but essentially what it is is a black rat that carries mink, they fade and wind up looking brown instead of black. It's called 'rusting' on does, since they normally don't fade all over. Of course the only way to test that assertion is to breed him to a mink and see if he throws mink or black; or breed him to a chocolate and see if he throws chocolate or black. If he threw chocolate, he's chocolate. If he throws mink, he's mink. If he throws black.. well then he's black. :) Rat genetics can be tricky, but given the darkness of his coloring and how rare it is to find chocolate and mink rats in pet stores (I'm assuming that's where you got him, and some places DO end up with mink routinely, but he isn't exactly light enough for mink), I'd say faded black.

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Bo and Armani   QUESTION: Thanks! That helps a lot. I didn't realize that such a thing as 'Charcoal' existed and in all my research have found nothing like Bo! I did actually consider that Armani may have been mink but decided that he wasn't because he was so dark, and again, found nothing like him, but I actually completely understand what you mean with the phenotype and genotype and that's really neat, I think. I didn't know that could happen! The pet store I got them from gets their rats from a breeder who has many many different lines and colors, she sells them her 'rejects' and keeps the ones she wants to continue the line with. So they end up with quite a variety of colors. All of our rats are from different litters even. I managed to get a few more photos of Bo and a pretty good one of Armani last night so I wanted to send those. Also, one last thing, is it possible for them to have dumbo in their genes and show it just a little bit? Kind of like Armani possibly carrying mink genes. Oh and about Tabitha, I definitely think you're right. I was pretty sure to begin with but having someone else say it (especially someone who knows what they're talking about) makes me feel more confident about calling her beige. Thanks again for your help.

P.S.
Sorry about the quality of the photos, the only ones I can get on the computer right now are from my cell phone.

Answer
Bo may in fact be a Russian Blue.. in some of those pictures he definitely has that sort of tinge to him. Charcoal is more like a black rat who laid in the sun too long - it just looks faded, not really blue. If you can, compare his color [since you're there in real life] so a picture of a Russian Blue online --- this one here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Rat_agouti_russian_blue.jpg  -- is a good pic to compare to.

A charcoal is a black rat who carries enough modifiers that the black displays but not well -- they don't usually fade until after weaning/puberty; and look black and birth. Any idea what was in the same litter with him? that may give you an idea, as well.