Colors and variations of my brats

Question
QUESTION: Hi,
I've been here before and Totally LoVe this site.  
Anyways, I have a few questions on colors of my sweeties.  I've made a webpage to show you my brats that I'm asking about...
http://www.geocities.com/cloversleaf/show.html
Okay...first my light colored babies I was wondering if you could tell me what colors or variations they are.  Jo-jo and Mimzy are lighter than Trevor.  I'm thinking either Siamese, Himi, platinum, beige, or fawn?  Mostly the two lighter ones have sort of splashes of white all over their bodies, and the darker one has some splashes of white on his face.
Another question I have is for my two girls at the bottom of the webpage, Noah and Lilly.  I'm wondering if you think they might be melanistic?  Or what else it may be?  The colors on their faces constantly change, light to dark, dark to light, in splashes.  They are sisters, plus Zena at the top of the webpage too, her face does the same thing too.  They're almost identical and sometimes I mistake one for the other because of it haha  I Really love the way they change their looks all the time.  I think it's So pretty :)  I just would like to know what it is, and hopefully nothing I would need to worry about.  I've read somewhere animals that are melanistic have a better immune system.  I could be wrong though.  That just keeps popping in my head from what I've read about it.  

Anyways, I appreciate any time you have in helping me out :)  Thank you!

Naomi

ANSWER: Hi Naomi;

Jobie is a silvered black, yes. Zena is a standard agouti -- melanistics have big patches of rust on black coat, so its difficult to tell whether an agouti has melanistic tendencies, however how old is Zena? If she's under 8 months, she may just be continuing to molt, and as their coat molts out and their undercoat changes, their color can be expected to change a bit also. I say the same of Lilly and Noah -- if you can give me an approximate age, that would help me better to pinpoint what may be going on with their coat.

Trevor (to me) looks to be a light fawn or a buff. The proof would be in the genetics; but I assume you don't know that, so I'm basing it off of appearances alone. Usually fawn is much richer orange, similar to argente, so I'm saying Trevor is a buff.

Jo-Jo is beige.

Mimzy looks like a platinum to me; RED-based probably.

Given their sizes; none of these rats are himalayan or siamese. Neither color-point types display with patches of white. Instead, Siameses are born dark and lighten everywhere except the base of their ears, base of their tail, ankles and nose tip. Himalayans are born white and their points grow in usually by 3 months of age (Siamese much earlier; Himalayans can sometimes display late, but these colors are NOT himalayan base colors).

Cuties! Good luck.




---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Actually Zena, Lilly, and Noah are 11 months old this month.  They were born last year, March 22, '08.  They are very small girls.  Their mother, who I still have is the hairless, Jilly, at the top of my webpage to the right.  When I adopted her from our local pet shop she ended up being pregnant before I took her home, so no, I don't know her back lines except her sister, Joey, that is laying with her in the picture, she is a hooded fawn mismarked.  Both Jilly and Joey were adopted from the the local pet shop, but came from a home.  They had Jilly separated from her sisters in one of the glass containers in the shop, and I picked out Joey from the guy who had brought them in from his home in an aquarium with about 8 of Jilly's sisters that were hooded fawn/buff mismarked, and one other hairless girl just like Jilly.  He had all of Jilly's sisters out back in the aquarium that he had them in.  Well, actually I guessed on the fawn color with her, but her brown color is the same as Trevor's, so I may be wrong with her color too.  She may be hooded buff mismarked (she has a clover looking spot on her back, and has a very light brown, not orangish, hood.  
I kept all of Jilly's litter because I was not sure of all of her back lines or who the father was, and I really just didn't feel right sending them off to other people's homes not knowing of any aggression or health.  They did end up turning out to be really great pets, no aggression or health problems what-so-ever.  
Now these babies, the light colored ones, their mother is Zena at the top, and their father is Jobe right to the left of her.  I don't know his back lines, but I've had him for a year now, I guess at his age of 8-9 months old when I adopted him in February of '08, and I have watched for any signs of aggression and/or health problems with none what-so-ever.  So I thought it would be a good match.  And for me health and temperament always comes first.  The colors are just a beautiful plus.  I keep looking at breeder's websites to see what they put in for the colors and variations and also some good other sites that help me to tell with the color and variations.  
I'm just starting out up here in northern, NY.  I want to be able to let people up here adopt healthy, good temperamental, and well socialized pet rats, because the only place we can get any pet rats for many miles around up here is the pet shops.  
Oh, and the light colored babies are 3 months old this month.  They were born on November 4th, '08.  
Thank you for helping me with the colors.  I very much appreciate it :)  I can finally get the melanistic out of my head now, thanks for that too :)  I still don't know why they would still be changing colors as they are 11 months old this month, but it's okay with me.  They are very healthy, playful, and so sweet, and that's what really matters :)  I just wondered if there was some kind of color or variation to go with that that you knew of.  I'm going to be making a website for people to adopt my brats, as so many people would like to see the pictures and everything instead of just a newspaper ad, and I just wanted to get the colors and variations to be able to label them on my website too.

Thank you.

ANSWER: That's very odd about your agoutis.. Hmmm.. Does the coat seem different (softer, shorter, thicker) in those areas at all? Do you notice it changes with the weather?

Well kudos to you for bringing rats to your area! If you need anything in the future feel free to ask - either here or using the e-mail page on my website, which connects you to my personal e-mail: www.ratterfly.com

The fun part about genetics is that there's a million different color combos.. Each unique!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I actually notice it change every one-two days with the girls.  Like with Zena, she seems to have a dark stripe right down her face one day and then the next day it's gone, and the only way I know it's her is by checking her tail, because she's the only one that doesn't have the pink tip.  I keep mistaking Zena to be Noah when Zena doesn't have the dark on her face, because when Noah's face is lighter her whole face turns light and she'll have like a sort of dark colored bangs haha, and sometimes Zena has it too.  It doesn't ever seem shorter or softer.  All of their fur is really soft, always had been, but I figured that was because they are girls.  Do you think maybe this happens because they're babies from a hairless mom?  Although I know they're not losing their hair.  It just lightens and/or darkens in color.

Two of the boys from that same litter also do the same...their faces lighten and darken in blotches like the girls.  
I remember one time when my sweet girl Joey passed away Robin, one of Zena's brother's, had a tear shaped light spot right under his right eye for about two days and the rest of his face was all dark colored.  He was the only boy brattie that Joey Really liked, and I think the feelings were mutual between them.  She spent a few hours with him and all they did was snuggle and give each other baths :)  It was So sweet!  Nothing ever came of it, so I guessed it wasn't meant to be, which was okay, because for them to have that incredibly beautiful time together was just the most beautiful thing I think I could ever have witnessed.  It was truly beautiful.  Anyways...he is one of the two that the colors lighten and darken on his face too, but with the boys the change is usually not every one to two days.  They seem to stay with their new looks for a day or two longer.  I actually really like it.  It makes them even more special.  I just wish I knew what it was haha

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my tedious questions.  I very much appreciate your time.  I know I have so much to learn still, and I'm sure I'll always have questions.  

I've read about the table thing to see what kinds of colors and variations that are possible in a litter by plugging in the lines that you know, but every time I read it I think I just get more confused with it haha  Science was really never one of my favorite subjects haha  Hopefully in time, especially when I know more of the lines from each of the parents that I do breed together then it will become easier...hopefully :)  But it's very comforting to know that there is someone that I can ask questions to, so thank you so much :)

I'll have to do some researching on the Buff color that you said Trevor is...I haven't heard of that one before.  I learn something new every day.  That's why I'm constantly researching all about rats, because there is so much to learn about them, and every time I do I always learn something new :)

Okay, I think I'm done for now...so sorry...I tend to go on and on sometimes haha

Answer
It could be due to the hairless gene.. although generally if their color is changing and its related to a hairless gene, their coat is thinning and growing back in.. so you'd notice a coat change, ya know? Very curious! I'll have to research it.

Genetics can be tricky, but I love it. I was never a science person myself; but for some reason I just "GET" genetics. They click.

Anyhow - have fun breeding - and feel free to ask me anything, any time. :)