If I mate these 2 rats?

Question

I have a hairless male & a black female dumbo. If I mate these two would I have a chance at getting a dumbo hairless or a regular hairless rat?

Answer 1

Look, please, DON'T breed your rats! It sounds like you're breeding them for the h**l of it, because you can and because it's fun. All the rescue centres in my area are completely saturated with homeless rats and the waiting lists are also full up. I think the boom in rat breeding this year and the number of unwanted rats has rocketed because of the success of the Ratouille film making kids pester their parents for pet rats -which ultimately they get bored with and abandon, whilst the breeders continue to increase the amount of rats that they breed. If everybody in the world stopped breeding their rats for just 1 year, the amount of homeless rats in the world would likely halve at least. Please don't breed your rats - it's bad enough that too many people are breeding them anyway. If people come to you asking for rats, send them on to a rescue centre instead of killing shelter rats chances.

There is nothing wrong with a few professional breeders specially breeding a suitable amount of rats specially for health, temperament and to improve the future health of rats. If you insist on breeding, have you checked that the last 3 generations of your rats have been completely healthy and respiratory problem and tumor free? Did they all live to at least 2 years old? If not, you shouldn't breed them or you won't be dissimilar to some of the backyard breeders breeding any old rats because they can, and then endangering the health of all our future companions. Are you rats pet store rats? It doesn't matter how healthy rats seem now, it is their genetics that matter in responsible breeding. If they are from a pet store or you can't guarantee the genetics three generations back then its simple - don't breed them!

If you still insist on breeding, then I see no reason why you don't have a chance of producing some hairless rats, dumbo or not. However, make it clear to buyers and if you didn't know already, yourself, that you shouldn't breed female hairless rats  - they are notorious for having lactating problems and can suffer badly from the cold due to feeding and looking after so many babies whilst not having a coat to keep warm. There is also debate over whether it is fair to purposefully breed hairless rats - I have no personal experience of the rat type though and so can't offer my opinion on this.

EDIT: Okay, I kind of have to agree with Darksong now, sorry - anybody who breeds feeder rats is not a responsible breeder. Sorry. Breeding feeder rats is what backyard breeders do. Feeder rats were never meant to be bred for health or temperament - they were bred for snake food, end of. You can't gurantee their genetics and would be reproducing unhealthy genes. If you don't have enough knowledge of genes to know what kinds of rat type breeding a certain pair might produce, then you really shouldn't be breeding.

EDIT: Keeping all of the babies if you decide to do this?! Are you crazy?! You do know rat litters of over 20 are not uncommon? Do you have the money and the cages to keep another 20 rats (which will also have to be s*x-separated, increasing the cage amounts) on top of the ones you already have? That's at least 40 cubic feet of cage alone just for the new babies! And can you afford the potential vets bills of over 20 rats? I really think you need to consider this a lot more before you even think about breeding more rats.

Answer 2

You have a good chance of being a backyard breeder.

Why are you breeding? Think about it. Breeding is not a game... it's not a matter of just putting a male and female animal together. Mess with the wrong genes and breed the wrong animals and you could end up with some very sick babies. Do you know the mom and dad's genetic/health history at least three generations back? Pet store animals should never be bred, you know nothing about their health background. It doesn't matter if they seem healthy now or the vet gave them a clean bill of health... it's what's in their genes. There are more than enough small animals in shelters and rescues without more poorly bred ones being added to the overpopulation. There's a lot more to breeding responsibly than you might think. Please read and make a responsible decision:

http://www.petinfopackets.com/aboutbreed...

Edit: Going to keep up to 22 babies if she has a litter that large? Hah. Good luck with that.

Edit 2: Yes, I do 'jump on' anyone who backyard breeds. You are breeding pet store animals whose genetic backgrounds you don't even know. You aren't breeding to better the breed, you're just taking homes away from shelter and rescue rats with poorly bred ones.

And don't tell me you're keeping them all. Seriously, have you checked out how many babies rats can have?

If you don't even have enough of a grasp on rat genetics to know what type of babies you'll get by breeding this pair, you shouldn't be breeding.

Answer 3

I'm not sure about Rat genetics but many of the small mammals have such similar mutations. In the cavy (guinea pig) 'hairless' is recessive to normal coat.

If this is also the case with rats, unless your Dumbo rat is recessive for 'hairless' (i.e. has got one hairless gene from one of her parents but it doesn't show because she has one 'normal ' gene too) you will not get any hairless babies.

They will all be 'hairless carriers' i.e. if bred from later on, the babies will produce hairless but only if mated to other hairless or hairless carriers (because 'hairless' would have to come form both parents).

Again, I'm not sure about the 'Dumbo' gene (as we don't have that in cavies!)  If it is dominant over normal ears you will get some Dumbo babies, if it is recessive you will get 'Dumbo carriers' i.e. rats with the potential to breed Dumbos but only if mated to another Dumbo or Dumbo carrier rat.

There must be plenty of websites with rat genetics if you google them; (at least on those you won't get the fluffies like Darksong telling you how to organise your own life).

Don't want to sound patronising (I don't know how much genetics you know) but make sure you understand the terms  'Dominant'  'Recessive'  'Heterozygous' 'Homozygous'  'Allele' and  'locus' before you wade into some of the genetics pages or else they'll do your head in !!!!!

Answer 4

wow some people act as if they know everything. I dislike people like that. Yes you have a  chance of getting a dumbo hairless rat. Please keep me updated.  

Answer 5

i have nothing else to add but to say i agree with darksong17 and Igwig Razorboo Wolf and anyone who has a problem with them is probably doing wrong by their rats. feeder rats should NEVER be bred.