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I'm sure there are better sites to post this on but I thought of you guys first. I'm not a rat breeder or keeper, this guy was purchased from a local pet store with the direct intention of being snake food. We bought 5 small rats (since large are impossible to find) and decided to plump them up a bit to make them worthy of eating. I was honestly just bored and watching them for temporary amusment when I noticed this guy. He had a brown patch on his lower back that looked odd.

My eyes aren't the best so this crappy pic is pretty accurate to as what I saw.

At first I thought it was dirt or a bald spot or something so I turned on a like to check him out closer. It turns out that it's not dirt or balding its just normal fur! Not only that but what I assumed was black was now clearly black and grey. It's not grey fading into black because there is a very clear line where the grey stops and black begins. He also has some brown on his chest too. Check him out.

Like I said I'm not a breeder and most of my snake food comes in freezer bags so I haven't seen many rat color varieties or know much about them. This guy and his siblings where purchased for my one snake that hasn't adjusted to eating f/t yet. I personally haven't seen more than 2 colors on any rat and thought this guy might be special. Does this pop up much for you big breeders?

It's called "rusting" and is a side effect of the white spotting gene. It's a show fault and isn't something you would want to breed on purpose as it can be tied to megacolon in lines.

He didn't start out that way. He was born a black berkshire. The rusting most likely just started. Any fading and rusting is commonly a side effect of the white spotting gene.

Or do you think he has a hairless recessive gene? Is the fur the same lenght? Or is it shorter like a buzz cut but still full of fur in the patch?

The hair is the same length and texture, just a different color. He's pretty cool looking to me and its uniqueness has spared his life (at least for now). He's pretty jumpy though and freaks out every time the cage is opened. If he can't be tamed down he might still go the way of his litter mates.

Thanks for the info. =)

If the rat was a hairless rat or even a double rex, he would not have so much fur, and his whiskers would be curly.

If you were referring to barbering, I could see that, since cage mates will barber on the back, but considering it's just a rust colored spot, I'm more than convinced it's just the fading from the white spotting gene.

what is the white spotting gene? I was refering to how if hairless and haired mate that the babies have bald spot or two and fur will grow into it as they get older or sometimes they will always have just a slight difference in the fur as adults.

Are you thinking about the rexs? Curly haired cuteness? The double rex is very often called a hairless.

A regular rex can also have spotty patches of baldness, especially as they get older.

There are quite a few different hairless genes, and the rex is rightly considered one of them.

Anyways, the white spotting gene is what produces different high white rats.

White spotting is also closely related to megacolon. A fatal disease wherein the rat dies from not being able to pass any fecal matter. The rats grow large, bloated. Commonly around the age of weaning.

White spotting is the cause of these markings, but not limited to:
blazes
split caps
baldies
lighting marks
irregular white sides
husky (banded on back)
fading/ rusting
colored patches
black eyed white

If this is a male, could it be the orangish secretion that male rats get on their backs?

SnakeyLakey

Doesn't look like it to me.
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Shannon in Reno
2.3 dogs
1.0 cat
Bunch O fancy rats and mice
50 something chickens
1.0 Black rat snake
2.0 Albino corn snakes
0.1 Chissel tooth kangaroo rat
0.1 Rosy Boa
0.1 Kenyan Sand Boa
1.0 Amazing Boyfriend