Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My rattie, Lilac, has been VERY heavily pregnant, but no longer! I looked in on her this morning to find a bunch of squeeking babies! I haven't gotten a chance to count them yet (giving her time to bond and take care of her babies for a while before I go stealing them from her to count them).
I did take some pictures though.
I LOVE RAT BABIES! I love the sounds they make, it is SO cute.
I'm thinking this will be Lilac's last litter, so they are very special babies

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*Sara*
along with:
5 ball pythons
1 burmese python
1 black-lined plated lizard
lots'a ratties
fishies
2 dogs &
1 kitty

I just love teeny tinies. So sweet.
Robin
Harm None.

Lilac is a beauty too.
I call them little pink school erasers but ohhh yeah I love the tiny little baby squeaks too.

Again.. congRATulations you lucky thang you!
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PHRatz

they DO kinda look like erasers
My favorite ratty age is when they have all their fur and have just opened their eyes. When they still have the sleepy look to their eyes is the best. What is your favorite ratty age?
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*Sara*
along with:
3 ball pythons
1 burmese python
1 black-lined plated lizard
3 leopard geckos
lots'a ratties
2 gerbils
fishies
2 dogs &
1 kitty

Sara,
I think my favorite age is when they first wean & are eating on their own & playing with each other like maniacs but still have the little scrunched up faces.... OOOH I love that age!
It doesn't last long though, only a week or so. LOL
I like the popcorn stage too, when they're a little older & jump all over the place like popcorn.

I'd love to have a litter again but since I have to keep them all, I can't do that right now LOL.
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PHRatz

I'll probably end up keeping all of them

I counted them today... eleven babies! It's really weird, you can already see markings on them. Usually it is another day or two before markings show up (at least in all of my previous litters). There are a few hoodeds and the rest are solid colored (or berkshires... hard to tell at this age). They will probably all be black, because that is usually what color Lilac throws off. If I were to breed them back to their dad, mom, or each other, I would get himis, russian doves, russian blues, or possibly sky blues. They have the genes, but aren't displaying them. In the world of reptiles, they would be called hets. They do have a couple dumbos in their lines, but I think there are too many up-eared rats to get any dumbos, even from linebreeding.

I've had this particular bloodline of rats for years and years. They can all be traced back to my first rat, a P.E.W. named Max. I had to introduce new blood to get the colors I wanted of course, but Max's blood is still in all of them.
I'm grateful that Lilac had her babies, because she and my himi boy Siam were my only links to Max that I had left. I'll probably end up breeding one of these babies to one of the new dumbos in the future, to hopefully make my bloodline dumbo producers (I LOVE dumbos). Of course, breeding has to be a slow process when you fall in love too easily and you have to keep them all.

Does anybody else have a bloodline of rats that they keep going?
I'd like to make mine more pure (with less outcrossing), but first I need to get it exactly like I want it (dumbo rex and fancy-colored) and I need to do more research about how to keep the line as pure as possible without damaging the genese in the process. I can almost guarentee that I'll still have this bloodline when I'm 80 It's one of my passions.
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*Sara*
along with:
3 ball pythons
1 burmese python
1 black-lined plated lizard
3 leopard geckos
lots'a ratties
2 gerbils
fishies
2 dogs &
1 kitty

Oh that's the coolest thing.. that you have the same bloodline. I love the idea of keeping the bloodline for one I loved a long time ago, it's like you still have that one in a way.

I've never really been into breeding, just did a litter or 2 for myself a long time ago.
My cages for males were homemade & they just wore completely out so I threw them away & have kept only a small number of females since then. The Martin's cages hold up so well!
It is an interesting question you asked- does anybody else have a long running bloodline?

Let me ask you a question about colors if you don't mind.
What is the rat world name for the color that is a dark charcoal gray but not actually black?
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PHRatz

Well, it could be a number of things. First off, black rats that are exposed to a lot of light (be it sunlight or room light) will fade (more often into a chocolatey-black color). Some black rats also molt into this color.

Pet-quality (not show quality) rats tend to have what is called "silvering". It can make them look greyish.

The last possibility, which is the least likely (considering you probably didn't pay a breeder for a rat that they couldn't tell you what it was... and these are much rarer than most people know) is that you have a Russian Blue. They are a very dark blue, but it would still be obvious that it wasn't a black rat.

Oh, and one more thing: is it young? Young black rats sometimes appear lighter than black. It changes once they mold their fur though.

That's my two-cents
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*Sara*
along with:
3 ball pythons
1 burmese python
1 black-lined plated lizard
3 leopard geckos
lots'a ratties
2 gerbils
fishies
2 dogs &
1 kitty

>>Well, it could be a number of things. First off, black rats that are exposed to a lot of light (be it sunlight or room light) will fade (more often into a chocolatey-black color).
Some black rats also molt into this color.

Ok those are things I've seen before with adult black rats & I don't think this is it.

>>
>>Pet-quality (not show quality) rats tend to have what is called "silvering". It can make them look greyish.

I don't see any silvering which in my understanding is lighter colored hairs mixed in or on top of the colored fur. I see that in the blue healer that lives next door but it doesn't seem to be what I saw on the rat.

>>
>>The last possibility, which is the least likely (considering you probably didn't pay a breeder for a rat that they couldn't tell you what it was... and these are much rarer than most people know) is that you have a Russian Blue. They are a very dark blue, but it would still be obvious that it wasn't a black rat.

I'm thinking this is the one because I suspect the rat came from Pet's Mart & I've seen this color in their rats in the past. The supplier they get rats from has sent in some gorgeously colored rats and still does do that- they just aren't healthy rats unfortunately.

>>Oh, and one more thing: is it young? Young black rats sometimes appear lighter than black. It changes once they molt their fur though.

Age I don't know but I suspect fairly young, probably less than a year old based on size of the rat but.. on the other hand the rat has very orange teeth, not something I see that often in younger rats. Usually they're older when the teeth turn color like this. This one though had been fed a crummy diet so I don't know if that has anything to do with the color of the teeth.
>>
>>That's my two-cents

Your 2 cents are very helpful, I may be wrong it may not be russian blue at all but from what I know & what you've said it may be. Oh well, it's not that important either way I was just trying to satisfy my own curiosity.
Thanks for helping with that.
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PHRatz