Baby Outcome: Standard Straight Fur Rat is Bred to a Double Rex Rat?
What Kind of Babies Will I Get If a Standard Hair Rat is Bred to a Hairless or Curly Coated Double Rex Rat?
This patchwork hairless rat will continue to molt and regrow its hair during its lifetime.
Raising rat babies is always a fun, exciting experiencing, as long as the owner is properly prepared to care for the babies and find them new homes. Not only is raising the most adorable baby animals on the planet fun and exciting, but the genetics are too! Ratty genetics are absolutely amazing, and can work out to provide some of the most gorgeous rats you will ever see. Rat coat genetics are most definitely interesting; especially the rexing gene in rats. Even straight coat rats can provide you with some cute, poofy rat babies that eventually become little heart stealers. Just be absolutely SURE that you are able to handle the amount of babies a rat could potentially birth. Are you expecting a litter of babies between a standard and a double rex? Then, it’s only fair to know what types of babies you will have!
What Can I Expect When Breeding a Double Rex Rat?
If you have bred a double rex rat, you can probably expect to have an entire litter of adorable, rex coated babies. However, this will depend upon who the rat is bred to. As the title is written, our focus here is what will happen when you take a double rex coated ratty to a standard coated one. If you have a true double rex, you will most definitely have a litter of rexes. The standard coated rat could potentially have a rexed parent, but the rexing gene was not strong enough to produce rexing in that particular baby. If it wasn’t, then that means the gene was diluted. However, it is still within the rat’s genetics. Therefore, it can improve the rexing of the coat for the babies; even potentially producing rexing that is strong enough to consider the babies in question as double rexes themselves.
What Happens When the Rex Gene Is Diluted?
rexed agouti female rat. She’s not dumbo eared, but top eared!
If the rex genotype becomes diluted, then a rat may either be a very, very poor rex or a straight coated rat. This could mean the rat has a parent that is straight furred, and another parent who is a poor rex. Or, that the rat comes from two rats who are both poorly rexed rats, one potentially being straight furred. As the gene continues to dilute, it will eventually disappear within the descendants. However, a diluted, poor gened rat who is bred back to a double rex or a rex will produce well rexed babies. It is also worth noting that dumbo ears can be mixed into the equation, and you could produce some dumbo eared rexes. These little guys have the same exact low set, rounded ears that you see on their standard coat counterparts. Only, the curly fur makes them even more adorable in the opinion of many. My personal favorite combination is this dumbo rex variety.
What Happens If This Curly Coat Gene Is Concentrated?
Since the rexing genotype is a dominant gene that can be concentrated or diluted (unlike the gene for dumbo ears, which is recessive), baby rats can display varying degrees of rex-like coats. If you continue to concentrate the rexing gene, you will wind up with a double rex rat. It is common that they are confused for sphinx or hairless rats, but they are quite different genetically. A double rex may have a full coat of hair with occasional bald spots, periods of being furred and hairless (molting), mostly hairless with patches of fur, or be completely hairless 100% of the time. Generally, hairless double rexes are the phenotype for the super concentrated rex gene.