[oooashley]

I just got a rat yesterday. His mother is a regular gray rat, and the father is unknown. The baby has fine, soft, gray fuzz all over. It is a little thicker on his head. He is only 5 weeks old, so maybe he will lose the coat? He doesn't look like a patchwork, sincethe hairs all over, can you help me figure out what he is? And if it's possible to breed him for true hairless babies. I can't post his picture, so if you want to see, I can email it to you.

 

[CapriceCritters]

It is difficult to say, especially without more information.

He could be a rex. Rexes have curly/kinky/wavy hair though, not thin haircoats. I hear rexes can sometimes oscillate between poor and good hair coats as they mature.

Since the mother was normal coat it can't be a double rex, which often have thin hair. Are you SURE the mother was not just a poor rex? They can sometimes appear almost smooth coated but often bushier or slightly wavy, and will always keep their kinky/curly whiskers.

He could be a hairless, as they can grow patchy, thin fur and then loose it. Some breeders are refusing to breed true hairless rats because of their inherent problems.

How do you know the mother but not the father?

 

[Scris129]

very hard to tell without pictures

 

[oooashley]

The girl bought the mother, a normal rat from a breeder- and she was already pregnant. So she must have got pregnant from a brother or sister. The litter my baby came from had these "hairless" rats, some rex coats, and normal rats. I didn't see them, that's just what the girl said to me.

 

[oooashley]

Here he is..

 

[RenishaS]

Aw he's cute.

 

[CapriceCritters]

That's pretty unusual. If you didn't KNOW the mother was a normal, then I would say that baby was a double rex. At this point it could be hairless or just a very affected rex. I would get ahold of the person with the rat and ask if she has kinky/curly wiskers, because it would make much more sense if the mother was rex as well.

Keep the pics coming over time, I'd like to see if it does become a hairless!

 

[oooashley]

I emailed the owner of my rat's mother. This is her- she looks completely average. The babies from the litter were my "hairless", some rex coats, and some normal rats. Maybe he's a really bad hairless? Or, I read somewhere that they don't always look completely hairless until 8 weeks. He's only 5 weeks.

 

[Angelnstuff]

I know nothing about rats, But your baby is So cute! have you names him yet? I'd love to see more pics



btw- does anyone know what kinda bedding is in the picture with the mom? looks kinda gross?

 

[rodentopia]

isn't it yesterday's news? it looks like recycled paper bedding. carefresh is the same kind of thing and it's this yucky grey colour but it's really good bedding.

your rat is really cute! the mother has straight whiskers as far as i can see in the photo.

 

[CapriceCritters]

Yes, she's definitely not a rex. I would wait a bit to make sure, but keep a close eye on the baby for mites otherwise. If it has good skin I wouldn't worry too much, and just wait for 8 weeks to roll around and see if it is hairless. It may look like that for the duration of it's life, because a lot more breeders are moving towards slightly fuzzy hairless as they are supposedly more healthy than completely hairless ones. I don't have hairless so I can't speak from experience.

 

[GerbilCrazy]

super cute rattie, i like how he's kinda baldish lol, and as far as carefresh (sorry i just saw a post about it in the thread) I can't stand it, gets really dusty, smells and it smells even worse when the water bottle leaks.

 

[Scris129]

he is a cutie, that does look like a hairless to me. was the dad hairless?

 

[Kendalle]

The bedding is a paper bedding it isn't yesterdays news that is almost identical to rabbit pellets but made out of paper, and carefress is more fluffy but the one the mother is on is paper as well and a decent bedding i forget what it is called though