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There's a few different mutations that involve varying degrees of hairlessness.
Hairless: Born with hair, which eventually ALL goes and stays gone.
Double Rex aka 'Mock Hairless': Before they are weaned they start thinning greatly in areas of their bodies, sometimes even losing patches. Eventually it grows back and becomes very short and velvety.
Patchwork Hairless: They begin losing patches of hair (sometimes areas of hair also become thin) before they are weaned. Throughout their whole lives they will be everchanging between varying degrees and patterns of hairlessness and full coat. Mine seem to change every couple weeks.
Regardless, congrats on the new pet. They are super fun to have in your life, when you have the time to appreciate them as companions. Make sure you socialize yours well. If they have a lot of human interaction, they are super pets. You may also want to consider getting your rat a friend. I find rats do not do very well on their own, and can even become ill-tempered, as they are highly social creatures.
Just like snakes, avoid any softwood bedding. Right now I'm using Yesterday's News and am quite pleased. Carefresh is also great, except sometimes they have a tendancy to kick it out. Shredded paper and aspen are also commonly used.
Special attention needs to be made to their diet. Seeing as yours is a pet, I would definitely strive to provide the most varied diet you can. My feeders generally have a more formulated diet with a few supplementary items added. My pets however, are fed a diet containing horse chunks, nuts, seeds, fresh and frozen veggies, dried/fresh/frozen fruits, pasta, breads, oatmeal/grain preparations, greens, cheese, eggs, beef, chicken (including cartilage and bones), holistic cat food, etc. While they do require an amount of animal protein in their diet, you also have to be careful not to include too much. Rats are pigs and will eat just about anything you offer :flick:
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