Interesting little girl I've produced

[Auskan]

I breed my own rats, and last week one of my rats had her second litter. Her first litter was 13 normal, healthy babies who all weighed 6g at birth and all made lovely meals for my corn snakes.

However, her second litter contained only two, and there is something odd about one of them. They are a male/female pair, and the male is normal. He probably weighed 6g at birth, but I didn't weigh him until the next day, when he weighed 8g. However his sister, by day two only weighed 4g. Now, at 9 days old, they weigh 20g and 8g respectively. When I check, the little one always has a milk belly, and since there are only two, I don't think her brother is able to shove her out of the way of the milk so I think she's able to nurse as often as she wants to.

The other interesting thing is that while her brother is now fully furred, she has none whatsoever. I know that hairless is a recessive gene, but its still a surprise to have produced one.

Anyway, here is a photo of them at 3 days:


And here is a photo taken yesterday, at 8 days:


As you can see, the little one has no fur (and there's none to the touch either - she still has baby soft skin).

I'm thinking about keeping her just out of interest, but not as a breeder, as from what I've read of dwarfism, they often have fertility problems, and hairless rats often can't lactate, so breeding could be disastrous even if she could produce offspring.

[Blueeheeler]

That's just too cute...I had the same thing happen about 2 years ago and I named her Teenee (Tea Knee). She is full grown now but has hair and is normal sized. She has produced many normal babies since.
At this point in her life she is just my pet and she is past the breeding age, I guess since she has not had a litter in quite some time and she lives with her mate Duke. Anyway keep us posted I would like to see what happens to your dwarf....Jamie

[Auskan]

That's very interesting that yours turned out to be normal size and haired! I will be very interested to see what happens with this girl then! By the way, I love the name you picked for her!

[mykee]

That's happened to me a few times before, and of mine eventually grew hair, and they got up to size, it'll just took a long time. They don't really make good breeders either, just a heads up. Cute little guy though..

[Linds]

I wouldn't say that is a genetic hairless, it jsut looks like it is very much behind in overall development. If it were a true hairless, it should be normal in every way, and that one is obviously delayed in its development. I had a little rex baby close to two years ago that was similar. Didn't end up weaning it for three months because it was so immature for its age. I kept him as a pet. He's a normal size now.

[Auskan]

Interestingly, the mother has decided to take action herself. Periodically, she will leave the big boy with my other female as a babysitter, and take the little girl into the PVC tube and let her nurse by herself for awhile. Maybe having exclusive access to the milk at feeding times will help her to "catch up".

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

thats neat, rats are so interesting. i hate alberta laws! No rats here. I think there should be a law stating that only herpers could own them. Anyways i'l stop rambling. Let us know what happens.

Chris