Colorado Rat Breeder - Camarattery
Camarattery Colorado Rat Breeder, Blue Dumbo, Dwarf & Standard Rats Dark American Blue, Russian Blue, Siamese, Burmese. Self, Hooded Down Under, Recessive Blazed. Satin, Rex, Hairless & Harley Coat.
I was born here in Denver Colorado and I have always had a very strong love for all living things. My parents made the mistake of buying me a pair of parakeets when I was 8 and that was a BIG mistake if you ask them! I never went without animals after that! From that point I dug right in and got very serious about showing and breeding birds.
As time went by I ended up breeding & hand feeding birds for 18 years. And when I met my husband he knew what he was getting into before he married me in 1995.
In 1998 I decided to get my 1st rat, he was a cute little fawn hooded that I chose from a scales and tails feeder bin. I reached in to look at the babies and he ran right up my arm and sat on my shoulder. I was struck with love at 1st sight! I appropriately named him Stanley after the shoe box I brought him home in.
Soon to follow were his harem. Four black hooded and Berkshire females. At the time I did not have a computer and there was no good reading material at the book stores or library's about breeding rats or genetics of rats, so I couldn't understand for the life of me why I only got such drab colors. And for several generations that never changed. When Stanley was 2 years old he developed redness coming out of his nose and paralysis of his hind end and it broke my heart to see him like that and soon his kids followed suit. And me being so interested in animal genetics for so many years, I knew that what ever this was it was genetic. So I stopped breeding that family. I didn't know what the problem was with the family, but I wanted to find out and do better with the rats. But there were no reputable breeders here in Colorado that I knew of so I began to search for better breeding stock in other places. I thought in order for me to get healthy rats for my own pet needs I would have to make them myself.
That's about the time I got my 1st computer. And that opened up a whole new playing field for me and rats. I had no idea there were breeders to be found on the net. All my life as a breeder I never had dealt with that before. I decided to set up a website to explore if the Internet was a good way to find homes for my babies and find better info on rats in general. I called my site Camarattery after the word camaraderie which means togetherness since I have always enjoyed working with other breeders who share my passion. After a short time exploring the Internet, I found more great breeders and some that I still work with today. At the time there were no reputable breeders here in the state to adopt from, (except Raining Rats Rattery who is no longer breeding) so I started working with the breeders on the more Westerly side of the country who had great rat breeding ethics like my own.
So you could say I had to start from scratch and do things the hard way, which was to search out healthy rats with great pedigrees and either have them shipped in or drive out and get them. I still do that once a year to this day. On the way I have gained many wonderful breeder friends! And I have received many beautiful shipments of rats, like wise I have sent rats out to other good breeders. All in all it has been a very positive educational experience for myself, and a huge benefit my animals. I have truly enjoyed being a rat breeder. These little furry critters are so worth everything I have put into them.
Since I couldn't work with any breeders instate since there weren't any to work with I started the Colorado Rat List to start gaining support for the rat in my community. Today the CRL is Colorado's rat forum with a total of over 250 members! I am so happy to see Colorado coming from a non noticeable participant in the rat community to what it is today, a strong, large community who really has added a tremendous positive difference for the rat as a breed. Thanks to all of the members of the Colorado Rat List! The Colorado Rat List has become not just a simple forum but it is also now the official forum of the Association of Colorado Rat Enthusiasts or ACRE. This is a club that I started, I am the President of the club. Our club is an official AFRMA affiliate and I am the judge for our shows. I was trained by Karen Robbins who owns and runs AFRMA. I will continue to visit the AFRMA shows in California for more training as time goes on.
My rattery consists of nothing but well pedigreed healthy stock. I am a bit of a stickler about having no holes in my pedigrees as I am afraid of the unknown! I am just so bad about that! I don't like the worry of what may be lurking in that "unknown". And I cannot stand the thought of adopting out a baby to a child and later cancer pops up and breaks the child's heart just because I took a short cut. I'd like to think I did my best and did everything I can to make a healthy pet with health verifiable linage. Maybe it's the mom in me. I wouldn't do that to my son. I really don't think breeding a rat with no health history is benefiting the breed. It's just adding a new "pretty color" to your unverifiable/unpredictable stock so that you can have "more to offer adopters". I guess I am not really understanding any benefit there.
However, about 10 generations ago I did start my Rex line myself and my blue line about the same time. And after much line breeding and testing and breeding them to pedigreed lines and trial and error, I finally got them where I wanted them! But I would never do it again. That was at a time when I had no one to get rats from, until I shipped. But I am very proud of these lines and they are very well known here in Colorado for their longevity and great temperaments. I have tried to breed lesser pedigreed rats since then and every time I end the line out of pure worrying myself to pieces. It's actually easier in the long run to ship in new good stock then to have to end lines and find cancer and tumors later after years of work! Even if it takes a year or more of saving and planning, healthy lines are worth it!
I do not breed pet shop stock, and I do not sell my rats to pet shops.
Just my philosophy....
___
I only specialize in three things hooded down under, Self and Blazed rats. I breed both standard eared and dumbo eared rats although I prefer dumbo and will be working on making all of my rats dumbo as they are my passion. I specialize in standard and dwarf rats in colors of American Blue, Russian Blue, Mink, Pearl Merle, PEW, Siamese, Burmese & Black. All of my rats are color bred which means I only breed one color into each rat. My rats are bred to be very beautiful and healthy as well as long lived. I do NOT sell feeder animals. I breed for pet and the main goal, show quality animals only. I breed to better the animal in every way. I do not breed pet shop animals into my lines. I do bring in new blood and new varieties of rats from well known established out of state breeders that follow AFRMA ethics and show standards. I will also adopt from other Colorado rat breeders that are members in good standing in the Colorado Rat List & the Association of Colorado Rat Enthusiasts. All breeders I work with follow my same ethics, and have very well pedigreed healthy animals like my own. I follow very strict quarantine procedures when I do decide to bring in a new rat.
I breed rats because of my love for them. I enjoy their wonderful personalities as well as their wonderful range of colors and patterns. Breeding rats for me is a very rewarding hobby when I see how much love my animals bring to the lives of my adopters. Also I love breeding well tempered animals and opening peoples minds to just how wonderful a pet rats are! My hope is to open peoples hearts to these animals so they can embrace them for the clean, loving, playful and smart animal they really are! I am very interested in education about rats and I work very hard to help educate here in Colorado and the community I live in. I am also constantly learning more about rats myself. I love working with not only rat owners on help with their rats but also new honest breeders and long time veteran breeders.
Camarattery is a small rattery. I have 26 standard & 16 dwarf rats although I am currently adopting some of those out.... This gives me enough genetic diversity to keep my rats from being to closely related. I have several months each year where I don't breed at all, so that keeps my rattery small. This also gives me time for my family and bike riding which is my second hobby. My rattery is in my home, actually in my family room, and each rat I have is raised by my loving family. I love to see rats kept in the area your family spends most of their time in. This is the best way to socialize and enjoy your pet! All of my rats are very well socialized and above any thing they are my pets before breeding stock. Breeding rats is not a business, it's an enjoyable hobby.
Camarattery only breeds a few litters at a time to ensure proper socialization for each baby and each of our adults. We have several family members who socialize each one of our animals so that they are used to more than one person. Not to mention our adopters that are come over several days of the week to play with the rats. All of our babies are raised in our home with young children and adults. Our rats are raised by our family for your family. In addition, we only breed what we can comfortably adopt out so that every baby we raise finds a loving home.
Please see my specialties page for more info on what I breed. And please see my diets page for ideas on what to feed your rat.
My cages are large brand new Critter Nation's. The males are kept separate from the females unless I am doing a breeding of coarse. I have used shredded phone book for bedding in the adults cages since about 2004. You can find it at any local feed store here in Colorado as its made in Greeley Co. Right now I am really liking the Yesterdays News bedding, and the Eco Fresh bedding. In the nursery cages I use Aspen or Eco Fresh bedding because it doesn't "stick" to the babies like the paper does. I never use Kay-Tee brand though as its very well known in the rat community to be lethal to the rats respiratory systems because of the massive amounts of dust. And I never use Care Fresh for the same reason. More and more breeders have stopped using Care Fresh because of its dustiness. I have had 5 rats put on Care Fresh and develop respiratory ailments because of that bedding. 5 cases is no coincidence so I have contracted my adopters not to use it. That is my personal experience and I am sticking to it!
The caging you would need would be very similar to the ones in my rattery that you can look at on my rattery page. Rats must be housed in wire cages not tanks. Tanks in general are to small and do not allow for the climbing rats do by nature, and are bad for ventilation. Unless you have a 55 gallon or larger with built in levels. Tanks this large are better with ventilation as well. But as a rule rat cages are wire with several levels and wire bottoms which are safer for their feet. Wire bottoms are comfortable for small rat feet and they allow the droppings and urine to fall which makes sure the rats feet stay clean. This way they do not get bumble foot which is caused by urine getting in a wound on the foot and getting infected. This is a condition you see in rats kept on solid floors which tend to allow waist to build up quickly. Rats are very energetic and need lots of room to live. Much more so than mice or hamsters because of the size difference of the animal involved. A small rat cage for 2 adult rats can be a minimum of 20" square and 3 levels tall which is usually 24" in height or more. But the larger the cage the happier they are and the longer they will live. If you want to save space and go with the smaller cage you are only shortening the life of the animal and diminishing their out look in life in general. Your cage needs to easily fit an 11" wheel which is the correct size for an adult rat.
Wheels are a requirement with my rats. My rats are raised with wheels and need them as adults. I have many adopters ask me if my rats use them and the answer is yes they do. They run, run, run on the wheels, both the males and the females. When rats are raised with a wheel they will always use it. If they were not raised with one, they will never bother trying. As mentioned earlier wheels must be at least 11" in diameter. Rats simply don't fit in smaller wheels.
Toys are always offered in my cages in many forms. I use balls, hanging wood toys and leather hanging toys. These are rotated often to keep it interesting. Toys greatly increase the outlook on life for your rat which helps them live longer. Rats that are left to sit board have less of a vigor for life and get depressed quickly as they are normally a very active frisky animal.
Play time is never in any shortage in my rattery. You can see pictures of my play area as well as my cages on the "My Rattery" page. My house is not safe for rats to free range roam in. I have to many computer and TV wires to be chewed on. And I have a cat who would not hurt the rats by any means, but I never take a chance either. So instead of roaming in the rattery my rats have a kid play pool that I have set up with toys, tunnels and goodies to eat. I say that each cage gets at least one hour a day of play time but that's being very conservative. It's more like five hours per cage in the summer when I am off of work and the rest of the year two hours per cage.
Feeding my rats is simple and I do have a whole page dedicated to that very subject and I encourage you to look at that. But the simple answer to what I feed is, Harlan Teklad blocks. It's the best diet to cover your rats nutritional needs 100%. But I also spoil them with fruits, salads, cooked pasta and veggies galore.
Cleaning the rattery is done every other day. I strip down every cage every other day and bleach everything. All cages are bleached in the shower using scalding hot water.
Quarantine is done under very strict conditions. All new rats that I receive from another rattery are quarantined in an off site location in Englewood Colorado for 30 days. During this time health and temperament are evaluated and all rats are treated with Ivermectin to be sure there are no "bug" issues for any future generations. (Even though I only adopt from breeders who would NEVER have bugs anyway. But I am overly safe.)
Mentoring is something that all new breeders need. I did not have a mentor and had to do things the hard way all on my own. It is not my job to tell everyone not to breed. If I did they would just do it anyway. As the president of the Colorado Rat Club, the Association of Colorado Rat Enthusiasts it is my job to promote healthy breeding practices. So if an honest hearted person needs mentoring, I would be happy to do so. I would rather see a new breeder do it the correct way then to be a backyard breeder just making more poor quality rats.
My Code of Conduct are that of the AFRMA code of ethics. All of my rats are registered through NARR so that all of my lines health and linage can be tracked. As far as the breeders I work with, they have very similar values and are very trustworthy people to work with. And I have a zero tolerance policy for bad breeding ethics and for untrustworthy breeders in general. I simply will not associate with them and I am very adamant about that.
My training is from Karen Robbins the President of AFRMA. I have received judge training as well as training on how to run a fancy rat club. I continue to train in CA in these aspects. I am an official AFRMA approved show judge. All of my rats are bred to the AFRMA standards that I have been trained to judge for. I show my rats in shows approved by AFRMA and breed for the "whole rat" which means I breed for excellence in all aspects of rat breeding. I am also the owner and President of the Colorado Rat Club ACRE.
However, about 10 generations ago I did start my Rex line myself and my blue line about the same time. And after much line breeding and testing and breeding them to pedigreed lines and trial and error, I finally got them where I wanted them! But I would never do it again. That was at a time when I had no one to get rats from, until I shipped. But I am very proud of these lines and they are very well known here in Colorado for their longevity and great temperaments. I have tried to breed lesser pedigreed rats since then and every time I end the line out of pure worrying myself to pieces. It's actually easier in the long run to ship in new good stock then to have to end lines and find cancer and tumors later after years of work! Even if it takes a year or more of saving and planning, healthy lines are worth it!
I do not breed pet shop stock, and I do not sell my rats to pet shops.
Just my philosophy....
___
I only specialize in three things hooded down under, Self and Blazed rats. I breed both standard eared and dumbo eared rats although I prefer dumbo and will be working on making all of my rats dumbo as they are my passion. I specialize in standard and dwarf rats in colors of American Blue, Russian Blue, Mink, Pearl Merle, PEW, Siamese, Burmese & Black. All of my rats are color bred which means I only breed one color into each rat. My rats are bred to be very beautiful and healthy as well as long lived. I do NOT sell feeder animals. I breed for pet and the main goal, show quality animals only. I breed to better the animal in every way. I do not breed pet shop animals into my lines. I do bring in new blood and new varieties of rats from well known established out of state breeders that follow AFRMA ethics and show standards. I will also adopt from other Colorado rat breeders that are members in good standing in the Colorado Rat List & the Association of Colorado Rat Enthusiasts. All breeders I work with follow my same ethics, and have very well pedigreed healthy animals like my own. I follow very strict quarantine procedures when I do decide to bring in a new rat.
I breed rats because of my love for them. I enjoy their wonderful personalities as well as their wonderful range of colors and patterns. Breeding rats for me is a very rewarding hobby when I see how much love my animals bring to the lives of my adopters. Also I love breeding well tempered animals and opening peoples minds to just how wonderful a pet rats are! My hope is to open peoples hearts to these animals so they can embrace them for the clean, loving, playful and smart animal they really are! I am very interested in education about rats and I work very hard to help educate here in Colorado and the community I live in. I am also constantly learning more about rats myself. I love working with not only rat owners on help with their rats but also new honest breeders and long time veteran breeders.
Camarattery is a small rattery. I have 26 standard & 16 dwarf rats although I am currently adopting some of those out.... This gives me enough genetic diversity to keep my rats from being to closely related. I have several months each year where I don't breed at all, so that keeps my rattery small. This also gives me time for my family and bike riding which is my second hobby. My rattery is in my home, actually in my family room, and each rat I have is raised by my loving family. I love to see rats kept in the area your family spends most of their time in. This is the best way to socialize and enjoy your pet! All of my rats are very well socialized and above any thing they are my pets before breeding stock. Breeding rats is not a business, it's an enjoyable hobby.
Camarattery only breeds a few litters at a time to ensure proper socialization for each baby and each of our adults. We have several family members who socialize each one of our animals so that they are used to more than one person. Not to mention our adopters that are come over several days of the week to play with the rats. All of our babies are raised in our home with young children and adults. Our rats are raised by our family for your family. In addition, we only breed what we can comfortably adopt out so that every baby we raise finds a loving home.
Please see my specialties page for more info on what I breed. And please see my diets page for ideas on what to feed your rat.
My cages are large brand new Critter Nation's. The males are kept separate from the females unless I am doing a breeding of coarse. I have used shredded phone book for bedding in the adults cages since about 2004. You can find it at any local feed store here in Colorado as its made in Greeley Co. Right now I am really liking the Yesterdays News bedding, and the Eco Fresh bedding. In the nursery cages I use Aspen or Eco Fresh bedding because it doesn't "stick" to the babies like the paper does. I never use Kay-Tee brand though as its very well known in the rat community to be lethal to the rats respiratory systems because of the massive amounts of dust. And I never use Care Fresh for the same reason. More and more breeders have stopped using Care Fresh because of its dustiness. I have had 5 rats put on Care Fresh and develop respiratory ailments because of that bedding. 5 cases is no coincidence so I have contracted my adopters not to use it. That is my personal experience and I am sticking to it!
The caging you would need would be very similar to the ones in my rattery that you can look at on my rattery page. Rats must be housed in wire cages not tanks. Tanks in general are to small and do not allow for the climbing rats do by nature, and are bad for ventilation. Unless you have a 55 gallon or larger with built in levels. Tanks this large are better with ventilation as well. But as a rule rat cages are wire with several levels and wire bottoms which are safer for their feet. Wire bottoms are comfortable for small rat feet and they allow the droppings and urine to fall which makes sure the rats feet stay clean. This way they do not get bumble foot which is caused by urine getting in a wound on the foot and getting infected. This is a condition you see in rats kept on solid floors which tend to allow waist to build up quickly. Rats are very energetic and need lots of room to live. Much more so than mice or hamsters because of the size difference of the animal involved. A small rat cage for 2 adult rats can be a minimum of 20" square and 3 levels tall which is usually 24" in height or more. But the larger the cage the happier they are and the longer they will live. If you want to save space and go with the smaller cage you are only shortening the life of the animal and diminishing their out look in life in general. Your cage needs to easily fit an 11" wheel which is the correct size for an adult rat.
Wheels are a requirement with my rats. My rats are raised with wheels and need them as adults. I have many adopters ask me if my rats use them and the answer is yes they do. They run, run, run on the wheels, both the males and the females. When rats are raised with a wheel they will always use it. If they were not raised with one, they will never bother trying. As mentioned earlier wheels must be at least 11" in diameter. Rats simply don't fit in smaller wheels.
Toys are always offered in my cages in many forms. I use balls, hanging wood toys and leather hanging toys. These are rotated often to keep it interesting. Toys greatly increase the outlook on life for your rat which helps them live longer. Rats that are left to sit board have less of a vigor for life and get depressed quickly as they are normally a very active frisky animal.
Play time is never in any shortage in my rattery. You can see pictures of my play area as well as my cages on the "My Rattery" page. My house is not safe for rats to free range roam in. I have to many computer and TV wires to be chewed on. And I have a cat who would not hurt the rats by any means, but I never take a chance either. So instead of roaming in the rattery my rats have a kid play pool that I have set up with toys, tunnels and goodies to eat. I say that each cage gets at least one hour a day of play time but that's being very conservative. It's more like five hours per cage in the summer when I am off of work and the rest of the year two hours per cage.
Feeding my rats is simple and I do have a whole page dedicated to that very subject and I encourage you to look at that. But the simple answer to what I feed is, Harlan Teklad blocks. It's the best diet to cover your rats nutritional needs 100%. But I also spoil them with fruits, salads, cooked pasta and veggies galore.
Cleaning the rattery is done every other day. I strip down every cage every other day and bleach everything. All cages are bleached in the shower using scalding hot water.
Quarantine is done under very strict conditions. All new rats that I receive from another rattery are quarantined in an off site location in Englewood Colorado for 30 days. During this time health and temperament are evaluated and all rats are treated with Ivermectin to be sure there are no "bug" issues for any future generations. (Even though I only adopt from breeders who would NEVER have bugs anyway. But I am overly safe.)
Mentoring is something that all new breeders need. I did not have a mentor and had to do things the hard way all on my own. It is not my job to tell everyone not to breed. If I did they would just do it anyway. As the president of the Colorado Rat Club, the Association of Colorado Rat Enthusiasts it is my job to promote healthy breeding practices. So if an honest hearted person needs mentoring, I would be happy to do so. I would rather see a new breeder do it the correct way then to be a backyard breeder just making more poor quality rats.
My Code of Conduct are that of the AFRMA code of ethics. All of my rats are registered through NARR so that all of my lines health and linage can be tracked. As far as the breeders I work with, they have very similar values and are very trustworthy people to work with. And I have a zero tolerance policy for bad breeding ethics and for untrustworthy breeders in general. I simply will not associate with them and I am very adamant about that.
My training is from Karen Robbins the President of AFRMA. I have received judge training as well as training on how to run a fancy rat club. I continue to train in CA in these aspects. I am an official AFRMA approved show judge. All of my rats are bred to the AFRMA standards that I have been trained to judge for. I show my rats in shows approved by AFRMA and breed for the "whole rat" which means I breed for excellence in all aspects of rat breeding. I am also the owner and President of the Colorado Rat Club ACRE.
| Camarattery has shipped in & introduced Colorado to several new rat varieties: |
| Burmese | Black Eyed Siamese | Black Eyed Himalayan |
| Wheaten Burmese | Chocolate | Down Under Rats |
| Rumpy Tailless | Dwarf Rats | Harley Coats |
| Satin | Ivory | Russian Blue Burmese |
My Breeding Goals For 2009
1) As I do every year I will be putting colors as a last deciding factor in my litter plans. First comes health, then for me it's temperament. All of my rats that breed have wonderfully playful personalities and that is truly genetic. Then comes longevity and type. And I mean show type. This is the all around shape of every aspect of the rat. Since I am a show judge that will be very important to me. Side note.. I see breeders saying they breed for these things but they really don't, the 1st thing they consider when adopting breeding stock is color.
2) All rats need to be bred for show type. This is very important because this creates better and healthier bodies and in return healthier rats to represent the breed. This way they don't have health problems later in life because of poor bone structure.
3) Since almost all of my rats are dumbo or carry it, I will continue to keep the dumbo in my rattery as my predominant ear type. You may see standard ears in my out cross line as I don't breed for ear type in that line.
4) My patterns are already where I want them. Since I have been working on the Self & Hooded patterns for so long they are very dominant here in my rattery and the best you can breed for.
5) Dwarfs have been worked with for years, but the bodies have needed help. I do have a few now that have the same type with beefy structures and tails just like a standard rat should have, so I will continue to breed that healthy body type into my dwarfs. Really it just depends on what you are putting into them...
6) My hairless almost all carry PEW so I will be working on that and making them either PEW or BEW.
7) IB ratios will change a bit this year because I need to breed my lines heavily into my new out cross blood to lock in the traits I breed for. So my IB ratio will reflect a 10% increase from 2008. This will lock in great health, temperament, type and longevity. After all I already like my rats the way they are, I just needed a bit of new blood. In 2008 I did some out crossing that did not benefit my lines and I had to end those new lines, so I am going back to my lines that I know and love. So only a very few of the new rats I brought in during the 2008 season still exsist in my lines.
8) I have the new line of marked rats, these are my blazed and marked line. This line too will be bred for the healthy traits the rest of my rats are bred for. But this line is my toy so to speak. Although I take them very seriously, I will be having fun with them and making some very cute patterns in that line for your enjoyment. As always their patterns will reflect the AFRMA standards where applicable.
9) I wanted to mention American blue. I am seeing on forums around the US that breeders are still having issues with bleeding problems in this color. This is something that is easy to breed out and there is a simple way to accomplish this. It tears me up inside to see the genetics put into this color that is causing the issues. This should not be a problem that exists in breeder bred rats. Since this color is my number one specialty and they are so dear to me I am very sad to be reading such negative reports about the color. Please know it is simple to fix! Please email me if you are experiencing these issues so that I can direct you in the right direction with helping your blues avoid this issue. My blues do not deal with this for the reason they are bred correctly. Since it is a possible problem in blues, they do have to be bred responsibly with a well thought out plan to avoid the problem, it just takes a small amount of extra added care to eliminate the issue. And I am willing to help those that need it. Just let me know. Working with them in the correct way will also darken the color and make them the color they need to be. Please do be careful with them if you are breeding them.
10) I will continue to breed for rats without silver hairs. That is so hard to accomplish anymore. Silver hairs are really irritating to me, that would be my worst pet peeve with breeding! I do not have any silvering in most of my lines, but I will continue to eliminate that. If I see silvered rats I just wont breed them. My marked rats don't have silvering at all and I have kept it that way for years. And silvering is a trait you don't want to see in a show rat.
2) All rats need to be bred for show type. This is very important because this creates better and healthier bodies and in return healthier rats to represent the breed. This way they don't have health problems later in life because of poor bone structure.
3) Since almost all of my rats are dumbo or carry it, I will continue to keep the dumbo in my rattery as my predominant ear type. You may see standard ears in my out cross line as I don't breed for ear type in that line.
4) My patterns are already where I want them. Since I have been working on the Self & Hooded patterns for so long they are very dominant here in my rattery and the best you can breed for.
5) Dwarfs have been worked with for years, but the bodies have needed help. I do have a few now that have the same type with beefy structures and tails just like a standard rat should have, so I will continue to breed that healthy body type into my dwarfs. Really it just depends on what you are putting into them...
6) My hairless almost all carry PEW so I will be working on that and making them either PEW or BEW.
7) IB ratios will change a bit this year because I need to breed my lines heavily into my new out cross blood to lock in the traits I breed for. So my IB ratio will reflect a 10% increase from 2008. This will lock in great health, temperament, type and longevity. After all I already like my rats the way they are, I just needed a bit of new blood. In 2008 I did some out crossing that did not benefit my lines and I had to end those new lines, so I am going back to my lines that I know and love. So only a very few of the new rats I brought in during the 2008 season still exsist in my lines.
8) I have the new line of marked rats, these are my blazed and marked line. This line too will be bred for the healthy traits the rest of my rats are bred for. But this line is my toy so to speak. Although I take them very seriously, I will be having fun with them and making some very cute patterns in that line for your enjoyment. As always their patterns will reflect the AFRMA standards where applicable.
9) I wanted to mention American blue. I am seeing on forums around the US that breeders are still having issues with bleeding problems in this color. This is something that is easy to breed out and there is a simple way to accomplish this. It tears me up inside to see the genetics put into this color that is causing the issues. This should not be a problem that exists in breeder bred rats. Since this color is my number one specialty and they are so dear to me I am very sad to be reading such negative reports about the color. Please know it is simple to fix! Please email me if you are experiencing these issues so that I can direct you in the right direction with helping your blues avoid this issue. My blues do not deal with this for the reason they are bred correctly. Since it is a possible problem in blues, they do have to be bred responsibly with a well thought out plan to avoid the problem, it just takes a small amount of extra added care to eliminate the issue. And I am willing to help those that need it. Just let me know. Working with them in the correct way will also darken the color and make them the color they need to be. Please do be careful with them if you are breeding them.
10) I will continue to breed for rats without silver hairs. That is so hard to accomplish anymore. Silver hairs are really irritating to me, that would be my worst pet peeve with breeding! I do not have any silvering in most of my lines, but I will continue to eliminate that. If I see silvered rats I just wont breed them. My marked rats don't have silvering at all and I have kept it that way for years. And silvering is a trait you don't want to see in a show rat.
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