Baby Rat Body Type Guide

Most experienced breeders know what they are going to get out of a litter based on the known genetics of the parents. Usually, by looking at the parents' pedigrees, you can even tell what colors have a small chance of popping up. However, genetics are still complicated, and sometimes backgrounds are not fully known.

When a litter is first born, there are a few things you can tell right away. If a baby has dumbo ears, or a rex coat, you can see it by looking at the placement of the ears, or the curl to the whiskers. You can tell if it has black eyes or lighter eyes (red and pink eyes can be hard to distinguish early on). Using the eye color, combined with your knowledge of the parent's colors and ancestry, you can usually know what to expect. If you can see that your baby has black eyes, but its skin appears lighter than black or agouti, you know you probably have blue, cinnamon, or mink, etc.

To help breeders distinguish the colors of their babies as early on as possible, I am in the process of putting together a gallery of baby rats from 2 days of age to 6 weeks, so breeders can see comparisons of different colors, as well as what certain colors look like at the different stages of development. This guide is nowhere near complete, as myself as a breeder have not bred even close to all of the types of rats there are. If you have any pictures to submit, please email me. Full credit will be given.

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Rex and Velveteen

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Breeding

Rex and velveteen babies can be distinguished from birth by their curly, wavy, or kinky whiskers when compared with their standard-coated siblings.

Hairless

Since all rats are born hairless, genetically hairless rats cannot be told apart until their fur starts to come in. Hairless rats do get an initial coat of fur, though it is much thinner and sparser than a standard coated rat. This hair falls out during their first molt.

This 3 week old hairless rat will lose the fuzz it has now when it molts at 6 weeks of age.

Dumbo Ears

Dumbo ears are another feature that can be determined shortly after birth. Though the babies' ears are folded flat and pressed against their heads, you can tell if you look at the baby head-on that dumbo ears are placed closer to the rats cheeks, at the 3 and 9 o'clock position, rather than at the 2 and 10 o'clock position of standard ears.

5 day old dumbo kittens.

Tailless

Tailless rats, obviously, are born without tails, and this can be seen immediately after birth.

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