Pet Rat Breeds
Pet rats come in a variety of colors and breeds. Currently, there are over 70 recognized rat breeds.
The main recognize breeds of rats are:
Standard – which has short hair with a nice glossy finish. Female rats’ hair tends to be softer than male rats.
Hairless – the name said it all, no hair and pink thin skin. Great for people who are allergic to pet hair. But with no fur coat, need to be careful of it in cold weather and when it is outside on a sunny day (could get sunburned very easily).
Tailness (Manx) – No tail or may still have a small furry stub or very small tail.
Dumbo – Again as the name implies it is normally slightly bigger than other rat breeds and their ears are a little bit bigger and rounder and are situated a little bit lower than other rat ears. This breed can also come in a variety of colors.
Other Rat breeds varieties:
Marked -This breed comes in normally two colors that form a set pattern. The National Fancy Rat Society has recognized 12 marked varieties. One example of a marked Rat breed is Capped – Mostly white with color on its head only.
Other marked varieties are Berkshire, Badger, Hooked, Irish, Variegated, Essex, Blazed Essex, Chinchilla, Squirrel, Roan, and Striped Roan.
Self Varieties – These breeds tend to be of one color. For example, Pink Eyed White – A white color rat with pink eyes. Other Self Varieties are Champagne, Buff, Platinum, Quicksilver, British Blue, Black, Chocolate, Mink, and Ivory.
Other breeds that I would like to mention are:
Siamese – very similar to the Siamese cat coloring.
Rex – Evenly curled dense coat. Plus, will have curly whiskers.
Reminder Rats can come in a variety of colors. Personally, I like the Ivory rat breed.
For more information on Rat Breeds visit www.nfrs.org.
