# What colour are baby albino rats?



## Livyaahh (Jul 24, 2012)

So I work at a rescue centre, and a few weeks ago two albinos had an accidental litter (somebody brought them in claiming that they were both female, but in fact one was male and the female was pregnant) and I've been looking after the babies, getting them tame so that people will adopt them, and they aren't white like their parents, they have grey hoods. And I thought that that was normal until I just google imaged baby albino rat and all the babies were white with red eyes, like they should be. Why do the babies have grey hoods? They are about three weeks old. Will they always have grey hoods?

Thanks


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## Arashi (Feb 4, 2012)

Hmm, I wish I could help but I have no idea. Sorry 

I do have albino rats, though.

But, someone will have the answer!


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## Livyaahh (Jul 24, 2012)

Albinos are lovely. Apparently they are usually overlooked because they look 'evil.' How could anybody think they look evil? They are beautiful. I'm adopting three of the babies as soon as they are weaned  that picture is adorable by the way


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## varoujan (Apr 12, 2012)

If their parents or grandparents were not PEWs it could have caused heir babies to be different colours.


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## Livyaahh (Jul 24, 2012)

but they are all hooded, all 7 of them. Wouldn't some of them be PEWs?


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

not necessarily.

Do you want to post a pic of the babies so we can help you determine if grey is really agouti or blue?


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

My main question is, are you Sure both are albino? there are "mock albinos" which are rats that have the pink eyed gene, different from Albino. these make the champaigns and ambers. these guys can end up being so light that they look like albinos, but are not, reason both rat breeders try to breed against the pink eye gene, and those who do breed them are trying to get them to be darker in color. But I can't be sure. it would help a lot if you would post pictures of the babies and the parents.
The reason I'm asking is because the Albino gene (c/c) is a simple recessive found in all animals (yes there are albino humans). if both parents are albino, All offspring would be (c/c) meaning that all are albino, and albino rats are pure white with pink eyes as the albino gene takes away all pigment. if one parent was a "mock albino" then the offspring would just carry albino (C/c). but then comes the question of the grey color. for them all to be blue hoodeds that would mean that the father was a pink eyed blue or a russian champaign/amber. And that the mother had to either carry blue or russian blue genetically (and your really lucky) or that the female is a blue or russian blue genetically. Or vise versa. Once again pictures help. oh and sorry, I've been studying rat genetics for over a year now, so thats just me blabbering on. Pictures would really help though.


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## Livyaahh (Jul 24, 2012)

It's hard to tell but I think the mum is a very very slight champagne. So I'm guessing that means that they will lose their hoods. Aww


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Is there any chance one of the parents (or both) are Roans (other name husky) striped Roan can appear almost hooded if they don't have much of a blaze. Roan fades as the rats age so if you had a pink eyed roan they would end up PEW.


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

Oh yeah, I forgot about roans. How old are they? Though if you had pink eyed roans (champaign, amber, ect) they would fade very quickly. well if they are champaigns or ambers or another color their hoods won't go away, they will just get lighter (sometimes even darker) when they molt into their adult coats around 4 to 8 weeks old. do you think you can get some pictures?


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## Livyaahh (Jul 24, 2012)

They are almost 4 weeks now


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