# New babies, Double-Rex? Bit of a back-story!



## mink (Jun 24, 2007)

Okay, a sorta friend / acquaintance of mine had an accidental litter. 
She special ordered 2 new baby male rats from a pretty reputable shop - she wanted a male hairless and a male dumbo. 
They called her a couple weeks later and told her that they couldn't get a hold of a dumbo at the moment, but had the hairless she ordered for her to come pick up. 
She got it on her way home from work, got home and realized it was female! She was upset, but willing to keep her. 
After a week or two.. thought she might be pregnant.. a little while later thought probably yes - and then the rat had babies. (She tore the store a new one!!)

Now, she had 8 babies - and I know how hairless females have a hard time with babies - well, 1 died right away, 2 passed away in a matter of days. 
She had 5 for a couple weeks, and then the runt died. She now has 4 babies that will be 4 weeks old tomorrow, thankfully they have already started playing with their mom's food. 

She took a fancy to 1 particular baby that survived despite struggling and decided she is keeping that one. I told her I might take 2 males, if there are any, seeing how I've had strictly females (my fiance's preference) for the past oh, 7 years (out of 12 years owning rats). I miss having boys 
My friend can sex them now, there are 3 boys, and 1 girl. The one she is keeping is a male, which is cool - she will have him separate and can even get a dumbo pal someday like she originally planned.
So.. this leaves 2 boys.. what are the odds?? And 1 girl. Her best friend wanted the runt that died, so he might adopt the girl. ^_^

So, yea.. guess I am adopting myself 2 baby boys! 

We have been having fun watching their fur.. She said they grew rex-like fur, I was so excited. Now she says they are starting to lose some of it.. so my best guess is the babies will be Double-Rex???
I only have a few fuzzy cell-phone pics from her of the babies T_T
I'll try and add some next post. They had the most interesting skin colors, I've yet to receive more current pics to see fur.
I had a Rex once before, never anything close to hairless or double-rex. Her best friend was teasing me - he saw the babies today - he said one of my babies looks like friar tuck!


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## wheeljack (Mar 17, 2011)

There are a few possibilities. There are double-rex rats which can range from looking like normal rexes with thin hair to being nearly hairless. There are also true hairlesses which also can be quite fuzzy or have very little hair. The true hairlesses are the ones that see lactation issues in certain lines. Double-rex females shouldn't have any issue raising a litter unless there is something specific in that line. You can't necessarily tell the difference between a double rex and a hairless just by looking.

If mom is a double-rex and rex is of course dominant and dad was standard coated then all the babies should be rexes. If dad was a rex or double-rex all of the babies will be double rex.

If mom is actually a recessive hairless and dad is standard coated and doesn't carry hairless, the babies will be standard coated but it doesn't sound like this is the case. If dad is rex or double-rex, the bubs will be rex. If dad happens to carry hairless also then you are looking at hairless babies.

From what you are describing, double-rex is most likely. Rex babies often thin their coat during their molt but it should grow back. If they are double-rexes, they will molt out what should be a fairly thin coat to begin with and it may or may not paritially grow back and then thin again. Hairless babies (in my limited experience of one rescue litter with them) don't grow in any noticeable coat until later than their siblings and they molt it out without it growing back.


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## mink (Jun 24, 2007)

So here's the pics I've been sent of the babies so far. ^_^ 
I believe the first one is 1 week, the second pic is around 2 weeks (after the poor solid gray one passed), the last three pics are 3 weeks old and I believe the last pic is a boys-only pic. 
She is keeping the gray cap one, so potentially, the 2 others are mine. I don't know what to call their color... champagne? 

Oh - I was hanging out with friends, and we went into the shop where she got her supposed-to-be-male momma. 
And they had 2 male hairless rats for sale! >_<
We were talking about what happened - perhaps a little loudly on purpose - when an employee guy interjected.
He said the oops female came in with those two hairless males, supposed to be all male. When he saw one 'jump' her, he told a supervisor they needed to be separated - which they were. 
Then when someone else called my friend about her order, they grabbed the solitary rat - still labeled male for some reason. 
The guy insisted one of those 2 hairless males is the baby-daddy. He asked how the babies were doing, and said how he really likes the rats. 

So.. possibly.. their daddy is a hairless male - and I mean true hairless.. couldn't see a patch on them, I inspected them closely through the glass after what the guy said.
Besides some pophyrin, they seemed okay. My friend recently said the momma has a patches of fuzz on her head so.. babies might be Hairless x Double-Rex??


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## wheeljack (Mar 17, 2011)

Like I said you can't always tell a hairless from a a double-rex just by looking. For one thing there are more than one strain of hairless that have varying amounts of fur and both double-rexes and hairless can be selectively bred towards more or less fur. You would ideally either need to keep very close track of the babies' molting patterns and compare it to what other breeders have seen or do test breedings to be sure, although knowing the dad doesn't really tell us anything in this case.

Hairless mom x hairless dad = 100% hairless babies
Double rex mom x double rex dad = 100% double rex babies

Now if they are a double-rex that is particuarly hairless or a hairier strain of hairless, you can't tell just by looking. I can't really tell anything from the pictures, so at this point I don't think any of use can say 100% what they are. We can try to make an educated guess when we see some later or clearer pictures, but it will still be just a guess. Presumably since you aren't going to be breeding them, it shouldn't really matter that much if they are DR or hairless, care is the same for both and both are prone to scratches, eye irritation and get cold easier.


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## mink (Jun 24, 2007)

Yeah, I tried editing to say I recall you said its hard to tell the difference, lol. But I'm still being new to posting with this forum format.  
The edit option disappears after 10min I think it said? Oh, well that's what I get for grabbing some dinner, haha. 

Its not a big issue, I'm already attached to them and will adore them no matter what. I'm just being excited. I've been trying to come up with a list of names, but for a change I'm a little stumped.
I will probably get ideas when I actually get them, which my friend said she wants to send them home next week.. at 5 weeks and couple days that weekend, not sure if that's ideal - but she insists. 
I mean, I don't blame her on the one hand that it's been rough times with the babies struggling at first and losing half the litter and her getting so attached to them.. they would be sure to thrive with individualized attention. She actually was ecstatic when I said I would take the 2 boys for sure. ^_^ 

It should be fun with a little more mystery thrown in! I haven't had a baby rat since over 2 years ago, and the girls I adopted were 3 months old then. Still have 2 elderly ladies ^_^. Kuma was a few months old as well, I think a lot of my rats I've acquired about a few months old. Maxine and Kane might have been around 6 weeks or so. Spike was over 6 months old, and lived to be 3.5 years old. 
These will be the most itty bitty rats I've had in a good long time. <3


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