# Dwarf Rat??? Help



## Kieshu (Nov 21, 2006)

I have a major question seeing my little guy has had us stumped for the last 6 months. Kieshu was born to a feeder rat mother and a fancy rat father, both of average size.. We didn't even know he was a boy until he reached almost 5 months of age... Yea Kieshu was previously known as Julliet for his small size and kinda dainty build 8O ... Kieshu is less than half the size of any female we have let alone the males he is in the cage with. Also recently One of the his sisters( Missy.. 3 times his size) Had babies and one is taking after what Kieshu looked like when he was younger. Can a dwarf rat be born to normal parents?


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## Lexarius (Oct 23, 2006)

Just as a dwarf human (or whatever the politically correct term is) can be born to "normal" parents. It's not a separate species, just a genetic condition. I'm told that there are not yet any true domestic rat breeds, so it would be easy for an unusual recessive trait to be found in offspring.


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## Andrea (Nov 29, 2006)

Ive never heard or seen of dwarf rats. Do you have a picture. Bless him, must be nice really to have one stay looking like a youngster.


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## Kieshu (Nov 21, 2006)

Kieshu died of pneumonia a few weeks back but he had a son and hes just the same, very small I shall post a picture soon.


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## Matt (Jun 14, 2007)

yuppers. post one of him next to a full grown rat.


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## sorraia (Nov 10, 2007)

Dwarf rats do exist, and it is a simple recessive so yes, they can be born to normal parents. However, as far as I am aware, the population of dwarf rats is still very small, found only among a handful of breeders, and not in pet stores. That said, it is less likely, though not impossible, that your boy is indeed a true genetic dwarf.

That said, there are many other factors that can affect size. Normal "standard" rats, just like people, may be big or small, fat or skinny, and so on. The genes controlling these traits are very complex, not simple and straight forward. It is very possibly to have a smaller-than-average rat born to two "regular" parents. Also, if he recently died from pneumonia, it's possible there was an underlying health problem that could affect his over all size. In other words, although he was genetically predisposed to grow to the size of your average rat, he environmentally was not able to do so due to an unknown health condition (the resources he consumed went to his defenses instead of to growth). This is especially likely if he came from "feeder stock", which are not bred for any trait except productivity (and size can definitely suffer when productivity is the selected trait).


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## Kieshu (Nov 21, 2006)

Yea but for Kieshu he was almost a year and a half when he finally got ill and passed away  So he was getting kinda old for a rat, and old rats get sick and die  . Logan is Kieshu's son, but his mother was a huge dumbo rat so he is small but doesn't have Kieshu's perfect head and ears.... But he is still soooo cute and I believe he may be a dwarf rat though I am not to UTD with all of the rat stuff except for how to care for them. Anyway here is a picture of him with Cody and Lenny, Lenny looks kinda small in the picture because he is further back, but Cody is right up next to him so you should be able to see his size comparison.

Also I have a question about Logan. Though he seems to healthy and well, at the same time he doesn't. He doesn't run and seems like he cannot run at all, he walks rather funny, almost like he is dragging his feet. He falls over alot and cannot climb the bars on the side of the cage. When I pick him up he feels like he is just bones no matter how much he eats. We had to lower the ramp in the cage to a very slight slope so that he could get to the water because he couldn't walk up it when it was at a 45 degree angle. He also just seems to be.... not to smart. We let him out of the cage to run around and he will walk very slowly to a wall, put his nose against it the wall or stand very close to it, and not move the entire time. If you pick him up and move him away from the wall he will just walk back to the wall. He doesn't sway back and forth like he has really bad vision either so we are kind of stumped... :?


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## Holly (Dec 31, 2006)

He is a beautiful rattie! I don't know what to say about the strange behaviors, but I hope that he has a long, and happy life! What a little cutie! Can he come visit me?


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## PCKGRat (Dec 25, 2007)

Genetic dwarf rats are physically different from their standard counterparts. There heads are smaller in comparison to body size. They tend to have a very thin tail. And, I mean thin. The coat will not be as rough on the males. The males will be more energetic and more feminine.

This is not to say that your boy is dwarf. But, who knows?


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Dwarves weigh very little. 150 grams I think is big?

How much does your wee fella weigh?


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## Emster (Dec 9, 2007)

Could he not just be the runt of his litter....?


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