Fawn Line

I love this color and am happy to have a chance to work with it. I want to produce fawns with a bright, saturated red/orange coloring, hopefully in dumbo with satin and satin rex coats. Fawns are just such warm and cuddly looking rats, and with the dumbo ears and curly coats, I hope I can build a line that looks as much like snuggly teddy bears as I aim to have their personalities be!

The genetics of fawn are A/A r/r, and A/a r/r. They are agoutis with 2 copies of the red eye dilute, which changes their eye color and coat so that they have ruby eyes and the red-orange coat coloring. If a rat is a/a, or non-agouti (black) based, with the r/r they display as beige instead. There are other varieties, depending on different dilutes added to the fawns, the most common around here being russian fawn (which has 2 copies of the russian blue gene). We are hoping to select these other dilutes out of the line eventually to focus mainly on pure fawn in this line, to help bring out that vibrant coloring. We are likely to cross agouti rats into the line to help with that selection.

Satin is a simple recessive coat type, rats can carry it (and sometimes this can affect the coat of the carrier), but must have 2 copies of the recessive gene to be a satin. Satins have longer, finer guard hairs, which contribute to their overall appearance. Satin-rex is a rat who has both a satin and a rex coat at the same time. Rex is dominant, and 2 copies actually multiply the effect (double rex). A rat with a single copy of the dominant gene is rex, having a wavy/curly coat and whiskers, while having 2 copies of the dominant rex gene makes them double rex, often looking somewhat like a hairless. Our aim with satin-rex is to have a single rex gene copy, by breeding the satin rexes to satins. The satin rex coat, because of the longer, finer hairs from the satin, often has much tighter curling and waving, and can have a sheen to it that accents the coat. We hope to work on developing this coat type more here, as it can be a really stunning variety!

Dumbo ears are also simple recessives, with standard ears being able to carry the gene for them, without it displaying at all. We will be looking for nice, round, well placed ears, set low as they should be, without being tubular, wrinkled, or having other problems.

At this time there is a known health issue with our fawn line, in that a number of males and male relatives to the line have developed acute respiratory issues that have not been responsive to antibiotics, leading to early death. We are working carefully to try and select away from this problem so that our lines will be healthy, by using outcrosses from healthy lines, waiting until the rats are older to breed them so that we can monitor their health longer, and performing necropsies to monitor the issue. It is our hope that we will be able to select away from this problem and produce healthy, friendly fawns for everyone to enjoy.

All of our breeding rats are chosen as stated in our selection section.

Further reading on these varieties and the standards we follow can be found on the following Fancy Rats Wiki pages and the United Rat Standards Affiliation (URSA) pages.

Fawn:
URSA Standards
Fancy Rats Wiki Article

Dumbo Ears:
URSA Standards
Fancy Rats Wiki Article

Satin Coat:
URSA Standards
Fancy Rats Wiki Article

Satin-Rex Coat:
URSA Standards
Fancy Rats Wiki Article

Self Markings:
URSA Standards
Fancy Rats Wiki Article