Coat Types
Standard
Standard rats have a short smooth, sleek coat with long guard hairs.
They are the most common coat type. They can be found in Pet Shops everywhere. "The coat to be short, smooth, and glossy with the males having somewhat longer and coarser hair. It should show a natural high shine and densely cover the body. Color to conform to a recognized color or pattern."C |
Rex
Rere
Rex rats have a curl/wave to their coat and whiskers, it is more notiecable before they reach adulthood. Rex rat coats can differ from a poor Rex with a just noticeable curl/wave or full Rex were the curl/wave is much more noticeable. This gene is co-dominant. "The coat to be evenly dense and not excessively harsh, with as few guard hairs as possible. Coat to be evenly curled and also to a lesser extent on the belly. Curly vibrissae (whiskers) are normal for Rex. Colour to conform to a recognised colour or pattern variety. Where Silver or ticked rats are rexed, allowances should be made for the lower number of guard hairs present than in normal varieties. " The Rex variety was first discovered and developed by Bronwyn of Brats Tails Rattery in 2003. |
Double Rex (Drex)
ReRe
Double Rex or DRex rats have tightly curled/wavy coat and whiskers, they go through a moult around 6 weeks of age where they lose all their hair and then it grows back in tight curls and stays this way, the hair is much thicker then a Rex and has plush feel to it. The Double Rex gene is caused by having 2 copies of the Rex gene meaning that both parents carry the Rex gene. Double Rex rats can some times be prone to ingrown hairs, whiskers and eye lashes. "The coat is to be evenly dense and curly. The belly may be less curly, with the guard hairs greatly reduced or missing, and the coat has less of a shine than expected for a rat with a standard coat – but it should not look unusually dull. The texture of the coat is to be coarser than that of the standard coat type but it should not be brittle. The whiskers are to be tightly curled and somewhat shorter than in standard rats." |
Patchwork Rex
Patchwork Rex rats coats moult all through their life, with their hair growing back in different places like an ever changing patchwork. So they never look the same one day to the next, their hair is usually coarse and can look curled,wavy or straight.
Patchwork Rex is caused by the pairing of ReRe x ReRe. These rats need a little more TLC, as the absence of hair makes the extra sensitive to the cold. They are also more likely to hurt themselves when scratching due to their bare skin and sharp nails. |
Silk
Slkslk
Silk rats have a very soft and shiny coat, it has a kind of iridiscent sheen to it giving it a slight "wet" appearance and their hair lies flat against them. Most silk rats have guard hairs, approximately 10% do not. This is especially noticed on males, who stay soft throughout their lives with no guard hairs. It is a co-dominant gene. |
Double Silk
SlkSlk
Double Silk is the same as Silk, but the 'wet' look is almost doubled, along with the sleekness and length of the hair. Double Silk is caused from a Slkslk x Slkslk pairing. |
Patchwork Silk
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Silky
Silky rats are increasingly rare, it seems only on breeder, the founding breeder of the variety, still has silky rats. Silky rats have no guard hairs, their undercoat is twice as long and is very soft. It is a gorgeous variety and I hope it comes back again. Silky rats were almost lost due to people out-crossing it to other coat types so much it almost became extinct. Silky is not to be confused with silk, they are two different varieties.
"The coat is to be softer than the standard coat varieties, both in the does and bucks. The coat should be twice the length of a standard coat, and lacking in guard hairs. Ticked varieties should appear to have greater vibrancy than non-ticked varieties due to the lack of guard hairs." This was the first coat mutation in Australia, it was first bred by Ron Wilton in NSW in 2002, they were developed and distributed by Rachel Sydenham of Rattikins Rattery and Cindy Cairns of the Rodent Ranch. Rachel named the variety with Ron's blessing. |
Velour
vlvl
Velour is a Recessive Rexoid gene. Unlike Rex, Velour Hair-coat consists of primarily undercoat so is not as course. The hair-coat is also much tighter and denser than the Rex. Even a bad Velour hair-coat is obviously different to a Rex. Because Velours have primarily under-coat they do not moult the way that rex rats do. Like res rats, you can have poor and good coated velours, some do appear as bad double rex rats, and others are clearly velour. This variety was first bred by Ron Wilton in NSW in 2006, he contacted Rachel Sydenham of Rattikins Rattery and Cindy Cairns of the Rodent Ranch who further bred the variety. Rachel named the new variety with Ron's blessing. |
PowderPuffPowder Puff Hair-coat has both undercoat and guard hairs that are long and soft. The females are funnily more impressive and softer in the hair-coat than the boys. The hair-coat is somewhat straight and puffs out slightly where as the boys may have the slightest wave or ripple through their coat mostly due to oils produced through the skin along the back, Guard hair are very long and seem to trail off from the under-coat in the boys as well. Powder Puff features are very different too, they have small triangular heads and small rounded ears, and they almost look mouse like. The bodies are robust and they are large in size.
Powderpuff rats were first bred by Rachel Sydenham of Rattikins Rattery in NSW in 2006. |