Presenting: TTR The Ocean's Roar

Ocean is such a nice rattie. Very monkeyminded and licky too! I can hardly wait until he gets old enough to pair up with Ping Pong. They are both beautiful monkeyminded ratties and will produce some lovely babies.

Ocean has fur similar to what is known as rex, but he does not have the curly whiskers that rexes normally do. This type of combination is being called "velveteen" by many breeders. Genetically speaking, some breeders are trying to prove that the velveteen fur is a new mutation of the rex gene, not just a poor example of a rexed rat.

Speaking of genetics I've been trying to understand how they effect the different markings within a fancy rat. I've discovered that ratties can resemble the look of a certain marking visually, but genetically be a different marking. This is caused by genetic modifiers and the effects of spotting genes. It is all complex and confusing. But physically little Ocean looks much like the marking known as the capped marking, but genetically he is really something totally different like a mismarked bareback or even a mismarked hooded. I've learned that in raising ratties what you see isn't always what you get.