Father
BWR Cygnus Inter Anates
Russian blue Burmese
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Babies
Born: June 10, 2009
Health Records |
Mother
BWR C'est La Vie
Russian blue-point Siamese rex ("velveteen")
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Background and Purposes: This litter is a close inbreeding between siblings. Since both parents came from my outcrossed litter, I now need to determine what traits each side brought in. The quickest and most reliable way to do so is through inbreeding, which will concentrate the genes and bring out otherwise hidden traits. Although there is a bad connotation associated with inbreeding, it is used as a tool in breeding animals to select for desired traits and weed out undesired traits. While some animals do not tolerate inbreeding very well, rats do tolerate it very well. Many people think of pet store rats as being inbred, and since pet store rats often come with a number of health problems, inbreeding must be the cause of those problems, and thus be bad. While it may be true that pet store rats are inbred, it is also true that pet store rats are very often randomly bred with no selection other than for production and perhaps for colors. It is this random breeding and lack of selection that accounts for the health problems, not the inbreeding. In my rats, inbreeding, and line-breeding, is used as a tool to help me tease out traits and select for or against those traits. Since my rats are very selectively bred, I strongly select against undesired traits, such as poor health, and strongly select for desired traits, such as good health and temperament. If you are interested in more information about this practice, please feel free to email me. In this particular litter I am using inbreeding as a tool to select for good health. Since there could be traits brought in from both sides of the outcross that don't mix well together, I am neutering and spaying all babies prior to adoption to help decrease the chances of some of these health concerns (such as tumors) presenting themselves. By inbreeding my outcross, I concentrate the genes brought in from both sides, and determine what has been introduced to the line, as well as how well those traits work together. Outcrossing always brings in new genes and new traits, some of which might be good and some of which might be bad. By inbreeding I will be able to select against those undesired traits (poor health) quicker and more reliably, while also selecting for those desired traits (good health and temperament). Cygnus was chosen because he complements Vi in type, and has the outgoing, attention-craving, people-oriented temperament I strongly select for in my rats. This temperament greatly complemented Vi, who is very much the same way. Since this was an outcross, I cannot expect type to be consistent among babies, and will have to carefully select for the best babies. I hope to see better heads which I can select for to improve on what I already have, while maintaining the good size and overall type I see in my rats.
Since many of these babies, as well as their cousins, will be traveling to other states, I decided to name this litter after cities along my route to Michigan for the RFL Fall Show. These are only registered names, and adopters are welcome to give the babies different "call names". These "call names" are also listed.
