The Story of Harley - recessive -  longer coat - Founded 2002
We found Harley on Sept. 1, 2002. We were checking out an
independent pet shop in town. I passed a tank with what looked like
one teddy bear hamster in the corner. As as I walked by, I took a
second look and realized she was a rat!
I took Harley to my pet shop to quarantine. She looked about two
months old. On Sept, I came in after lunch and my employee said
there was a surprise in the back room. There was Harley with five
chubby babies under her. They were pink eyed and very pale, they
were Siamese/Himalayans like her. She must have been bred by a
brother in her litter. Harley has an interesting coat. Her hair is not  
wavy or curly like a rex or velveteen, but straight and wispy.
UPDATE ON BABIES: Three-weeks-old
Four babies have a very thick, plush velveteen like coat. It appears longer than the velveteen blues I have that are around
the same age. The whiskers are even less curved than velveteen whiskers.
One baby, on the bottom, has straight hair. The guard hairs seem to be longer, much like a longer version of the Satin coat.
These babies are large and sweet, most are dumbo.
Harley's Story
3 Bucks and 1 Doe. Three males and one doe have velveteen-like fur. One buck has a satin coat.
Velveteen-like coats on three babies.
The satin coated buck.
UPDATE: March 2003.
The above babies are all grown up. Four of them did inherit beautiful velveteen
coats, but none of them have the wispy longer coat that Harley has.

So, could her coat be caused by some unique recessive homozygous pairing
of coat genes these babies did not inherit?

We know the velveteen gene is caused by a dominate gene that causes the fur
to take on a  crimped or curly appearance and it causes slightly bent whiskers
in the heterozygous form. We also know that satin causes a straighter shiny
coat when the rat has a homozygous pairing of  satin genes.

So, I came up with some hypothesis on what caused Harley's coat to be so
wispy. Was it homozygous satin and a unique velveteen gene?

To test the first idea, I bred Harley's daughter, OFR Harley Jr, with a satin
coated rat, Black Jack II. She has the dominate Velveteen gene from her
mother and if Harley was homozygous satin, she would have inherited one of
those genes from her. So, when bred with a satin rat, some of the babies
would be homozygous satin and velveteen. If my idea was correct, some of
those babies should look like Harley.

The babies were born and the velveteen babies  appeared to have the same
fluffy coat as seen above. There was really no unusual velveteen coated rats
that displayed coats like Harleys.

The remaining non velveteen babies should have been satin and some
standard coated, but they do not appear satin now, as their fur is too soft. It
does seem slightly longer than other rats the same age. But, we will see when
the adult coat comes in. So far, none of the babies appear to have Harley's
coat. The babies were dispersed to three Northwest ratteries.
Update 3-2003
Harley's three adult boys have impressive
size and great personalities.
Harley of Odd Fellows Rattery - Photos Sept-2002
UPDATE June 2003
WE DID IT!
On May 1st, 2003, Harley gave birth to a
dumbo male and female Himalayan/Siamese
that look identical to her. These two gorgeous
babies were born to Harley and her son, OFR
Curly. I believe that the trait must have a
homozygous pairing of an unidentified gene, as
well as a velveteen gene, of this line to produce
this trait. I am very excited. To see pictures of
the new babies...click here!
COAT TYPE
OFR Curly, Dumbo Himi, Son of
Harley

Whiskers: Softly bent at tips.
Coat: Same as when a baby: fluffly
like a cottonball.
Texture: Dense & med. soft.
Coat as an adult: Sticks up all over,
unkept, dense. some curl on rear.
COAT TYPE
OFR Harley Jr., Dumbo Himi
Daughter of Harley Jr. and the
grandaughter of Harley

Whiskers: Softly bent at the tips.
Coat as a baby: Fluffly like cotton.
Texture: Dense & Soft
Coat as an Adult: Sticks up,
unkept, no curl.

The information on this page is a
2010 Repost of 2003 Post.