SolarisHistory

History of NLR Solaris by Debbi J. Needham

Brand New Mutation
2010 Repost. First posted in 2002.
Tortoiseshell, Calico, Tri-colored or Mosaic Rat

NLR SOLARIS WAS DISCOVERED by Debbi J. Needham (2002)
Solaris was born February 2002 to two black hooded rats. His parents were allowed to breed often
and they produced over 100 beige and black hooded babies before Solaris appeared in a litter.

I met his owner, Kari Swain, April 2002 on Rare Fancy Rat Breeders website. She lives in Alaska,
USA. She was pleased to find Solaris was so unique. Due to my huge curiosity about color
genetics, I marvelled at Solaris' color. Together, we decided to research his s trait. Kari searched the
Internet for other half beige, half black rats and I did a lot of research on feline tortoiseshell or calico
rats and harlequin rabbits. She named her new rattery, Northern Lights Rattery (NLR).

BREEDING NLR SOLARIS
Our first obstacle in trying to reproduce this trait was to see whether or not Solaris was sterile.
Calico male cats with this trait are sterile, however, harlequin rabbits and guinea pigs are not. I
figured that most likely this trait was recessive and that it occurred when a rat carried homozygous
beige and black genes, as with the other animals. I suggested Kari introduce female rats with similar
genetic makes-up as Solaris. Kari introduced three female rats to Solaris in May 2002 and all three
successfully became pregnant. Solaris was not sterile. However, none of the babies showed the
trait. Kari decided to send Solaris south to Washington state, to our rattery, to see if we could
reproduce the trait. See OFR's breeding attempts to create a calico rat in 2002.

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