Any rat genetics experts care to weigh in?

I am curious to know whether or not four of my boys are truly brothers or not. They were picked up from a hoarder's house at the beach last summer and we were told they were siblings, but this person had *a lot* of rats and shifted them around constantly. Usually I see litters that just have two or three kinds of rats (ex: pews, agouti hoodies, agouti berks/selfs). These rats were all definitely the same age, around 5 weeks. But I was just wondering if they're true siblings, and if it's possible to determine simply by their color/markings. Here was the group:

x1 female - agouti hooded
x1 female - PEW
x1 male - PEW
x1 male - black berk
x1 male - black hooded
x1 male - blue agouti berk

Is it possible to have all five of these "types" in one litter? What would their parents have been? It's the blue rat that really throws me off...he just seems out of place, ya know?

I am not entirely sure....but I did have a litter with 4 different colors and I had some selfs and some berks. I am pretty sure you could have all these in one litter....

It is definitely possible. One parent probably carried the black gene, the other the agouti and the remaining colours are dilutions of those.

These three are brothers: Popper, Axe, & Throttle




These four are brothers: Finn, GMC, Bumbles, & Kona (all same daddy - don't know about their mothers)

victoria said:

It is definitely possible. One parent probably carried the black gene, the other the agouti and the remaining colours are dilutions of those.

Click to expand...

Really? That's so neat.

Are they all top-ears with standard fur?

BlueSkyy said:

Are they all top-ears with standard fur?

Click to expand...

Yes, they are