Ever heard of a tailless rat?

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lindsayfawn

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Joined
Jan 13, 2008
Messages
5,276
Location
Moncton, NB
I was just wondering if anyone has ever seen a tailless rat? I was looking up the different kinds of rats and they had listed a tailless one. Looks really different..I wonder how it balances it self. Anyways ever heard of it or saw one?
 
Some breeders do breed tailless rats. In my opinion, it's not a good idea, rats rely on their tails to control their temperature as well as balancing.
I will never understand why people would purposely breed a deformity. But then again, hairless, rex and dumbos could all be considered deformities as well. Makes me wonder... by changing these genes, what else is being changed? What other consequence do these different genes cause in rats?
 
They are a breed that people steer clear of because of the risk of death in hot weather or hot climates. As Jo already mentioned, rats regulate their body temperature through their tails, actually up to 75% of it, and they can easily die of heat stroke under certain circumstances.
You have to be very experienced with breeding them, and truly know what you're doing, because you are basically breeding a rat with an underdeveloped spine. Babies can be born without most of their spines and have to be destroyed. Only one of the parents can be tailless, and it can only be one sex (I think the mother can be tailless and the father tailed) or you can have a disaster on your hands with the babies having to be destroyed. With only one parent tailless, you are going to get only a few tailless in a litter and that is where disreputable breeders do things like cut the other rats tails off to satisfy the number of reservations they have. There was a very awful breeder, up here in Canada, that was docking the baby rats tails and trying to sell them as tailless and it made quite a uproar in the rat community when she was caught. You have to be careful about things like that.
I have only heard of one breeder, with a decent reputation, in the US taking it on and I don't know if they do anymore.
In my opinion, breeding for that type of detrimental deformity should be criminal, I don't know why people would want to support that kind of animal breeding. Coat types and ear placement don't come with the same type of health concerns, and that is why they are more acceptable mutations, but a non developed spine is a whole different ballgame. It is the same with any high white breeding too, it is a detrimental mutation where the nerves on the spine are not developed properly.
Editing this to add that when I refer to coat types the exception is hairless rats which do suffer health concerns, by coat types I am referring to things like rex and satin and whatnot.
But, I am against any breeding of anything, so I consider myself biased.
 
that is so sad that , that person was cutting their tails off! That's horrible, poor things. Personally I like their tails, they're so soft. I was just curious if there was such a thing. I don't agree with the breeding of any kind of animal just to get something that might look better, it's not right.
 
I wondered if dumbos would be considered a deformity. Have you ever seen a dumbo Norway, I haven't.

It is just like people breeding for a white doberman or a blue dobie, they have major health issues because it is a deformity a recessive gene that was bred out of them for generations and then you get these idiot byb's who stumble across them and start breeding with no regard to the consequences or the horrible life the animal will suffer and people are dumb enough to buy them not realizing that they have major allergies, are blind or deaf. People should just stop messing with mother nature and let it run it course.
 
A friend of mine had a true tailless female show up in a litter of 12 once. She was funny to watch. She would climb and get around like any other rat, but she was rather clumsy. She lived to be almost 2. Her name was Ruby. I have baby pics of the whole litter at home. I will show you sometime when I have access to the photos.

And yes, I have had dumbo rats myself. They are sooooo sweet:) <3 Their ears are my favorite:)
 
I've always wondered about tailess rats. i never really had much of an interest, beyond wanting to see one for myself. I don't think I'd want to own one, it makes me think "Giant hamster" and I am not a hamster fan. I do love hairless and dumbos though.

When I lived in Alberta I couldn't have a rat, so i had mice. I was breeding them for a while, but wasn't very successful (they just didn't breed, but I was 12-13 and had no idea). Anyhow I heard about Wobbler mice and how people were breeding these mice so that they wobbled when they walked. Well it's not cool, these mice obviously are suffering, and I never wanted to even see one wobble. Plus, it was in the info that they tended not to live as long, no wonder!
 

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