Breeding goals:
• Chocolate, black, Russian blue, and Russian Platinum.
• Le Mans Roan
• Roan + Blazed: Extreme/Notched
• Dumbo & Standard ear
Overview:
This line was an unexpected surprise in our first chocolate pairing in 2019 and in 2020 we finally learned what they were genetically.
The rats from this line are incredibly "kissy", cuddly, inquisitive, and playful. They thrive in an environment with a lot of enrichment and most of these rats love running on the wheel.
These rats are petite and never lose their playful attitude with age.
There was a history of MA in this line, however, we are happy to say that we have pretty much bred away from this entirely in just 2 generations.
This line is our pride and joy, babies will only be sent to nothing but phenomenal homes.
Genetics:
Several test pairings have been done to try and determine the genetics of this line. We are aware that this marking is typically referred to as “cap stripe roan”, however, “cap stripe” is the name for a DWS (dominant white spotting) marking and we do not have DWS in South Africa as of 2020.
The United Rodent Community made the decision to create their own set of names and standards for these markings.
Le Mans: Roan + Capped (ro/ro + h^n/h^e OR h^n/h^n)
Saddled: Roan + Bareback*/Variegated* (ro/ro + H/h^e OR h/h^e OR h/h^n) *TBC
The history of the line:
We acquired 4 breeding rats from Maharaj Rattery in February 2019. These rats were all blazed, chocolate carriers who were going to be used to produce our chocolate line.
Bucks: MHJ Reaper (Black Variegated lightning blaze) & MHJ Phantom (Black Variegated extreme blaze)
Does: MHJ Asuna (Black Variegated wedge blaze) & MHJ Chaandra (Black Variegated mismarked headspot/blaze)
*GEN 1*
In July 2019 we had successfully produced our *first generation chocolate litter (*born in our rattery - This line can be traced back to the 2006 import).
The 2 rats used, following consultation and advice from several breeders experienced with the line, were Reaper & Asuna.
Reaper was chosen for his size, temperament, type, and health at the time of pairing.
Asuna was chosen for her size at the time of pairing as well as her conformation.
Asuna produced a litter of healthy rittens. Two of which are our very own IMGN Malachite & IMGN Moonstone who are still alive and well, living out their retirement in our cages at the time of writing this post.
Unfortunately, Asuna displayed severe maternal aggression, and due to unforeseen and unfortunate health issues, had to be humanely euthanized when the babies were 17 days old.
The litter was culled down, fostered off to another doe, and monitored closely. We were well aware of the risks of fostering and were fully prepared to humanely euthanize the remaining rittens in the litter if they began to show any signs of deterioration.
The rittens flourished. We believe that the foster doe was one of the best decisions to be made as the rittens were inquisitive, outgoing, and playful.
2 rittens were held back for future pairings and the remaining 3 bucks went to a trusted individual at the time.
3 months after the first litter was born, the founding buck of the line began showing signs of hormonal aggression. Unfortunately he had to be humanely euthanized as he had started attacking rats in his colony.
We were aware that future pairings from this line would need to be closely monitored before they would be allowed to go to pet homes.
Concerns regarding fertility in the line were raised, and we made the decision to pair IMGN Malachite (chocolate capped + extreme blaze) and IMGN Moonstone (chocolate Le Mans Roan) slightly earlier than 6 months of age. (Articles related to the optimal times for pairing rats can be found on our website, blog, and social media pages.)
*GEN 2*
In November 2019 we produced our *second generation litter (*born in our rattery - This line can be traced back to the 2006 import). IMGN Moonstone showed no signs of maternal aggression and IMGN Malachite had not shown any signs of hormonal aggression.
This litter produced 50% Le Mans Roan & 50% capped rittens. We held back a pair of chocolate capped and a pair of chocolate Le Mans rats:
Capped: IMGN Gabriel (buck) & IMGN Lillith (doe)
Le Mans: IMGN Azriel (buck) & IMGN Mania (doe)
The remaining rats from the litter were sent to trusted breeders, their journey with our Le Mans can be found on their websites: Calico Rattery, All Rat Rattery, and Full o’Beanz Rattery. Only one doe was sent to a very special pet home with an adopter we trusted.
*GEN 3*
In April 2020 the Le Mans & Capped rats that were held back were paired and our *third generation litter was born (*born in our rattery - This line can be traced back to the 2006 import). Our Le Mans x Le Mans litter produced 100% Le Mans and the Capped x Capped pairing produced approximately 75% capped and 25% Le Mans. It was at this point that we began suspecting that Le Mans was Roan + Capped (ro/ro + h^n/h^e OR h^n/h^n).
Although the outcome of these pairings might be obvious to more experienced breeders, it was incredibly important to us that we understand the genetics of our line thoroughly. We take great pride in the rats we produce and we are always looking to expand our knowledge and do more research into our lines.
IMGN Mania showed no signs of maternal aggression and IMGN Azriel had not shown any signs of hormonal aggression.
Capped pairing holdbacks: IMGN Laurus (buck) & IMGN Lemon (doe)
Le Mans pairing holdbacks: IMGN Maple (doe), IMGN Mahogany, and IMGN Mountain Ash
Babies from the above pairings were culled down, as we were still monitoring for HA. Following evaluations, only 3 bucks and 2 does were held back in total. The rats were monitored until 12 weeks of age, their parents were monitored as well. After strict evaluations we decided to use IMGN Laurus in our next pairing. Laurus was chosen for his excellent temperament and reduced roaning compared to the other hold back bucks.
IMGN Maple was chosen for the next pairing as she was from the Le Mans x Le Mans pairing and we wanted to continue to merge the two initial pairings.
The remaining 3 rats (IMGN Lemon, IMGN Mountain Ash, and IMGN Mahogany) were offered to exceptional pet homes with incredible individuals we trusted would give us regular updates and feedback.
*GEN 4*
We received 2 Black Le Mans from Kelly (All Rat Rattery) who had received a doe from our GEN 2 pairings. Kelly had been working on the line and did her own pairing (line bred) to a saddled roan buck. She produced a litter of black saddled and Le Mans babies.
Buck: ARR Alder (Black standard ear Le Mans roan)
Doe: ARR Apple (Black standard ear Le Mans roan)
In September 2020 ARR Alder & ARR Apple were paired alongside IMGN Laurus & IMGN Maple to produce 2x litters of Le Mans and our *fourth generation litters were born (*born in our rattery - This line can be traced back to the 2006 import).
ARR Alder (Black standard ear Le Mans roan) x ARR Apple (Black standard ear Le Mans roan) produced 100% Le Mans babies in black, chocolate, and russian blue. There was a mixture of dumbo and standard ear in the litter.
IMGN Laurus (chocolate dumbo Le Mans roan) x IMGN Maple (chocolate dumbo Le Mans roan) produced 100% chocolate dumbo Le Mans babies.
The goal of these pairings was to merge the ARR line and the IMGN line, both lines were related but we wanted to put the best of both worlds together. The ARR rats would allow us to incorporate standard ear, black, and russian blue into our existing chocolate Le Mans line.
This was one of our largest pairings to date, with 19 Le Mans babies born. The babies were evaluated and we were confident that we could start offering them to pet homes. Our reasoning for this was that we still had IMGN Malachite, IMGN Azriel, and IMGN Laurus, all of which had not shown any signs of HA. None of our does had shown any signs of MA since Asuna.
In total we held back:
ARR Pairing: IMGN Corpse Bride (Russian blue standard ear Le Mans doe) & IMGN Sweeney Todd (Black standard ear Le Mans buck)
IMGN Pairing: IMGN Ichabod Crane (Chocolate dumbo Le Mans buck)
It will still be decided as to which buck we will use to continue the line, IMGN Sweeney Todd is a black Le Mans (chocolate carrier) and IMGN Ichabod Crane is a chocolate Le Mans. Our ultimate goal is to produce Le Mans of different colours, however, at this stage IMGN Ichabod Crane is displaying a playful and inquisitive temperament that is superior to IMGN Sweeney Todd. We only planned to pair these rats in January/February 2021 so we still had time to make our final decisions.
IMGN Corpse Bride will be paired back to her sire, ARR Alder, in January/February 2021 to produce standard ear Le Mans in Black and Russian blue.
*GEN 5*
Our Gen 5 pairings are planned for January/February 2021.
Our goals and potential pedigrees are as follows:
Selecting for colour in Le Mans:
IMGN Corpse Bride will be paired back to her sire, ARR Alder, in January/February 2021 to produce standard ear Le Mans in Black and Russian blue.
Incorporating Saddled into our Le Mans:
We received a saddled doe from All Rat Rattery (ARR Alaska) who will be paired to either IMGN Sweeney Todd OR IMGN Ichabod Crane to continue our Le Mans line.
We are aiming to create saddled rats without the ear caps as we really like the look of this marking and would like to add some variation to the overall look of our Constellations line.
