Value of Hairless Rats

I'm not planning on breeding them as feeders because I know the females don't do well as mother's what with there nipples not working right and all that. I just want one or two as a pet, but my question is: Are hairless rats worth more than regular rats? I went to the local Petland to check out their animals and saw a couple of hairless rats in with the regular rats with hair. They were all about $4. Is this a good deal on a hairless rat?

sounds like a good deal to me

I had hairless rats in the past, and they were selling for $10-20 each from a breeder, pet stores charged more. $4 is a great deal from a pet store, most still charge at least $10, while you can sometimes get them for $3-5 from breeders in areas where hairless rats are common.

good luck!
charlene

Hairless rats

I got my first hairless rats at Petco and they were the same price as the coated rats. Its not that their nipples don't work right, its that the rat pup's toe nails hurt, scratch and cut the female hairless bellies. OUCH! :eek1: To get more hairless breed a hairless male to het females or het males with het females. Sell or keep the hairless females as pets or snake food.

Silvia

Actually, the hairless gene in rodents does often make them unable to produce milk.

I strongly advise against purchasing ANY kind of pet (especially rodents) from pet stores. They're too often inbred, unhealthy genetically, and not well taken care of. If you're going to buy a pet it's best to do it from a breeder.

I did accidentally breed one of my hairless rat girls and she did fine nursing for the first couple of days. Her babies had nice full bellies. But after a few days I could see the scratches starting on her belly and she did not want to nurse (I don't blame her) so I put her pups in with a coated rat mom. I don't think she had a lack of milk, but she was clearly in pain when her pups were scratching her.

Every "reputable" rat breeder will not sell their rats to people that have snakes. And they have you sign a contract saying you will not feed their rats to snakes or their babies. Those same rat breeders will sell their surplus rats to wholesalers that supply Petsmart, which is why at Petsmart you will find hairless, dumbos and other "fancy" breeds of rats. My first breeder rats were from another reptile breeder, but they were not handleable and were more inbred than the ones I got form Petsmart.

Inbreeding rodents is not a bad thing. If you bring in a new male or two every once in a while it keeps the litter sizes up and no two headed rats are born! By breeding your own line of rodents you can select for things like being able to handle them without being bitten. My rodents have been selected for that and I always choose the most friendly males (and females) as my breeders for the next generation of feeders. They don't bite me, which is more than I can say for the ones I started out with!

About $20 in these parts.. I would like to get a male double rex, pretty well a hairless ..

Regards..

Well now I have something new to add to my own thread... I found another hairless rat at a different pet store for $15. So at one pet store they are $4 and at one they are $15. Its rather interesting. I just like them because they are unique.

I got these little ones for $4.00 each.

I would say almost hairless, a little less hair than a double rex but enough fuzz not to be baldies.. At least thats what I can tell from your pictures.. Curly whiskers are cool...

Regards..

LOL...they are actually from a hairless x rex pairing. I look forward to them being big enough to breed so I can see what babies I can get from them. I will most likely NOT breed them to each other. Oh yeah...the female has one dark eye and one ruby eye. It's pretty cool!

Odd eye on top of that.. Thats way to cool.. Odd eye Rex, better tack a few more bucks onto the price.. !!

Regards..

TandJ said:

Odd eye on top of that.. Thats way to cool.. Odd eye Rex, better tack a few more bucks onto the price.. !!

Regards..

Click to expand...

LOL...maybe it's a genetic mutation that she will pass on to some of her offspring That would be kind of cool.

As fantastic as genetic variety is, I have to say, dogs, cats, mice and rats are meant to have hair to me! I had a pet champagne hooded rat female many years ago and she was just stunning.

I think they are cute when they are hairless I have some really nice hooded rats, too. Maybe they are champagne? Their color is almost not noticable. It is the palest cream color. :shrugs:

I like the ones with fur, too!

Yes, the odd eye trait is genetic and it can and will be passed on through the generations.. Again, VERY cool..

Regards.

Hey, the hairless one is the one that gave me the surprise litter/free food, so I'm not complaining:grin01: , however she is quite mean. I'm trying to tame her, but she is so nippy and bitey. Maybe it is just because she was pregnant and everything, but she is so different than her cagemate, a nice brown rat, I think could be called "chocolate". Their names are Salt and Pepper. Pepper, the brown one is soooooo cute, she chatters her teeth and would ride around on my shoulder all day if I let her. She's a very nice and affectionate rat. The hairless one however, is skittish and just won't learn to trust me yet. The only reason I got two with different coats is so that my husband, who is blind, could tell the two apart. I could have gotten a rex, but I didn't think the difference would be enough. How do you get a mean rat to be nice?:shrugs: She doesn't bite once she is out of the cage though, but when she's out, all she wants to do is run away. She won't sit still or get on my shoulder or anything like the other one, she just wants to get away.

Just the other day, My Friend and I were talkng about the hairless rats...

My friend wants some very badly (just as pets) but neither of us have seen them in the petstores here in our area... I had told her that I remembered someone posting about them on here so I told her I would pop on and check it out...

Does anyone know of anyone in SouthWestern Virginia that raises/sales the hairless rats?
If not -- Is it reccommened to buy and ship?

Sorry, I do know of anyone. I also do not know much about shipping them. I know it can be done as I've received mice before (overnight, of course!). Good luck! I hope you are able to find some!

Update on my hairless little friend. She's finally coming around. I think she was just moody because of her litter and all. She really likes my husband and is nice to me now too. They are a funny pair to watch. They play and groom each other and bicker about this and that. They are very different when we let them out of the cage to explore. The hairless one just LOVES to explore and run around and chase my cat.... yes, she chases the cat and not the other way around, its so funny, my cat is a total weenie. She has been an indoor cat her whole life and has never seen a rat before and doesn't know what to do with it and is kind of afraid of her. The other rat, the chocolate coated one is really timid when she is out and would rather cuddle up on me than run around. She will explore a little bit, but mostly she will come running back if she goes too far. I guess I will know in a few weeks whether I lucked out again and will find out whether the chocolate one is pregnant too. I hope so, that would be ultra cool. I mean technically, all the females that were in with that male should be pregnant right? Anyway, I can hope.

This thread is 10yrs old but I breed hairless Rats! Lol.

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