No breeder should be without specific goals! My overall purpose is to remember WHY I'm breeding these animals: to be pets, the best pets possible, each generation should be an improvement on the one before. That is the basic goal that all breeders should strive for. I do have priorities listed here. The way they work is that if a rat has something not perfect in a low priority but has excellent traits in higher ones, he/she is considered a possible candidate for breeding. I WILL NOT breed an animal with a bad temperment OR health problems even if they are perfect specimens otherwise.  Temperment First priority I look for in these pet-destined critters is temperament. A lot of breeders say they breed for temperament, but how? And what does that mean? Well, I breed animals that are interested in people and choose outgoing ones for my breeders. I breed animals that will not bite, that come to people and are interested in what you are doing. They must also be amiable with other rats and be neither overbearing nor shy. A rat that consistantly attacks other rats, even if he is good with people, will not be bred. The degree to which temperament is inherited or learned isn't clearly understood, so I do my best to make sure that they are also well socialized as youngsters so they are good pets when they get new homes. I am particularly proud of my males, which never fight nor have dominance issues and will accept new rats to their cage with no fuss or trouble at all. I have found that the dominance issues rats have with each other can and do often transfer to people. "Biters" seldom are gentle and friendly to other rats. Since this is one of the biggest problems/complaints of new rat owners (especially those who have males), I give it a lot of attention and consideration. Personality is the driving factor determining the majority of my pairings. If I have a few sisters I am choosing from as potential moms, for example, the one who is the friendliest, most outgoing, and doesn't have any bad tendencies (like gnawing on bars or huffing at cagemates) is the one I choose, regardless of what they look like.  Health I then look at health. This is tricky to breed for because rats live short lives anyway, and most problems appear only in old age. Breeding for health requires good record keeping and discontinuing lines that seem prone to cancer or diseases. I also use genetic knowledge to avoid breeding genetically incompatible rats and maintaining a strong network with other breeders and owners to learn what health risks are emerging and/or increasing. When I encounter a problem, I search intensely for it's cause and whether the disease or a vulnerability to it can be inherited or is the result of diet or environment. I change feeding or housing or stop breeding from a rat or group accordingly. Even if a cause is found to be an allergy, rats with a lot of allergies have a strike against them for breeding, and those that are unaffected by diet, stress, and other things are considered "better" for breeding. I have noticed bedding and food allergies to occur in related rats, so I believe it is at least partly hereditary, and any hereditary "flaw" is something I'd like to breed away from.  Type I feel type is more important than color/pattern. The most common, boring colored rat can still be beautiful if his/her coat is shiny, ears are round, eyes are bright, tail is long, and body is a good shape. Also, type can affect health. My goals and considerations come primarily from my own preferences. I like rats with smoothly shaped ears and long tails. I believe form follows function, and the more attractive rats are typically the ones that are bright-eyed and healthy with clean shiny fur. I also have a small diversion in that I am focusing some of my effort into rats with a "stocky" build with a wide head and short nose. This was first an accidental goal, since the rats whose personalities and liked and had great health just happened to be rather short-bodied. It is still a rather vague goal, because some rats don't develop "the look" until there are nearly full grown.  Color Color and pattern are final considerations but still fairly important to the goal of better pets, because people want attractive animals. This is the easiest to breed for because it requires only basic and moderate genetics and can be easily assessed visually. I am not currently breeding show stoppers, and in fact I have my own ideals of rat beauty. All other things being equal, I will choose rats with large head spots or thick assymetrical blazes and those with rick dark color.  Overview Here I am going to list a very quick overview for my goals and how far I have come with them. You can also get a view of how I've progressed by checking my records. HEALTH No respiratory problems: Almost perfect. It has been several years with not a single case of myco flare up or heavy breathing in any but very old rats. No heart problems: This was an issue in some of my early rats, especially among males. My current group are showing much less problems in this area and seem to be living a long time. Longer lifespans: I believe this is also being achieved. Currently, many more of my rats are living past their second birthdays. No cancer: This is the final health concern among the big issues, but it is much trickier than the others, because tumors don't tend to show hereditary trends and in fact show up more often in long-lived healthy animals... The rate of tumors in my lines has increased with lifespan, but I would like to breed away from tumors if it is possible to do so and maintain longer-lived animals. No megacolon: One of the first couples I bred produced megacolon, but I did not breed those rats again nor any of their offspring. I have not had a single case of megacolon in my current lines. TYPE/COLOR Long fur: I have not figured out the mode of heredity in my "longer haired" rats. I have a hypothesis that it is related to siamese genes. Short body: Again, I am not sure the hereditary mode, but my "stocky" animals seem to have longer fur and also tend to be more docile. They do not have any health problems associated with them, and are among my longer-lived rats. Dark siamese: Alas, the siamese gene is not a frequent allele in my lines, so I have not had a chance to breed for the color. BEW/Dalmatian markings: I have a good working model for the heredity of general markings in my lines: Explained here Since I choose my pairs based on behavior and health, however, I have not bred toward any specific kinds. In fact, more than once, I passed up a rat with amazing markings for a sibling with a better temperment. In general, though, my lines throw lovely markings | |||