Colours

COLOURS AVAILABLE IN AUSTRALIA

Agouti Based Colours

Agouti

Wild rat colour. The fur is ticked with black and orange giving the appearance of a brownish grey colour.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is similar to agouti with a lighter ginger colour, fur is ticked and has black eyes.

Topaz

Topas is similar in colour to Argente, Topaz has a light orange/ginger colour with a grey undercoat and ruby eyes.

Argente

Argente is similar in colour to Topaz, Argente has a light orange/ginger colour with a light cream undercoat and ruby eyes.

Silverfawn

Orange/Apricot colour with light guard hairs and red eyes.

Non-Agouti Based Colours

Silvered Black

Black with silver hairs. silvering to be even all over body. There is no such thing as a solid black rat in Australia, all black rats have this silvering.

Mink

Can range a grey, grey-blue to a brown-grey. Minks often 'rust' with age. Coat is often silvere. Eyes are black.

Dove

Light creamy/silver colour. Can range from a pale grey to pale blueish colours has ruby eyes

Champaign

Pale off white creamy colour. Some are so pale they look almost white. Eyes are pink

Clocolate

Almost looks like a rusting in some rats, but the chocolate is an even brown colour throughout the rats body.

Blue

Can b confused with mink. Blues are a distinct slate grey blue. Blue is a 'cold' colour, mink is a 'warmer' grey brown. Blues are quite rare in Australia.

Other Colours

PEW (Pink Eyed White)

Albino. Pure White fur (can have a yellow tinge) with pink/red eyes.
PEW is a dilute gene. Can be either Agouti or Non-Agouti based.

BEW (Black Eyed White)/REW (Ruby Eyed White)

Pure white fur, with black or ruby eyes, coloured ears and spots can be present but not desired. BEW/REW is more a marking than a colour, caused by an over marking of white on the rats body. The colour 'under' the white can be either Agouti or Non-Agouti based.

Guard hairs: The longest and thickest hairs in a rat's coat, forming the top coat

Rusting: The coat colour becoming variable with age. Usually black rats will "rust" to a brownish red colour, minks tend to go brownish, white rats may go yellowish, and normally dark agouti tend to lighten to brown or yellowish white.

Silvered: A coat which is interspersed with individual white hairs. This is usually seen in black and mink coats.

Ticked: Colour type where each fur strand has several colours on it. e.g. agouti has grey, brown and black on each fur strand, making the rat's coat look peppered with colours rather than one solid colour. As the darker tips are not present on the belly fur, the bellies of ticked rats are lighter than the rest of the coat.

Dilute: Is the gene that causes the colour if the coat to lighten. eg. dilute of agouti is cinnamon. this is how a lot of out colours are formed.