Brandywine Diamantina x Kropotkin Hector

Kropotkin Hector (Mink: a/a m/m) x Brandywine Diamantina (Russian Blue Agouti Essex: A/A D/- M/M Hro/H rb/rb) Mated: 5th November 2011 Due: 28th November 2011 Dee is being mated to Hector as an outcross, to add some more Kropotkin scrumptiousness to my line and with luck give my rats better resistance to respiratory disease. The pair are related through their great grandparents, Kropotkin Ludwig and Kropotkin Fatima. I was planning these matings for December/January, but seem to have suffered from a slight abscence of patience, plus the thought that they'll be a nice age for getting them socialised and used to different people over the Christmas holidays. Dee is a beautiful doe from one of my January 2011 litters, so will be around months old when she has her litter. She's sister to Annan and cousin to Coral, the other girls I'm mating up at around the same time. She is Russian Blue Agouti, and may or may not carry self, British blue and mink. Dee won the Best In Show in June, and is a beautiful little lady. Hector is a real sweetheart of a buck with an excellent health record. He was a year old in November, and is silver mink. Expected Varieties: Mating Hector and Dee should produce agouti and agouti Essex, and possibly black and black Essex. There's also a smaller possibility of mink/cinnamon. Actual Varieties: Agouti x 3, agouti Essex x 9 Number of Kittens: Twelve Litter Family Tree Kropotkin Ennis Cinnamon Pearl + Kropotkin Clannad Mink Kropotkin Fingal Pearl + Kropotkin Leonora Pearl Brandywine Tyburn Black + Brandywine Effra Agouti Brandywine Ravensbourne Agouti Essex + Brandywine Effra Agouti Kropotkin Mozilla Pearl + Kropotkin Octavia Pearl Brandywine Trent Russian Blue Agouti + Brandywine Dart Russian Blue Agouti Essex Kropotkin Hector Silver Mink + Brandywine Diamantina Russian Blue Agouti Essex Produced using the Ratty Corner Family Tree Generator

Diary

Saturday 5th November - mated?

Dee and Hector spent the night together, but I'm not sure if she was fully in season as there was very little interest from Hector - he was more intent on hoovering up all the food in the cage. Dee was doing some minor ear fluttering, but not much.

Wednesday 9th November

Well I've tried them together again every evening so far with no result. She may already be pregnant from Saturday; if not, we'll try again in January.

Thursday 17th November - 12 days since mating

Dee has gained about 30 grams since she was mated up, so it looks like Hector did his duty after all.

Sunday 27th November - 22 days since mating

Dee is enormous and nesting. Can't wait to see if she has blacks as well as agoutis.

Tuesday 29th November - 1 day old

Dee has 12 little eepers! There are some fairly light coloured bubs in there - maybe we have cinnamon essexes?

Thursday 1st December - 3 days old

We have nine Essex and three unmarked babies in Dee's litter. I'm not certain of their colours yet.

I'm afraid there aren't going to be enough babies for everyone on my waiting list, but I haven't checked sexes properly yet so can't tell anyone for definite. I'll know for certain how many of each sex once they're 10 days old, and then I'll begin contacting people.

Monday 5th December 2011 - 1 week old

We have photos. I think there are eight girls and four boys. Will know for certain on Thursday.

DOES			BUCKS
Photo	Description		Photo	Description
	Agouti Essex girl			Agouti Essex boy
	Agouti Essex girl			Agouti Essex boy
	Agouti Essex girl			Agouti Essex boy
	Agouti Essex girl			Agouti boy
	Agouti Essex girl
	Agouti Essex girl
	Agouti girl
	Agouti girl

Wednesday 7th December 2011 - 9 days old

The babies are growing well. Both mums are feeding them again, so there's plenty of milk to go around.

Thursday 8th December 2011 - 10 days old

The babies weighed in today at an average of 20.5 grams each. Smaller than usual, but they look healthy and chubby. The confirmed sexes are 7 girls and 5 boys - one of the essex 'girls' is, in fact, a boy.

Saturday 10th December 2011 - 12 days old

Monday 12th December 2011 - 2 weeks old

DOES			BUCKS
Photo	Description		Photo	Description
	Agouti Essex girl			Agouti Essex boy
	Agouti Essex girl			Agouti Essex boy
	Agouti Essex girl			Agouti Essex boy
	Agouti Essex girl			Agouti boy
	Mis-sexed at one week. Now a fourth Essex boy			Agouti Essex boy
	Agouti Essex girl
	Agouti girl
	Agouti girl

Sunday 18th December 2011 - 20 days old

The babies are real little rats now, and in training to become shoulder rats.

Monday 19th December 2011 - 3 weeks old

DOES			BUCKS
Photo	Description		Photo	Description
	Agouti Essex girl			Agouti Essex boy
	Agouti Essex girl			Agouti Essex boy
	Agouti Essex girl			Agouti Essex boy
	Agouti Essex girl			Agouti boy
	Agouti Essex girl			Agouti Essex boy
	Agouti girl
	Agouti girl

Sunday 18th December 2011 - 20 days old

The babies are real little rats now, and in training to become shoulder rats.

Monday 26th December 2011 - 4 weeks old

The babies are all small for their age, judging by past litters, but they look fit and well so I'm not going to worry too much about that. I will hold off on homing them until the weekend of the 20th to 22nd January though, to give them a little extra growing time. I thought of leaving Dee with the boys for an extra week or so when I split them off, but have realised that Coral is no longer feeding any of them, so that wouldn't really help the girls at all. No wonder Dee looks so tired!

DOES				BUCKS
Photo	Description	Weight		Photo	Description	Weight
	Agouti Essex girl (Lola)	61g			Agouti Essex boy	65g
	Agouti Essex girl	58g			Agouti Essex boy	70g
	Agouti Essex girl	68g			Agouti Essex boy (Lexington)	66g
	Agouti Essex girl	61g			Agouti boy	68g
	Agouti Essex girl	68g			Agouti Essex boy	71g
	Agouti girl	70g
	Agouti girl	72g

Tuesday 27th December 2011 - 29 days old

Monday 2nd January 2012 - 5 weeks old

I have videoness of the girls. The boys were crowded into a corner of their cage eating an egg, but the girls were all over their cage so we got a good video.

DOES				BUCKS
Photo	Description	Weight		Photo	Description	Weight
	Agouti Essex girl (Lola)	109g			Agouti Essex boy	113g
	Agouti Essex girl	93g			Agouti Essex boy	111g
	Agouti Essex girl	99g			Agouti Essex boy (Lexington)	106g
	Agouti Essex girl	96g			Agouti boy	114g
	Agouti Essex girl	103g			Agouti Essex boy	115g
	Agouti girl	110g
	Agouti girl	109g

Sunday 8th January 2012 - Almost 6 weeks old

I've just about figured out which babies I'm keeping. The two pairs of girls who are leaving will be paired marked with unmarked. Little houdini girl - maybe I should nickname her Houdina? - is proving the biggest handful, as she manages to disappear into the room every time I get them out.

ETA - I've changed my mind on a couple, as I realised how much I love the mismarked rats, and I don't need to keep all best marked rats every time!

DOES				BUCKS
Photo	Description	Weight		Photo	Description	Weight
	Keeping Lola - Agouti Essex girl with long tailstop	141g			Agouti Essex boy with lightening blaze	150g
	Agouti Essex girl with splodgy headspot	116g			Possibly keeping Leicester - Agouti Essex boy	149g
	Agouti Essex girl with nicely shaded sides	124g			Keeping Lexington - Agouti Essex boy with perfect markings	142g
	Agouti Essex girl - little houdini.	128g			Keeping Lincoln - Agouti boy	156g
	Keeping Laurel - Agouti Essex girl with mottled sides	138g			Agouti Essex boy with Star Trek headspot.	158g
	Keeping Laurel - Agouti girl - identical to her sister.	135g
	Agouti girl - identical to her sister.	135g

Wednesday 11th January 2012 - 6 and a bit weeks old

Gah, I'm definitely keeping Lola and Lucerne. Am now thinking I'll let people choose from the other girls. Also definitely keeping Lex and Lincoln, but not sure whether or not I'll keep Leicester.

Thursday 6th January 2012 - 6 and a half weeks old

Right, just keeping Lex and Lincoln; Leicester's going to live with the other two boys so his name's probably not Leicester at all. :-) I've put spots on some of the tails so I can tell them apart more easily.

Sunday 15th January 2012 - Almost 7 weeks old

Well, I'm keeping Lola, Lex and Lincoln. The others we'll see when it comes to next weekend.

Lex

Essex boy (Flash)

Star Trek boy (S T)

Lincoln

the rat formerly known as Leicester

Lucerne

Lola

Agouti girl, no tail spot

Laurel

Essex girl, 1 tail spot

Essex girl, T shaped head spot

Essex girl, triangular head spot

Monday 23rd January 2012 - 8 weeks old

Three of the Essex boys have now gone to live with Sarah and Richard, an Essex and an unmarked girl are living with Bobbie and two Essex girls are living with Chris. Although I'm always sad to see them go, I feel happy that they've all gone to loving homes and will bring joy and entertainment to their new humans.

Lola, Laurel and Lucerne (the Lolettes) and their mums and cousins have moved into a double height cage and are enjoying climbing and leaping around in there. Lex and Lincoln, along with their cousin Monty, have moved in with their dad Hector, uncle Gabriel and two other big boys.