Tamar x Derwent

Brandywine Derwent (Russian Blue: a/a D/- M/- rb/rb) x Brandywine Tamar (Agouti Essex: A/- D/- Hro/H M/- Rb/-) Mated: 30th December 2010 Born: 22nd January 2011 Tamar is being mated to her half brother, Derwent. Neither of them has had any health problems whatsoever. This is essentially the same mating as Dart x Trent, to give me options to work around any problems and to give me a better chance of having a successful litter. Tamar (aka Tammy) is a lovely doe from my April 2011 litter, so will be around 8 months old when she has her litter. She is a curious and friendly girl who fits in well with her cage group and is rarely involved in any trouble. She is mismarked agouti Essex, and both of her parents carried self, Russian blue, British blue and mink. She has nice type and will hopefully produce some show quality kittens. Derwent is a really lovely Russian blue boy with a glossy blue coat, with a little rusting. He is exceptionally friendly and handleable, a truly special rat. He copes well in a cage group where the alpha rat can be a bit of a bully. He obviously shows Russian blue and self, and his parents carried British blue and mink too. Expected Varieties: Mating Derwent to Tammy should give me Essex and unmarked in Agouti with the possibility of self (non-agouti), Russian blue, British blue, mink and various confusing combinations of these. I hope to keep one buck and one or two does from this litter. The remaining kittens will be offered to my waiting list, which is currently long enough to take up both of my January litters. Actual Varieties: Agouti, agouti Essex, cinnamon, cinnamon Essex Number of Kittens: 12 born, 11 survived.

Family Tree

Brandywine Sherbourne Agouti Essex + Kropotkin Grace Mink

Brandywine Sherbourne Agouti Essex + Kropotkin Grace Mink

Brandywine Sherbourne Agouti Essex + Kropotkin Grace Mink

Brandywine Sherbourne Agouti Essex + Kropotkin Grace Mink

Brandywine Tyburn Black

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Brandywine Effra Agouti

Brandywine Ravensbourne Agouti Essex

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Brandywine Effra Agouti

Brandywine Derwent Russian Blue

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Brandywine Tamar Agouti Essex

Produced using the Ratty Corner Family Tree Generator

Diary

Tuesday 17th January 2011 - 16 days pregnant

Friday 20th January 2011 - 21 days pregnant

Tammy is blooming, and has moved into her nursery cage.

Saturday 22nd January 2011 - D Day

10.45am - Tammy has made a large nest, but there are no signs of any babies yet.

7.30pm - We have 12 babies for Tammy, just like her sister.

Monday 24th January 2011 - 2 days old

Tammy has lighter coloured babies, but I'm still not sure what colours she has. Unhappily we have lost one of the babies. There was no sign of what the baby died from, and it had a lovely milk band. :-(

Tuesday 25th January 2011 - 3 days old

At first guess, it looks as if Tammy has seven agouti or black babies, of which two have essex markings, and four blue or blue agouti babies of which two have essex markings.

Wednesday 26th January 2011 - 4 days old

Thursday 27th January 2011 - 5 days old

I'm not so sure about the colours now. The lighter babies may be cinnamon/mink rather than russian blue.

Friday 28th January 2011 - 6 days old

Saturday 29th January 2011 - 7 days old

Sunday 30th January 2011 - 8 days old

Monday 31st January 2011 - 9 days old

Tuesday 1st February 2011 - 10 days old

DOES				BUCKS
Photo	Description	Weight		Photo	Description	Weight
	Agouti	29g			Cinnamon Essex	29g
	Cinnamon	29g			Agouti	30g
	Agouti	28g			Cinnamon blazed Essex	30g
	Agouti	28g			Cinnamon	29g
	Agouti Essex	24g			Agouti	27g
	Agouti Essex	23g

Wednesday 2nd February 2011 - 11 days old

Thursday 3rd February 2011 - 12 days old

Two pics of the girls and two of the boys.

Friday 4th February 2011 - 13 days old

DOES			BUCKS
Photo	Description		Photo	Description
	Agouti			Cinnamon Essex
	Cinnamon			Agouti
	Agouti			Cinnamon blazed Essex
	Agouti			Cinnamon
	Agouti Essex			Agouti
	Agouti Essex

Saturday 5th February 2011 - 14 days old

Sunday 6th February 2011 - 15 days old

Monday 7th February 2011 - 16 days old

The two litters have now moved in together so that the mums have some company. The mums try to take it in turns to feed the babies, but as the babies can get anywhere in the cage they go looking for their dinner.

Tuesday 8th February 2011 - 17 days old

The babies are becoming more adventurous every day. Soon I won't be able to keep them in the cage base to take photos!

Wednesday 9th February 2011 - 18 days old

DOES			BUCKS
Photo	Description		Photo	Description
	Agouti			Cinnamon Essex
	Cinnamon			Agouti
	Agouti			Cinnamon blazed Essex
	Agouti			Cinnamon
	Agouti Essex			Agouti
	Agouti Essex

Saturday 12th February 2011 - 21 days old

DOES				BUCKS
Photo	Description	Weight		Photo	Description	Weight
	Agouti	54g			Cinnamon Essex	51g
	Cinnamon	55g			Agouti	58g
	Agouti	52g			Cinnamon blazed Essex	55g
	Agouti	54g			Cinnamon	59g
	Agouti Essex	47g			Agouti	52g
	Agouti Essex	50g

Monday 14th February 2011 - 23 days old

Tuesday 15th February 2011 - 24 days old

Thursday 17th February 2011 - 26 days old

Saturday 19th February 2011 - 28 days old

I've marked the tails of the agoutis today, so I can begin to tell them apart and get to know their personalities.

It's quite daunting opening the cage door now, as it's covered with little furry bellies. The second photo shows the crush around the soft food bowl - I think I need to put it in the middle of the playpen and not near the edge!

DOES				BUCKS
Photo	Description	Weight		Photo	Description	Weight
	Agouti (3 tail spots)	84g			Cinnamon Essex	78g
	Cinnamon	87g			Agouti (1 tail spot)	93g
	Agouti (2 tail spots)	79g			Cinnamon blazed Essex	82g
	Agouti (1 tail spot)	80g			Cinnamon	92g
	Agouti Essex (Star Trek headspot)	74g			Agouti (2 tail spots)	85g
	Agouti Essex (white nose)	75g

Wednesday 23rd February 2011 - 32 days old

Thursday 24th February 2011 - 33 days old

The two mums have started disappearing during their morning freerange - I think they've about had enough. Tammy was missing all day on Tuesday, and again for two hours on Wednesday. This morning it's Dolly who's gone missing. I guess it's a good way to stop their milk supply so they don't get pestered for a feed. Also Tammy has been under the weather, as she developed a womb infection about a week ago and has been on Clavaseptin (a baby-safe antibiotic) to clear it up. She's looking just about right again now, thank goodness.

Saturday 26th February 2011 - 35 days old

The five week photoshoot! The babies are looking very grown-up, I think the boys more so than the girls.

To prospective owners: They will be ready for homing over the weekend of the 11th to 14th March. I will not be available from Friday afternoon until late Saturday afternoon, so we will have to work collections around this. Collection times can be arranged on Friday morning, Saturday evening, all of Sunday and Monday, and during evenings throughout the rest of the week.

DOES				BUCKS
Photo	Description	Weight		Photo	Description	Weight
	Agouti (3 tail spots)	137g			Cinnamon Essex	122g
	Cinnamon	133g			Agouti (1 tail spot)	147g
	Agouti (2 tail spots)	128g			Cinnamon blazed Essex	129g
	Agouti (1 tail spot)	131g			Cinnamon	137g
	Agouti Essex (Star Trek headspot)	115g			Agouti (2 tail spots)	136g
	Agouti Essex (white nose)	122g

Saturday 5th March 2011 - 42 days old

I've completely failed with this week's update. I started with the girls, but I couldn't keep them still enough to register on the scales, the camera packed up, and when they started escaping underneath the playpen walls I gave up and put them back in the cage.

My keepers from this litter will be the cinnamon doe, agouti 3 spot doe and agouti 1 spot buck.

Wednesday 9th March 2011 - 46 days old

With the help of some friends I now know who my keepers should be. I'm naming these litters after rivers in Queensland, Australia, as they have been topical over the last few weeks.

DOES			BUCKS
Photo	Description		Photo	Description
	Georgina - Agouti - keeping			Arrow - Cinnamon Essex - KH
	Coral - Cinnamon - keeping			Fitzroy - Agouti - keeping
	Contra - Agouti - LM			Dandelion - Cinnamon Blazed Essex - KH
	Lydia - Agouti - SO			Hugo - Cinnamon - SM
	'Darkstar' - Agouti Essex - HW			Archie - Agouti - MS
	Dorcas - Agouti Essex - SO

Sunday - 50 days old

Two of the girls left yesterday, but the other five are staying a little longer until their new mums can pick them up. The last three boys leave me this evening, so I've started introducing the three boys who are staying to their new cagemates. They are hopefully going to live with the two daddies and two unrelated 'uncles'. So far, the 'bare cage intro' is going very well.