Friday, August 10, 2012

How to distinguish rat eye color


L-R: Pink, ruby and black eyes

Eye color... it's not so hard to distinguish, but it's sometimes hard to tell if it's ruby- or black-eyed. I'll just simply post a photo comparison so you could tell.

Ruby-eyes appear black until you shine or flash light at them. Rats with this eye color have the genotype of 'rr' which is recessive against black eyes 'PP' but dominant over pink-eye 'pp'.

Ruby eye gene slightly alters coat color while pink eye gene greatly alters coat color. Remember, all coat colors are either Agouti or Black based.

Eye color vs. coat color output in AGOUTI-based
Black eye = agouti
Ruby eye = buff
Pink eye = silver fawn/apricot

Eye color vs. coat color output in BLACK-based
Black eye = black
Ruby eye = beige
Pink eye = champagne/cream

Now that we know a little more about eye color, we can learn to predict color outcome when breeding rats.

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