AFRMA - Colors & Coats

This article is from the WSSF 2015 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

Colors & Coats

Lynx Rats

By Karen Robbins

Jeff Carter, NV, Facebook
Q I was wondering if anyone could provide me with some information and/or genetics on the Lynx rat. I have asked on other groups and have got several replies including they are Sox10 Beige. Yet, none of the photos provided with those replies look anything like the photo of the Lynx rat on the AFRMA standards page.

A This is one of those colors we are not sure on the genetics. In Nichole Royer’s Rat Genetics article “Rat Genetics, part 3”, she has several possibilities: A-B-Cc^ch D-G-M- P-R-, A-B-C-D-G-mm P-rr, A-B-C-D-L-mm ppR, or ???. Ann Storey has done more recent testing with the Chinchilla rats and has an article “Breeding the Chinchilla” on the N.F.R.S. web site where she tells about her theories on the possible genetics of Chinchilla. In there she talks about “Lilac Agouti Chinchilla (pastel lynx)” but I’m not sure if this is the same as what we were getting and calling Lynx. And in Ann’s article “Propagation of a New or Rare Variety”, she has Lynx listed as a Lilac Agouti (A- bb Rr mm), which do look similar, but darker, than the Lynxes we had out of our Chinchillas.

Our Lynx rats came out of the Chinchillas we had back in the late ’80s/early ’90s, so we are not sure what the Chinchillas were carrying to produce this color (the first Chinchillas came from a pet shop in 1986). No one worked on just that color at the time and I don’t remember anyone trying to “make” Lynx. The Lynxes we were getting all looked like a “Beige Agouti” with ruby eyes, a very pastel color, that looked very similar to Lynx rabbits where we got the name from. The one pictured on the AFRMA AOC page owned by Julie Klaz, came out of a litter from a Chinchilla she found in a pet shop that was pregnant. Others in the litter were Chinchillas.

For more on Chinchilla rats, see these articles:

December 30, 2018