This article is from the WSSF 2016 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

By Karen Robbins

Monica Smith, e-mail
Q Hi fellow rat lovers! Your page written by Nichole Royer on Russian Blue rats was a great review, thanks! I am having a little problem figuring out what color two of my rats are and am hoping you might be able to help. Beyond the RB dilute, they have the Burmese gene acting on them, and possibly Agouti.

The sire is a Russian Silver Wheaten [Silver Blue Agouti] Burmese Dumbo. The dam, a Russian Blue Burmese Dumbo, carrying Blue (g). I have three of their boys. The first one is clearly a RB Burmese—he is that blue-gray color and has darker blue pointing—I’ll call him boy #1. The other two brothers are a little more difficult.

One I believe is a RB Wheaten [Agouti] Burmese, because he is an all over creamy sandy color with nice blue pointing (boy #2; as a baby he always looked creamy sandy colored). This would fit the written description, except he does not have any ticking or banding in his coat. Is the agouti ticking and heathering softened and diluted out by the RB dilute, or even softened by the Burmese?

Boy #2 that looks like a Russian Blue Agouti Burmese Berkshire. Photo from Monica Smith.

The third brother (boy #3) started out as a baby looking just like boy #1 only a little lighter. Boy #3 matured to be somewhere in the middle of the two others—with the color on his head being a lighter gray (with points), and the color on his back being a bit of a sandy gray, but more gray in tone than the sandy warmth of boy #2. He as well has no ticking or heathering. I am wondering if he might be a Russian Silver [Silver Blue] Burmese, or maybe another RB Wheaten [Agouti] Burmese with a different tone, or even a Russian Silver Wheaten [Silver Blue Agouti] Burmese! I have no idea if he’s agouti on top of this or not, meaning his coat is not banded or ticked, but there is the hint of some sandiness to his back color.

All their guard hairs are coat colored or creamy white (not darker or black), and any places there seems to be ticking (dark hairs in the photos), this is actually just shadows between hairs. Their hair color near the skin is the same as their coat color, or maybe a little bit darker, but not lighter. Do you have any thoughts??

A By your descriptions it sounds like a Russian Blue Burmese, a Russian Blue Agouti Burmese but you say it does not have ticking, and a lighter Russian Blue Burmese. By the photos they look like a Russian Blue Burmese or Russian Blue Sable Burmese and two Russian Blue Agouti Burmese, but if they don’t have ticking then maybe Blue Burmese? It’s hard to tell without seeing them in person. In your one photo of Boy #2, he definitely looks like a Russian Blue Agouti Burmese. With dad being Agouti, roughly half of the kids should be agouti somethings. Also, since you say dad was a Silver Blue Agouti (Russian Silver Agouti) Burmese and mom carries Blue, some of the kids are capable of being Blue Burmese or Blue Agouti Burmese. I would suggest that if you bought these from a breeder, to see if the breeder could help you out, especially if they could see the rats in person.

The Russian Blue Burmese can be darker or lighter/browner in shades but they have the definite Russian Blue ticking effect/heathering that all Russian Blue colors have. Also, Russian Blue can range in color from too light to the ideal darker color. Same with Blue, which we have recognized the mid color (what most people have) as Sky Blue vs. the show color of Blue having to be selected to be a dark shade (these are genetically the same Blue as what the N.F.R.S. has).

All agouti colors will have ticking, the darker base color next to the skin (except for Cinnamon Pearl) with the banded hairs (rows of color on each hair), and the lighter belly color, but since you have Variegated and Berkshire Burmese, you can’t tell belly color.

Russian Blue Agouti Burmese are a washed out color compared to a normal Russian Blue Agouti. Blue Burmese are more brown and lighter than a Russian Blue Burmese but have the blue look to them and do not have the ticking/heathering of the Russian Blue. Burmese added to colors will make them lighter and browner.

Sorry I can’t be of more help. But because there can be so many shades of Burmese combined with the many shades of the Blue and Russian Blue, you could have genetically the same color but their coats all look like different colors.

Test breedings could be done to try and determine if they were Russian Blue or Blue by breeding to self versions (non-Burmese) that did not have other colors in them. To determine if they are agouti based or not, breed to a Black not carrying any blue colors.

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