SIAMESE

~What Is Siamese?~

A Siamese rat is a "Colorpoint" rat, meaning that the nose, feet, ears and rump are colored and the warmer parts of the body remain a lighter cream color. The depth of pointing is determined both by genetics, color, season, and by the temperature at which the rat is kept. The rat may be any color underneath the colorpoint masking, but is only recognized for show in American Blue, Seal (Black) and Russian Blue.


BVR Fortune Cookie, Seal Point Siamese

The genetics of a Siamese rat is a double-recessive colorpoint gene, ch/ch, on the full-color locus. A single recessive colorpoint along with the albino gene on this locus (ch/c) makes a Himalayan rat, which is lighter than a siamese rat, has less depth of point, and a pure white rather than creamy body. A double recessive "c" on this locus (c/c) produces a Pink-Eyed White or albino rat. Most rats are C/C - which is to say, full color with no masking. A rat may carry the colorpoint gene or the albino gene (C/ch or C/c) but will appear fully colored.

Though there is a Black-Eyed Siamese gene, which originated in England and has been imported to the United States, we do not breed them at BVR. All our Siamese rats will have brilliant pink eyes.


Siamese litter: 3 Seal points, 2 Russian Blue points

Baby Siamese are born dark, and the darker the baby the better they tend to mature. Very good Siamese pups can look almost mink! Siamese shading is visible on a baby who is only three days old, before they get their real baby fuzz in. As they moult, their coats become lighter until only the points remain very dark. A moulting Siamese can be a tragic sight; they tend to break out in light and dark patches all other their bodies, with a distinctive "cap" on the tops of their heads. Some owners have been fooled into thinking they actually have a tri-colored rat by these patchy moults!

~What Are Our Goals?~

We take a leaf from the page of Nicole Royer at Tarot Rattery, whose rats have won many championships in AFRMA shows. It was her Siamese Rats page that first made me want to breed this amazing variety.

At BVR, we strive for very dark, rich points with a lot of depth. We want all the points to be as clear and rich as possible, and that means trying our hardest to eliminate any markings from our Siamese lines. Rats with white feet and even white toes are undesirable to responsible Siamese breedings, so we strive to choose our Siamese-carriers who are as colored as possible.

Because our ideal is a Seal Point Siamese, we try to stick to breeding Black carriers and Seal Point rats, but there is both American and Russian Blue in our breeding lines and those babies often crop up. Because a rat with great type (body shape, ear set, general bone structure, etc) is more important than one with a stronger color, we have bred Russian Blues to our Siamese to produce Siamese. We do try and avoid American Blue, as it produces more yellowish, washed-out points, but have yet to eliminate it.

We do heavily inbreed our Siamese in order to continue to set and build on the great type the line carries. Our foundation breeders were BSR Tago x SRR Fantasia and BSR Prince Sameth x SRR Whimsey, and you will find that all of our Siamese descend from crossings of those two breedings. When we bring in outcrosses, they are still usually rats who are related to those rats so that we do not lose the years of work on the bloodline.