Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[Stubbs]

I'm interested in pairing one of my white-sided texas rats with a brindle black that i've seen in my local shop and was wondering if this has been done before. At BHB Enterprise in America they have a brindle liquorice-stick rat but i'm unclear as to whether the liquorice gene is just a different name for the white-sided. Any info on this or similar breedings would be much appreciated. Also if anyone could confirm a suitable breeding size for the texas rat as i've received much conflicting information. My female hatched in 04, she's 4'3", about 700g and eating like a trooper. I thought that she would have been ok for breeding this coming spring but i've been told that there should be a 5' minimum for obsoletus.

[JohnC]

In my opinion your female should be plenty big enough in Spring 2007 for breeding.
Don't know about the genetics, but you seem to be crossing two sub-species anyway.
_________________
John
Oldest member, been keeping reptiles for 36 years.
Carpets, royals, rainbow boas, corns, milks, ackies and leos.

[hogboy]

As far as i'm aware.liquorice-stick and white sideds are the same thing.
Confused me for a while

[Stubbs]

Cheers for clearing that. I know that the two subspecies interbreed naturally but what are the chances of the two morphs meeting?I'm still in two minds as to whether or not this kind of breeding is ethical and as much as I love the idea of creating exciting new morphs, I'm not sure that I could deal with the guilt of any genetic defects in subsequent generations. I think that only 4 white-sided texas rats have been found in the wild so even breeding my current pair could be an issue. Anyone know how brindle blacks have been found?