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AGOUTI (A/-)
Primary Lines: 4-Square, Cinnamon, Blue Agouti
Agouti has an overall brown appearance, though the beauty and subtlety of this color type are far more nuanced than simply "brown". Agouti is a dominant gene on the A-locus, represented by the upper case letter "A". A single agouti gene will result in an Agouti color rat. The Agouti gene controls whether the rat's hairs are banded or solid in color. In the standard Agouti rat the base of each hair is gray, followed by a golden band and a black tip. Various factors can result in Agouti rats that have wider or thinner golden bands, for an overall more auburn or dark appearance. |
BLACK (a/a)
Primary Lines: 4-Square, Blue, Russian Blue, Mink, Siamese, Burmese
Black is the most basic non-agouti color. From the same locus as Agouti, A-locus, and represented by the lower case letter "a". Black as a color for rats is the result of the homozygous recessive non-agouti gene (a/a). Because Black rats do not have even a single dominant A gene, they will never produce an Agouti rat when paired to other Black rats. |