In these pages you will find some basic information about the genetics of colors and types of rats. The reason we didn't call this a standards page is because most of the rats pictured do not match (or come close enough to) the standards to call it that. The standards are what we work to achieve with regard to color, pattern, body type, etc. In breeding for temperament and health first, we have been slow to be able to concentrate on including these other elements. Put simply, we won't work with a beautiful rat that has a bad temperament. These are pets first, and we do not want unhappy or unhealthy pets.

Since we began breeding in the spring of 1999, though, we have come a long way on temperament and health and are now able to shift some of our focus toward the aesthetics of these wonderful creatures. While sweet, friendly, fun and healthy pets remain our main goal, we are looking toward improving size and type in our rats and hope to work a little more on color and patterns as time goes on. Bringing it all together is no easy task.

All of the possible types are not included in these pages, but there are quite a few. Mostly, they are rats we have bred or have gotten from other breeders to breed from. We hope you will find the information in these pages helpful, but in the end, comparing your animals to the standards set for the club you work with will give you a more accurate picture of where you are in your program.

We at SRR want to send a special thank you to the breeders who contributed rats and pictures we don't have here-Kimberly Richardson of Landmark Rattery, Carol Lawton of Blue Shuze Rattery, Robin MacDonald of Deer Creek Rattery, Emily Godlevsky of EaglesEye, Sarah Easter of Lone Star Rats of Central Texas, Bridget of Happy Tails Rattery, Jennifer Flores of Li'l Rugrats Rattery, Kat Hentsch of Swamp Rat Rattery, Kirstin Allan of FarStar Rattery, Mayumi Anderson of BII, Dayna Delnay of Silver Fuzz Rattery and Bella Hodges of Bellaratta's Nest. Though this section is on the Spoiled Ratten site, it was a joint effort from all of us to share with you. We would also like to thank the principals of the Rat Society of America (RSA), the American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association (AFRMA), RatsPacNW and the National Fancy Rat Society (NFRS in the UK) for allowing us to include their standards on these pages.

There have been many, many requests to use pictures from these pages, and to help those who cannot read American English very well, we are looking into translating the pages for others to read. It just seems silly to do it over and over when we have already done it here. Conny in Germany is thinking of translating it into German, and Audrey of Raterie Honeyblade in France is already in the process of translating it into French. Sandrine of Rattery Gismo in Belgium will be translating it into Dutch. Liisa will be translating it to Estonian. I also have a couple of friends who said they could translate it into Thai and Japanese, but they aren't breeders, so it could take some time to accomplish. We would then be able to include more information from all over the world. We hope this can all be done!