When Did Dumbos Reach Other Countries?ĭumbos were first exported to the UK in May of 1999, shortly after they were standardized for exhibition by the AFRMA. This creates a tendency in the variety towards having small eyes, but it can be overcome by regular crossing back to top eared rats with good eye size. This is because the genetic factors involved cause a reduction in the growth of the eye in late gestation. However, mating dumbo to dumbo is not usually the best way to produce great dumbos! Of course, these are statistical probabilities and the actual outcome might be very different in practice, except in the dumbo x dumbo mating, which always produces 100% dumbos. Where a top eared carrier is mated to a dumbo the litter would be 50% dumbo, and two dumbos mated together will produce an all dumbo litter. Why Dumbo x Dumbo May Not Be As Good As It Sounds!Ī top eared carrier mated to a top eared carrier would be expected to produce 25% dumbo babies. Two siblings from this first litter may also have been bred together to produce more dumbos. It’s likely that at least one baby was then bred back to the dumbo parent – we don’t know whether this was the mother or the father – to produce more dumbos.īeing a recessive gene, both parents need to at least carry the gene to produce dumbos in the litter. This mating would have resulted in a full litter of top eared babies, as we now know that a recessive gene causes the mutation.Īll babies in the litter would have carried the dumbo gene (now called dmbo – or du in the UK fancy). In keeping with breeding protocols for gene testing, the dumbo would then have been bred to a top eared rat. It is extremely likely that all of the dumbo rats around the world today are descended from this one individual. The American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association ( AFRMA) records this as happening in 1991. Sources vary as to the exact details but a breeder in North West America seems most likely. The dumbo rat is thought to have originated as a spontaneous mutation within the pet rat population in the USA. So let’s begin by discovering where the dumbos that we live with today actually came from. We’ll also lay some dumbo myths to rest and offer a definitive answer as to how dumbos differ from top eared rats. We’ll explain why dumbos are dumbos and the specific ways the genetic mutation impacts the rat. Today we are going to take a deep dive into the secret world of the dumbo rat, covering everything from history to genes and lifespan to health issues. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
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