Naturally the conversation eventually turned to breeding Max. This was not a topic I had given much thought to. Traditional and long proven practice says that in order to breed Hoodeds’ you must breed in very large numbers. I have heard it quoted that one in 25 Hooded babies is worth keeping for breeding, and if you are lucky one in a hundred is good enough to show. According to John Wells, in his article on Hooded in the N.F.R.S. Handbook, “The secret (to breeding Hooded) is selection and inbreeding. By breeding large numbers you are able to select only the very best.”

In addition, I have been told, and have read that the show quality Hoodeds are not the ones to use for breeding. Instead it was recommended to breed together rats with continuous but wide spine stripes to those with narrow broken stripes. This of course means breeding huge numbers of rats, requires lots of space, and an outlet for lots of babies. Having none of these I had not even really considered breeding Max.

As I doted, over dinner, on my lovely little Hooded boy, Nancy got more and more excited. Finally she got me to shut up, and said, “You know, there is a really nice female hooded in my local pet shop right now. I have been looking at her for some time, but just couldn’t come up with a good reason to bring her home.” That certainly made me pause for thought, and when I talked with Nancy the next week the topic was again raised. Was it worth a try? The only way to find out was to go ahead. This was not a project I would have ever tried on my own, but with Nancy involved I thought “why not?” I figured at worst we would each end up with a bunch of baby Hoodeds.

Nancy went down to her pet shop and brought home the Hooded. She was black, and her spine “almost” broke at her tail base, but she had better type than Max, and wasn’t bad at all. In our case, type was a very important factor. Max wasn’t horrible, but he wasn’t great either. Nancy’s female was nice, so their babies would be an improvement. Within the week she had picked up the name Torch (officially “I’ve Been Torched”). The genetics behind Hooded rats is relatively simple. Two Hooded rats bred together will produce a whole litter of Hooded babies. A Hooded bred to a Self will make mismarked Irish/Berkshire babies. Thus from breeding Torch to Max we could expect all Black Hooded babies.

When she was old enough, Torch got a week long trip to my house to meet Max. I won’t say it was love at first sight, but Max did his job. Three weeks later marked the arrival of 13 little pink squeaky babies. Unfortunately this left us with a dilemma. After being bred, Torch promptly developed wry neck. She was never sick, she just developed a list overnight. Though she was medicated, the tilt remained, and we were concerned that she would get worse (possibly begin rolling) with the stress of raising the litter.

When Torch started showing definite signs of distress over raising so many babies, we knew some action was required on our part. Having no other females with litters, this left us with the difficult decision—to cull or not. Valuing Torch as a dear pet, and fearing for the fate of the babies if she got so bad that we felt it necessary to put her down, we made the decision that for us was the responsible one.

Torch’s four babies (the number she could comfortably handle) grew and prospered. Torch quickly improved and became a wonderful mother. The little hoodlums themselves turned out far better than expected. Though none are as good as Max, all are very nice, and have better type than their dad. This was particularly surprising since it is not the outcome we expected based on all we had read and been told about Hooded rats. Perhaps breeding this variety is not quite as difficult as we were led to believe? We will see. One of the little girls is particularly good, and she will be bred back to dad when she is old enough. Then we can expect more Lilac hoodlums!

This of course changed when he decided to moult his baby coat. Overnight he lost the red tint. Suddenly he became a beautiful shade of light dove gray/brown. Out of the blue I suddenly had a rat who was not only a great hooded, but was also a proper color of Lilac. Since he also loves to travel and is a born show off (he knows he is beautiful) I figured he would probably enjoy being shown.

Max is good, but he does have his faults. Many of them are typical of Hooded rats. While color and markings are important, they are only half of what a rat is judged on. Type is worth 50 points on the judging table, and this is one place Max does not excel. It is very easy to become starstruck by the markings on a good Hooded and not look at type. In Max’s case, he is a little too racy for a male. His head is too long, his ears a little small, and his tail a little short. Not bad really for a pet shop rat, but it will hurt him on the show bench.

Many Hooded rats have problems with the color on their chest and chins. The standard calls for a straight line of color between the two front legs. Many times Hooded rats will have a whole streak of white running up their chest to their chin. Max is better than most, with just a tiny indent of white along the edge of this line.

Max also has another common fault among male Hoodeds, groin spots. These small spots are usually not found on females, but are extremely common on males. Though they are a fault, they are not counted against too heavily.

Max excels when it comes to his hood and spine stripe. As the standard calls for, his hood runs in an even line all around his body. The spine stripe joins it at right angles, and continues in an even width all the way down the back and half way down his tail. Many Hooded rats have spine stripes which merge unevenly with their hood, or that “wobble” down their back or break. Many Hoodeds have extra splashes of color in the white areas on their back. This is a serious fault.

The first time I showed Max, he was about 3 months old. As with all my rats, he required some preparation. About four days before the show he got his first bath. Naturally, the white on Hooded rats can get rather dirty. I use bluing shampoo on my Siamese, so I had it handy for Max. As always, it worked wonders. The bath, combined with a tail scrubbing and a toenail clipping had Max looking his very best.

Max loved his first show, posing and prancing for all to see. He did as well as expected, winning the marked class. Naturally he was still too young to stand a chance against the “big boys and girls,” but he sure enjoyed himself.

As of the time I originally had written this article (almost a year ago now), Max had won best Marked rat twice. With his poor type I figured he would probably never do better, but it didn’t matter so long as we were having fun. Much to my amazement however, Max changed dramatically as he matured. He is now very large, his tail is long and thick, and his ears are good size. To everybodies’ shock my scrawny, scrubby little rat grew into a beauty with lovely type. Not at all what could be expected of a pet shop rat. Beginning with the 1997 Orange County Fair show, Max has taken Best In Show at every AFRMA show—5 times to date. He will be retiring after the Orange County Fair this year so that others may have the chance at winning.

Naturally more hoodlums have been born. Max’s daughter “Joint Venture” was bred back to him last fall. The result was a small litter including a daughter who Nancy named Maxine (RN Second Edition) who is almost a dead ringer for her dad. Look for her at upcoming AFRMA shows.

These Hooded litters are so much fun since you never know what you will get and all the babies are different. I am so used to breeding Siamese, where all the babies look the same, that this is a nice change. If anyone would be interested in a nice well-socialized pet or potential show Hooded, please let Nancy or I know. We will be starting a waiting list.

Though Max has a history of medical problems, he is surprisingly healthy now. Other than the occasional sneeze, and the fact that he grunts when he gets excited, he has no symptoms of respiratory. I do not know how long he will be with me, and I know he may well have other problems in the future. This seems to be the pattern with rats who get sick when they are young. He is one and a half now, so lets hope any problems are far off in the future.

Would I do it again? Would I bring home another “beautiful” sick rat? I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that this time it worked out, and I got much more than I ever bargained for. Max is my very special boy, my one in a million.

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