This article is from the WSSF 2015 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

By Karen Robbins

Hélène Carrié, France, e-mail
Q I’m Hélène, a 29 year old French rat owner and I’m interested in Marten rat genetics (Red devil rats). For the moment I didn’t find any reference in the literature regarding the mechanism (just found that the suspected gene is written “cm” and that it’s a recessive one).

Is there any chance that you have some interesting references or articles on the subject?

A We only have the one article on them from the information Martin Braak in the Netherlands sent us (it is also in the Rat Genetics book).

See these pages for more information:

• Martin Braak site which says they are dominant:
  https://www.allesoverratten.nl
  https://www.allesoverratten.nl/kleuren_en_variaties/index.php
  https://www.allesoverratten.nl/kleuren_en_variaties/kleuren/red/index.php
  https://www.allesoverratten.nl/kleuren_en_variaties/kleuren/redhimalayan/index.php
  https://www.facebook.com/mgbbraak
• Toyah Leitch in Scotland
• and the NFRS has a tentative standard for them as “Marten” with the Agouti version being called “Silver Agouti”
  https://www.nfrs.org/varieties_shaded.html [Ed. Note: they are now standardized in the NFRS as of 2017]

I recommend contacting one of the above breeders since they have experience with them and would be able to help answer your questions better. We’ve only gotten them into southern California as of October 2015.

A Siamese Marten Dumbo rat “RMBL MT1” owned by Erika Holbrook, bred by Bobbi Jo Zammit, Rambling Rats Rattery, Canada. Photo ©2015 Karen Robbins.

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