Runatun Imax, Runatun Edda & Runatun Amma, littermates, was born on the 2nd of October 1997, and they were all silver fawn. Actually they were all the chocolate based version of silver fawn, with the white undercolour and white belly. Edda was a rex female, Amma was a smooth female and Imax was a smoth male. The females were both extremely gentle and wonderful pet rats, but Imax was a bit more dominant. I got Imax as a baby and he was one of my favourites, he was a lovely pet. But since he was top dog in the cage I was a bit reluctant to breed from him.
Imax, Edda & Amma was the babies of Runatun Mercurius, and Runatun Pommac (champagne). Imax was a very large male, and he was pretty too.
Mercurius was the black based version of silver fawn, with blue undercolour and yellow tummy.
Amma was my first and only squeking rat, and I don't know why she did that. She was tame and trusting as soon as I got her out the cage. She had so good temper that I used her in breeding, and she produced lovely babies.
Now that I had three silver fawns in the correct colour - of course I started breeding rats again!
The reason these rats had so many litters was of course that they were truly great rats, and they were in great condition all the time. Edda had 4 litters before I got her, and I got two of these babies, so I didn't breed from her myself. Amma had had 2 litters before I got her and I bred her twice. Also I bred Imax once, he never had any babies before I got him, since I got him as a baby.
Actually Edda had already had four litters when I got her, I got Imax as a little baby, and his sisters later. From Edda's first litter that was born on the 12th of December 1997 I got Runatun Izze. There were 5 babies in the litter, four rex and a double rex - Izze. I remember Jalle being a bit upset over this litter, he hadn't realized that you would get some naked babies when mating two rex rats. I believe that's why I later got Edda from him to bring home. In the photo to the left you can see Edda, and her sister Amma is behind her. This photo was taken on the 23rd of march 1998.
Edda's second litter was born on the 9th of January 1998, and consisted of ten babies. The father was Mercurius, and the colours were four black based silver fawns, one dove and four german blue based silver fawns. I don't know how many were double rex, but only two babies were smooth.
Edda's third litter was born on the 9th of February 1998, the father was again Mercurius, and this time she had sixteen babies, several was double rex. One was dove, and one was champagne, eight were black based silver fawns and four were german blue based silver fawns. I got a black based silver fawn called Runatun Penny. I don't know how many were double rex, but four babies were smooth.
Edda's fourth litter was born on the 2nd of March 1998, and I have little info about these babies.
I never did mate Edda myself, I thought she had had enough babies. Edda was a lovely pet rat, she was a gentle rat and just like all the other rats I had from Runatun (except Ippe) she behaved very nicely towards her cagemates.
Amma had had two litters when I got her, and that were great litters colour-wise. Amma, like Edda, had been mated to Mercurius, but since she wasn't rex there were no double rex babies. Instead there were two new colours we had not seen before. In the photo to the right you can see Amma & Edda, this photo was taken on the 23rd of march 1998.
In Amma's first litter there were two silver coloured babies, one chocolate based silver fawn, seven that seemed to be german blue based silver fawns and three black based silver fawns. I got the chocolate based silver fawn baby Runatun Iamak to keep for myself and found good homes for the two german blue based silver coloured males Runatun Rimfrost & Runatun Rimadin. Ann-Zophi took Rimadin, and another friend of mine took Rimfrost. I have no records of where the others went, but I didn't know I was going to get Amma later on, or I would have been more nosy!
In Amma's second litter was born on the 2nd of march 1998 and consisted of eight babies. When the babies in her second litter were 2 weeks old I got her and her whole litter.
There were a chocolate based silver fawn that I got (Runatun Itzumi) and two pale lilacs (Runatun Qum and Runatun Qrusbär), one german blue based silver (Runatun Qvanta), and several other colours we weren't absolutely sure what it was.
The rats we believed to be german blue based silver fawns, (well we didn't know what to call them then, but we saw they were blue...) had even deeper blue that the normal black based silver fawn. Also we knew we had the german blue gene since we had seen german blue agouti in other of the Runatun litters.
I believe the reason I got Amma too when I got Edda and Izze because Jalle had enough of pink eyed rats for a while. I was just happy to get these lovely rats.
Amma had a third litter, I did mate her with Runatun Iami, and got a litter on the 30th of July 1998, consisting of eight babies. This was my Ib-litter, containing among others, my special favourite rat Aristoteles Iboss.
Amma had, of course, a fourth litter. I did mate her with Aristoteles Ici, and they had a litter consisting of five babies that were born on the 16th of November 1998. This was my Id-litter.
I did mate Imax with Runatun Liv, and they had a litter of eight babies that were born on the 3rd of May 1998. This was two years after my last litter, Ikaros litter. This litter was my Ia-litter.
I did mate Imax with Aristoteles Ibella, and they had a litter of six babies that were born on the 6th of February 1999. This litter was my If-litter.
Imax died on the 22nd of September 1999, after being sick for almost 6 months, during which time he had been given several courses of antibiotics. He had to be put to sleep since he had so much trouble breathing. He was close to 2 years old when he died.
Copyright Eva Johansson.
Last update: 11th of January 2006.