Genetics and Appearance of the
Russian Blue Satin Rat

Compiled by Tiffany A. Robbins

Information taken from:
The United Rat Standards
FancyRatsWiki

Genetics of the
Russian Blue Satin Rat

To be a Russian Blue Satin Self, a rat must be a non-agouti (a) with the Russian Blue (d) gene from both parents, the satin gene (sa) gene from both parents, and be a self marking (H).

This would result in a rat with the following genetic description: a/a d/d sa/sa H/H

The Agouti Gene – The agouti gene is a dominant gene for rats. It results in a “ticked” or banded color along the hairs of the coat. A Russian blue rat should not have the agouti gene. If a Russian blue rat had the agouti gene, it would be referred to as a Russian blue agouti and would be classified and shown as a different color.

The Russian Blue Gene – The Russian blue gene is a recessive color. For the rat to show that it is Russian blue, it must inherit the Russian blue gene from both parents. The gene is also a color dilute. That means that on a black rat, this gene dilutes the color pigment so that the black appears to be a dark gray-blue.

The Satin Gene – The Satin gene is a simple recessive gene. It does not rely on other genes to be expressed. It just requires the gene to be inherited from both parents. It creates a very interesting look and texture to the fur. Its name often misleads people because they think that it just causes the rat to be shinier than standard coats. This is not necessarily true. The hair shaft of satin fur is finer and thinner than the standard hair shaft. This causes the fur to reflect the light differently. It can also affect the color of some coats, causing some coat colors to appear yellower or darker.

The Self Gene - Self refers to a type of marking that is actually a lack of any marking. The rat should have the same consistent color all over its body. Any white markings on the rat are considered a fault.


The United Rat Standards that apply to the
Russian Blue Satin Rat

Head - Should be evenly proportioned, with clean lines and a well-defined stop at the brow. The muzzle should be of good breadth, rounded and blunt, not narrow or pointed. The male head should project broadness and strength, while a female's projects strength and definition that is clearly feminine.
Faults: Long face with pointed muzzle, head too narrow or too wide, no clear brow stop, male head appearing too feminine, female head having a masculine appearance.

Standard Ears - Well-formed oval shape of medium size, they should be upright and spaced well apart.
Faults: Creases or folds, ears set too low or too far apart.

Standard Tail - Long and cylindrical, thick at the base and tapering to a fine point. Should be at least the length of the body (nose to base of tail) and be firm, and of size/thickness appropriate to the size of the rat, so as to give a balance appearance.
Faults: Not cylindrical, short, thin.
Disqualification: Kinked or docked.

Eyes - Large, round, and bold; set wide apart so as to give the appearance of width to the head. Placement is ideally half way between the tip of the nose and the back of the ears.
Faults: Eyes too small.

Teeth - Two upper and two lower incisors, none misshapen or missing. Mouth should be able to close normally, with top incisors in front of the lower.

Self Marking - Rat shall be all one color displaying no markings.
Faults: White fur on body, white toes/feet

Satin Coat - Fine to the touch, with longer and softer guard hairs that give an overall glossy look or sheen. Satin lends some colors a sparkling appearance, and a yellowish cast on white and Siamese. Whiskers to be wavy and point in varying directions.

Russian Blue Color - A dark gray-blue color commonly seen in Russian Blue cats. This color has a subtle ticked effect, also referred to as heathering. Color to be even throughout and dark down to the skin.
Eye color: Black
Faults: Large amounts of white hairs (silvering), rusting.


Our Goals for Our
Russian Blue Satin Breeding Line
Right now we are very pleased with how our Russian Blue Satin line is progressing. We have a few conformation issues we are addressing such as ears and silvering. We are trying to get a certain look from their faces and we are getting pretty close to what we are wanting. Now that we are getting more of this variety in our litters, we will be able to start breeding Russian Blue Satin to Russian Blue Satin and getting more of the variety to choose from and select the characteristics we want to set.

The History of Our
Russian Blue Satin Breeding Line
The beginnings of our Russian Blue line came from EKO Risk and BVR Duo whose litter we brought into our home in November of 2008. This was a co-breed with the Bao Varakhii Rattery. This litter provided us with the base stock for the majority of our lines.
Next, we inbred two of the siblings from that litter: SLKY BVR Q'enko and SLKY BVR Koricancha. This resulted in some of our rats with the best conformation we'd seen so far. It also provided stock for this line as well as our Siamese lines.
From there we bred one of the girls from that litter, SLKY Brooklyn, back to her father, SLKY BVR Q'enko. We once again saw the lovely conformation that we were falling in love with. However, it was at this point that we began to have some health concerns for the line and we choose to use another rat for our next step.
That next step was BVR Jack of Diamonds brought in from Bao Varakhii Rattery. He's a handsome, friendly, and robust boy that we match with SLKY Secretariat who embodied the conformation we had been working toward.

Challenges to Our
Russian Blue Satin Breeding Line
Our only challenge we are really facing right now is trying to get the health of this line up to the standard we want it to be. There have been some tumors pop up as well as some respiratory illnesses. To address these, we are only chosing from the healtiest of our stock and ruthlessly removing those we are leary of. It does set the line back occasionally, but we feel that the results will be worth it.
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