Updated 29.03.2010
E-
your emails intended for Sheila pass them to me:
Sheila Sowter Varieties Judge at Sledmere Show 2001
Sheila Sowter this time on the receiving side -
Sheila Sowter Varieties Judge at Sledmire Show 2001
This page is to acknowledge Sheila's hard work and help
to the happy keeping and showing of our Pet rats in those Rat Clubs
in the more North of England regions
Dear Editor,
Rattitude published in August some corrections I felt were needed,
to the genetics articles, in Rattitude 23 & 24.
There are also corrections needed for later parts.
Rattitude 26, page 8, the verbal descriptions, with the genetic descriptions are best ignored, A few are correct, others are terms
which are not usually used, or for which there are alternatives, and
some are completely wrong.
A couple of examples should suffice: aa dd mm “blue mink” is
usually known as mink blue ( it is a blue colour)
and is called by some lavender. None of these terms is standard,
aa bb dd MM is not chocolate mink ( or mink of any kind), as it is MM.
The ' coffee' is referred to as “ chocolate mink” but is thought to be carrying ruby eye
( i.e is Rr ).
Rattitude 26, Pages 7 & 8, the recessive characteristic a , is better known
as non agouti. All the self colours( apart from albino ) are aa
Rattitude 27, Page 7 middle, should be “On the hooded locus H ... ... ,
there can be a number of alleles which control the patterning”.
The self gene H is on the H locus, and HH rats are not patterned. The hooded gene h is on the H locus and hh gives hooded.
Rattitude 27, Page 7 bottom, The pearl gene Pe ( not PE ), is indeed homozygous
lethal, but Pe Pe ratlets are not born dying, this is not my experience, and I
checked with Veronica Simmons, a notable breeder of pearls for some fifteen years,
who has not observed any dying new-
from pearl x pearl matings, but has had the occasional still-
which might( or might not ) have been Pe Pe
Sheila Sowter
Sheila has asked me to allow space for this complete and correct version of her piece on Genetics, which as published in the Rattitude contained un corrected errors.
This version will enable the reader to enjoy the text without those misleading errors.
