Varieties of Fancy Rat
taken from NFRS Standards of Excellence


General Conformation

The Rat shall be of good size, does long and racy type, bucks being of a bigger build, arched over the loin, firm fleshed with clean, long head, but not too pointed at the nose. The eyes shall be round, bold, clean and of goods size. The ears shall be of good size, well formed and widely spaced. The tail shall be cylindrical and as long as the body, thick at the base, tapering to a fine point. The ears, feet and tail shall be covered with fine hair. The coat shall be smooth and glossy (except for the Rex type). Bucks are longer than does and have a harsher coat.

Serious Faults Poor condition or health, bare areas, scaliness of ears and or kinked or short tail.

Disqualifying Faults:
  1. Lack of whiskers
  2. Severe Scabs
  3. Mites and Fleas
  4. Obvious ill-health
  5. Intractability
  6. Underage kitten (or appearance of being underage, i.e. baby fluff, underweight, undersize)

Note: Castrated bucks cannot be shown in varieties classes but can be shown in pet classes.

Download PDF version of Varieties standards and New Varieties. To save these files, right click and 'save target as'. The standards were last updated January 2008.
Adobe Acrobat reader can be freely downloaded at Adobe's website.

Varieties Standards with Photographs:
Photographs are for illustrative purposes only: these pages are not intended to provide a visual standard. (owners/breeders of rats credited where known)

Additional Photographs from each section:

Genetics: Full genetic formulae are not given, only the salient loci. Where unrecognised loci are given this has been indicated with an '*'