Russian Cinnamon Bloodline

Overall Goals of the Line

Russian Cinnamon has been a hard color to nail down. For quite some time now, there have been selection issues with very yellowy Cinnamons and very washed out Russian Blue Agoutis being mistaken for Russian Cinnamon. Breeding those rats into our lines has set us back, not only in our ability to reliably select the true Russian Cinnamons in the litter, but also by adulterating the color with color-altering modifiers that muddy up the pure Russian Cinnamon color.

Our goal is to completely clear away all other carried colors and modifiers in this line, producing a beautiful, clear golden color. We want our Russian Cinnamons to have no red, or strong brownish tones. A true Russian Cinnamon is a very delicate, sparkling color, with lots of depth to it. Russian Cinnamon is also a ruby-eyed color, and our goal is to keep that eye color as dark as possible, to contrast strongly against the light gold of the fur. At the same time, we do not want to lose the clear Russian Blue influence in the undercoat, or the contrasting ticking of the Agouti coat.

Hand in hand to develop this color, we also want beautiful, clear silver Doves to result from the non-Agoutis in this line. Dove has a tendancy toward "iron" tones, and easily browns. We want bright, light, smooth coloration from our Doves, while at the same time encouraging deep, dark eye color. Ideally, we would like to be able to pair a Dove and a Russian Cinnamon for each breeding, to produce a pleasing mix of these two colors every time.

At this time, we've decided against putting markings into this bloodline, because while they look lovely on the Doves, they are almost impossible to see on the Russian Cinnamons, and therefore have little positive effect.

As always, health and temperament are paramount. Color will always take a back seat to those.