whats the difference between a hooded rat and an ordinary rat???

Question

I am thinking about getting a pet rat, I have been looking online and some rats are called hooded rats... whats the difference!?! THANKS

Answer 1

Hooded rats are just normal rats with colour on their heads, like a hood :)
http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/images12/RatHoodedRatMouseCatPics145.JPG

Answer 2

Hooded is the term for the marking which covers the entire head, like everyone says, but it also is connected to certain genetic traits, depending on how it looks. There is a genetic disorder called Megacolon you should watch out for, which is believed to be connected to a marking called "high white", often mistaken for "hooded".
Basically, when a rat is in its developing stages, all the important stuff like nerves, blood vessels, and more noticably COLOR PIGMENTS, start at the spine and work their way out to the head, lower organs and extremities. In a rat with Megacolon, the nerve development will not make it all the way to the intestines and colon, making the colon too weak to hold enough water to make the feces passable so the waste backs up, the rat gets bloated and dies of either too much waste in the bloodstream or internal septic infection. Fortunately, because the color does the same, we can tell how likely it is that a rat will have it.
Things to look for are isolated spots of color on the head and in wierd places like right below the ribcage, whether there is color along the spine or not. But especially if there's not. A normal hooded mark covers the whole head and neck, also normal is "blaze" which is a white wedge of color on the forehead, "split cap" which is a thin white line down the middle of the head, and "striped" which is the color that runs all or most of the way down the back in a stripe no more than 1.5 cm wide on a small rat. Spots beyond that are a bad sign. The whole body being one color (except the belly) is called "self".
You can Google "rats high white high risk" for a good article, and pictures which will help you determine the difference if you want. Also, look up "mycoplasmosis" and learn how to tell if a rat has a very (rat-to-rat only) contagious respiratory infection before you buy it!
Good luck, I encourage your venture into the world of rats. They are the best pets I know of to have!

Answer 3

Hooded Rats are primarily white with the fur on their heads a different color,giving them the appearance of having a hood on

Answer 4

A hooded rat usually has black or tan markings, especially on the head and back. A typical rat is solid colored, usually a dark grey or brown.

Answer 5

It just means they have a colored head, which looks like a hood. I had 2, they were adorable. :)