Standard: Smooth coat, shiny, soft to the touch with no bald patches on the coat. Whiskers should be full and flowing.

Rex: Curly coat pattern ranging from tightly curled to gentle wave. Evenly dense but not harsh to the touch. Whiskers are curled.

Silky: Extreme sheen seen on the coat. Smooth and soft to the touch with no appearance of bald patches.

Hairless: Devoid of hair. Skin may be marked in a pattern such as hooded but no hair is present.

Tailless: This rat can be any colour or coat pattern but the tail is absent.

Rat colours can be divided onto different categories as well. They are; Solid or Self, AOC (any other colour) or ticked, Silvered, and Shaded or AOCP (any other coat pattern)

Self: This is described as any solid colour with no white markings present anywhere. The feet should be coloured to match the top colour. The colour of the coat should be the same throughout, i.e. from base of the hair to the tip of the hair. There should be no silver or white hairs mixed in anywhere. Solid colours include. Beige, Black, Blue, Champagne, Chocolate, Coffee, Lilac, Mink, Powder Blue, and 3 varieties of white: Black eyed, pink eyed and ruby eyed.

AOC or Ticked: These colours are traditionally mixed coats with more than one colour on each hair or 2-3 different colours present on the coat. AOC colours include; Agoutie in shades of Blue, Cinnamon, Dilute, or Red, Amber, Apricot, Fawn, Cinnamon Pearl, Pearl and Lynx.

Silvered: These are of any recognized coat colour with silver hairs mixed evenly throughout the coat.

Colours include Silver Agoutie (Chinchilla), Silver Black, Silver Chocolate, Silver Fawn, Silver Lilac, Silver Mink

Shaded or AOCP: These are rats which have point markings (nose, ears, feet and rump). The markings are the same as a Siamese or Himalayan cat. The points shade into the body colour of the rat to make a striking picture. The body colour is usually off-white or cream. Colours include Himalayan, Siamese, Sealpoint Siamese, Lilac Point Siamese, Blue point Siamese and so on.

Marked Rats: These rats are of any coat pattern or colour but are marked with a specific pattern. The most common of these would be the Hooded Rat. Also included in this categories are: Capped, Blaze, Berkshire, Bareback, Irish, Masked, Variegated, and Odd-eye.

These colours can be combined to create truly stunning rats such as an odd-eye capped blaze and so on

Unstandardized Rats: In this group of rats we find the Dumbo, my personal favorite. The ears of the Dumbo are much larger and set off to the side of the head. This gives a delightful "Dopey" look. I find these rats have excellent temperament and seem to be more laid back than usual making them "couch potatoes" with tails!