Lab Rats

[stretch]

For sale at Parklea markets for $4.95 ea if anyone is interested in getting some for breeding

Sue

[africancichlidau]

What's the difference between a lab rat and an ordinary common or garden variety rat? Surely once they are out of the lab they are no longer lab rats? Mine are Lav rats as I keep 'em in the loo

[Vat69]

They're not 'polars' that are available, are they? I wouldn't mind getting a pair of those to breed.

[africancichlidau]

what on earth are "Polars" Cheap Scotch????

[Vat69]

'Polar' is a term used to describe these massive lab rats. I've never actually seen one, but from what I've heard, they're atleast twice the size of a regular rat (I think). People use them to feed their bigger animals.
Perhaps someone who's dealt with them can elaborate?Anyone?

[Bendragon]

From what I have seen and heard the lab rats are pathongen free and are also all white (due to the gene setup or sumfing) when interbred with normal rats the genes in the normal rats are dominant and the litter will have no white in them at all. as for them being bigger I'm yet to see the difference in size, BUT there is a huge difference in litter size as the're like machines popping out huge litters....
That's my 2 cents......prove me wrong... I dares ya !

[stretch]

Yup, these ones are white. Apparently lab rats also have a better food value? No idea really. Apparently specifically bred for food, as feeder roaches are. Breed fast aswell.

I got my friend to pick me up a boy and a girl. They are only young but you have to mate female rats before 9 months anyway if you are going to breed from them otherwise it can kill an older female who has not had a litter.

On the flip side, my daughter got a 'rescue' rat today, and was also given a PEDIGREE rat!! Can you believe it...the bloody thing has papers!!!!
And no....these rats are not food! My daughter would not have a bar of it, plus we don't eat pets around here

[africancichlidau]

Algernon Ratster out of Duchess fingerbiter eh? PEDIGREE rats?? My god what is the world coming too. Does that meen if you use themm as food your snake hisses with an upper class accent?? Gotta go now, my curried Guinea Pig sandwich is going cold

[tony]

the mice we keep to breed pinkies are affectionately known as " the caterers'. My daughter, while thinking the name is funny, doesn't want to be around when they pinkies are taken and fed. Just thought it may amuse you all, the name

[Hawkeye]

Lab rats are generally pathogen free and thats about it.

It depends what they are being used for as to the genetics. Some are genetically manipulated to be identical so that you can do immunology tests on them. Others have altered physiology etc etc. white rats tend to be normal garden variety albino rats. No different from other rats for food value.

They also tend to be a little more docile and tolerate captivity better.

Cheers Hawkeye

[olivaceus71]

Originally Posted by Bendragon

From what I have seen and heard the lab rats are pathongen free and are also all white (due to the gene setup or sumfing) when interbred with normal rats the genes in the normal rats are dominant and the litter will have no white in them at all. as for them being bigger I'm yet to see the difference in size, BUT there is a huge difference in litter size as the're like machines popping out huge litters....
That's my 2 cents......prove me wrong... I dares ya !

Always ready for a dare bendragon, this is my first post so please don't take it personal

Have kept lab rats/mice as well as normal strains, for my own personal use and I sell quite a few. I have found that after I set up totally in the beginning with lab rats and mice, I have gone back to normal strains as well as crossing the labs with normals. The labs do get bigger (though I have a one strain of rat that does get huge as the original male was a wild rat from SA) , I also find sometimes the litters are so big the mothers die trying to give birth as they just get too big for her pelvis. Though I did spend one saturday morning delivering 16 baby rats with my 9 year old, removing their bags and massaging them to get them breathing, my neighbour thought I was nuts breathing into a pinkies mouth only to feed it off 2 days later.

I have found that these guys are pretty light sensitive, and although the can have large litters (around 16) they are not very heat tolerant and have known them to suffer with tumours and milk fever. (at least I think thats what it is, usually lactating mothers that lose weight rapidly/panting after having babies removed do not recover and have to be euthanaised or die). I have some lab rats that I keep with normal males and two with a black rat and they throw pure white and black babies, usually half of each. I also have some blue females whose mother was a lab and crossed them with black and white ratties and they threw all white. As for numbers much of a muchness between standard and labs.

As for quantity vs quality, I would rather feed my olives a fair few medium sized rats than give them one huge lab rat, from what I have heard, more nutritional value.

Also feed quality has a lot to do with the health and litter size of rats and mice, I changed my stock food supplier, and they are dropping babies like no-ones business.

sorry for the long post, hope I was of some insight
cheers
olivaceus71

[Fangs]

Welcome olivaceus71 and great first post.
Your post raised two questions for me.
1.how do you prevent mothers from getting milk fever?leave 1 or 2 pups with her?If so for how long?
2.What brand of cubes do you recommend for feeding?

cheers

[olivaceus71]

Originally Posted by Fangs

Welcome olivaceus71 and great first post.
Your post raised two questions for me.
1.how do you prevent mothers from getting milk fever?leave 1 or 2 pups with her?If so for how long?
2.What brand of cubes do you recommend for feeding?

cheers

Hey Fangs
good to see someone else up at this hour

I used to take all the babies but 5 from the mothers as soon as they
were born, now I leave them with all of them at least for a few days, unless they are looking a bit worn out and then I will take all of the babies from the mother. The only female rats I encountered with this problem were the labbies and it could be a mixture of heat/poor quality feed. I would just make sure your mothers are old enough and big enough to cope with a litter of babies.
Would also say after suffering mastitis years ago with one of my daughters it is probably the luck of the draw, you/or rats are just prone to it. (cannot believe I just compared myself to a lactating rodent)

I did euthanaise a few rats after one of our scorchers, when I thought it had brain damage and they were swaying from side to side, though I came across some info a few weeks back
that said pink eyed rodents have poorer eyesight and sway to focuss(don't know if I believe that one or not

I used to use dnr cubes but now use gordons which although are quite a bit dearer, around $20 for 16kgs the rats seem alot fatter and happier. Though I do go through around 2 bags a week, for the average keeper they would last a few months at least. They have a factory down at Yanderra.

As with all of my managerie, I keep my rodents in top condition and although I have a heap, I do have my favourites, and am a wuss when they die (unless of course it is at my hands, co2). My 5 year old handles feeding the herps rodents as she has been doing it her whole life, my 9 year old however handled it alot better when they came straight from the shop.

hope I answered your question
cheers

[Fangs]

Thanx olivaceus71,
Yeah I'm more of a night time person.I happen to think its the best part of the day.Nice and quiet,you can hear yourself think.
Thanx for the info/tips.
The reason I asked is because we will need to be taking the pups off the mothers at 1 or 2 days as our snakes are only still babies and those pups grow awfully fast.
As far as food goes I know nothing about brands etc but I do know that what you put into them also goes into your snakes so the higher quality the better.

cheers