Our Theory:
Soy causes many health issues in rats including but not limited to: early sexual maturation, early menopause, birth defects, cancer and tumors, lower immune response or damaged immune system, thyroid issues, respiratory issues, kidney problems and decreased life span.
History:
Rats have been kept as pets for many decades. They have been domesticated through selective breeding and socialization. 20 years ago the average life span of a domestic rat was 3-5 years. In the last 20 years, however, this has been decreased to 2-3 years average estimated lifespan, with many rats passing away before the 1 year or 2 year mark. There has been an increase in cancer, tumors (both benign and cancerous) and respiratory issues in the last 20 years. There has been increased knowledge about the nutritional requirements of rats in general. There is more information available about the housing of rats, including the toxicity of Pine and Cedar bedding, which was used very often 20 years ago when rats had a longer life span. There is vet care available now, and medications that are considered rat safe.
Personal History:
I got my first pair of rats in 1990. 1 male and 1 female who were litter mates. They came from a private breeder, meaning that they were bred and raised by a 12 year old boy and sold them to me because he had to reduce his number of rats. Lady, my female who was an agouti Berkshire (brown with a white belly), and the Tramp, my male who was a black hooded, were at least 6 months old when purchased. Both were fully grown and full sized. Tramp’s fur had turned course and he was experiencing buck grease on his fur as well.
My rats were housed in a home made cage of galvanized metal and a wooden bottom. This means that they could have been exposed to zinc oxide and their urine could build up in the wood of the cage. They were also housed on cedar bedding, males and females in 1 cage. Females were moved out when they showed signs of being pregnant. Although some did give birth in the colony cage without issues of fighting over the babies. As soon as the nests were discovered, they were moved out with the moms within hours.
For food we fed them whatever we could. Popcorn was a favorite as the local theater always had extra left over, so I would snag some on the weekends that would usually last them for about 3 or 4 days. Yes, there were times that my rats ate nothing but popcorn for a few days. They got large amounts of lettuce, as my mom figured that lettuce would be good for them, so on average they would get a head of lettuce a couple of times a month. They were also fed table scraps, pizza crusts, left over fast food or take out, fruits and veggies that were getting ready to spoil (give it to the rats rather than throw it out). They were also fed dog food, cat food and parrot food as well.
I had very few miscarriages or reabsorbed babies. We had 1 litter that was still born, a litter of 19 babies, but that was believed to be because the mother was 4 months old and not large enough to carry a litter that large. We rarely if ever lost babies after birth, if they were born alive, they survived. Most babies were sold to pet stores that did not sell feeders as we played with them constantly and all of our babies were very well socialized. We did keep some of the babies, which also lived to be at least 4 years old, usually passing away peacefully in their sleep.
What we didn’t have was any health issues. We never lost any females during delivery, we never had any types of health issues, no respiratory issues at all. We never medicated them, we never took them to a vet, because no vets that we knew of dealt with rats at that time. We never had issues with aggression with the ones we bred, but this can be attributed to genetics, not their food source. All of our rats were social and loving, most giving kisses and eating from our plates.
March 6, 2010
This is the beginning of the experiment. Currently I have a variety of rats, including rescues that are of varying age, some as old as 2.5 years or so. We have 3 lab rats that are about 2 years old. We are a breeding facility, so we do have multiple litters as well, currently 3. We have 1 litter of 3 babies born to PEW (Pink eyed white) who was pregnant when she was adopted. She was adopted for the breeding program. Her past genetics are unknown. She will be bred for one more litter in May, 2010, then will be retired. We have 1 litter of 17 babies born of a deep brown Berkshire top ear and a black silvered dumbo male. 4 of her babies are being fosters with the PEW mother. We have 1 litter of babies that most of which will be going to new homes tomorrow that are tan/fawn mix, top ear/dumbo mix and are Berkshire/veriberk mix. Of this last litter mentioned we will be keeping 1 male and 2 females.
Currently all of the rats are on a soy free diet, consisting of Brown’s Tropical Carnival Rat mix, with bran cereal, multigrain Cheerios and Crisp Rice cereal added daily and a protein supplement given twice per week. I also raise mealworms which I will be using for the protein for them in the future. Most of the rats who have tried the mealworms love them and can not seem to get enough of them.
We will be using Harlan Teklab (2018) lab blocks for the soy fed portion of this experiment. 2 males and 2 females will be kept from Mitten’s litter for this experiment. Mitten’s is on a soy free diet currently with treats of meal worms given infrequently.
Harlan Teklab lab blocks were, until recently, given to everyone on a daily basis, however due to the research done, I believe that this is detrimental. Thus far, when I switched to a soy free diet, I had 12 rats who were exhibiting signs of respiratory issues with sneezing and congestion which were being treated with Amoxicillin, Doxy, Lasix, Baytril or a combination of the afore mentioned medications. All rats have shown signs of improvement since changing their diets to a soy free diet. The Harlan Teklab lab blocks will be what is to be used for this experiment since they are widely accepted as the healthiest form of rat food on the market, not commercially available, and are used in the lab setting.
No comments:
Post a Comment