This was sent to me by Rebecca, the owner of my sister rattery, Rebecca's Sweet and Loving Rats in Lebanon, IN. http://www.sweetandlovingrats.com/
My rats years ago I used to keep in various sized tanks. I used shredded newspaper bedding because it was cheap.
I used to feed them a diet of various cereals, oats, fruits and veggies, different dog foods and cat foods, chicken, liver, alfalfa blocks and just basic table scraps, not to mention the ratty favorite, popcorn. THey were on a soy free diet because soy was not that popular back then.
I never had to deal with respiratory issues with any of my rats. I did have 2 male rats that got cancer because of their preferance to eating only dried corn. They got the tumors around 2 years of age, but lived at least 2 years after they first got the tumors. I remember that I did have one male that I gave an orange to and the results were not very pretty. I ended up having to have him neutered and he lived to be at least 4 years old. I did take them to a vet, who at that time was willing to treat rats and even had one of my boys fixed due to the orange thing.
I never lost any of my rats younger than 4 years old. I even had some of my rats that lived to be as old at 6 years old.
I know now that I plan to keep as much soy out of their diet as possible. I now read labels on anything that I feed them and try to feed as much natural food as possible. Some of the things I would never had fed them would have been the massive amounts of corn, oranges or popcorn now. The things I know now are so different from the total lack of information I had all of those years ago that I would not care for my present rats the way I did my old ones.
From my experience with the rats I had then and the rats I have now is that my rats then lived so much longer and happier lives than most rats that are fed soy and soy based foods now.
~Rebecca B.
Rebecca's Swwet and Loving Rats
posted by Tami with Social Rats
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Tweeking the Diet
I am working with tweeking my rat diet a bit. I am now adding in ground flax seed (not into what I sell for the moment) because I have been told and done a little research (not enough to expose other rats to it at the moment) that leads me to believe that flax seed should help to boost the rat immune system and help to fight precancerous cells. I was FINALLY able to find flax seed at a Shop and Save, no less. So we picked up 3 bags of it, very reasonably priced, and are now working it into the diet to see if it is something worth looking into and adding to the diet I sell as well.
I do not want to take the chance of hurting other rats, should it not prove beneficial to my rats, but it is does help them, I will be adding it to the diet as well.
In recent news, I had joined the World Rat Day Secret Santa program, that one rat lover had started. I sent, what I thought, was a very nice treat, which was pig skin wrapped around sweet potato and rather than a thank you, because I wanted to send her something soy free, I got an email bitching at me because A) I did not send her enough stuff because she had 8 rats and the treat I send was only 6 treats (5" long and her rats are not all caged alone, so it could have been divided per cage) and that I did not spend enough on it. Anyone who knows me knows that I am willing to help those who need it, I take time out of my day and have spent full days on transports and rescues. I spend hours answering emails, some are not even adopters, but just someone looking for advice. I do not have a lot of money, the money that I do have extra tends to go to help care for the rats.
The upside is that the woman who runs the program emailed me to apologize for the member, that she should have handled things differently.
I think my biggest issue with it was she attacked, without reading the blog, my advice on soy. Her email starts out:
First off, my rats get soy yogurt for breakfast and soymilk with dinner. Every day. I read your first post about the dangers of soy. Here is my opinion on that subject: In research, animals are usually fed very large/concentrated amounts, not what is usually ingested. And I believe that soy has been touted as a "miracle food" for a while now, so people have been over-doing it. I think that, like everything else, in moderation, soy can be beneficial. But when it is taken to an extreme, it can become harmful.
It is one thing to be pro soy, but if you plan to attack my research on it, you might actually take the time to read my blog on it and check out some of the research done.
I know that rats are healthier without the soy. Being off of it has allowed many of my rats to start to recover and their immune systems are kicking in. I plan to post more links about the research that I have done about soy and the immune system, which I think is actually the most dangerous affect that soy has on them, when I have a moment to look up the links.
For now, Goddess Bless and if you would like to include your stories about soy and your rats (cats, dogs, birds) please feel free to.
Tami
Social Rats Adoption and Rescue
I do not want to take the chance of hurting other rats, should it not prove beneficial to my rats, but it is does help them, I will be adding it to the diet as well.
In recent news, I had joined the World Rat Day Secret Santa program, that one rat lover had started. I sent, what I thought, was a very nice treat, which was pig skin wrapped around sweet potato and rather than a thank you, because I wanted to send her something soy free, I got an email bitching at me because A) I did not send her enough stuff because she had 8 rats and the treat I send was only 6 treats (5" long and her rats are not all caged alone, so it could have been divided per cage) and that I did not spend enough on it. Anyone who knows me knows that I am willing to help those who need it, I take time out of my day and have spent full days on transports and rescues. I spend hours answering emails, some are not even adopters, but just someone looking for advice. I do not have a lot of money, the money that I do have extra tends to go to help care for the rats.
The upside is that the woman who runs the program emailed me to apologize for the member, that she should have handled things differently.
I think my biggest issue with it was she attacked, without reading the blog, my advice on soy. Her email starts out:
First off, my rats get soy yogurt for breakfast and soymilk with dinner. Every day. I read your first post about the dangers of soy. Here is my opinion on that subject: In research, animals are usually fed very large/concentrated amounts, not what is usually ingested. And I believe that soy has been touted as a "miracle food" for a while now, so people have been over-doing it. I think that, like everything else, in moderation, soy can be beneficial. But when it is taken to an extreme, it can become harmful.
It is one thing to be pro soy, but if you plan to attack my research on it, you might actually take the time to read my blog on it and check out some of the research done.
I know that rats are healthier without the soy. Being off of it has allowed many of my rats to start to recover and their immune systems are kicking in. I plan to post more links about the research that I have done about soy and the immune system, which I think is actually the most dangerous affect that soy has on them, when I have a moment to look up the links.
For now, Goddess Bless and if you would like to include your stories about soy and your rats (cats, dogs, birds) please feel free to.
Tami
Social Rats Adoption and Rescue
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
African Soft Furs - a tale of 2 breeders
Breeder A -
I got ASFs to breed as an alternative to ppl feeding rats to snakes because of the loving and social nature of rats as compared to the lack of socialization in the ASFs. While I found the ASFs to be awesome little creatures to watch as they cared for their young and play in their wheels and hideys.
I housed them in whatever tanks I have. I had a 1m 4f colony in a 15 gallon tank, 1m 5f colony in a 20 gallon long tank, 1m 10f in a 55 gallon tank and a 1m 12f colony in a 55 gallon tank. When I separated the males and females from litter, I kept them in 2 separate cages. The boys cage was a 10 gallon tank with a homemade tank topper on it that was twice the height of normal tank toppers. The girls cage was a 10 gallon tank with a standard tank topper on it. All cages had wheels and places for them to hide.
Bedding I used a mix of Pine, Cedar and corn cob bedding. I used cardboard boxes, hamster balls and small toys for them to play and hide in. One cage I even had a large cardboard box that they used for nesting. I felt that just because they were being bred for snake food did not mean that they had to be treated inhumanely.
For food I used a mix of Sun Seed hamster food and fruits and veggies. In all of the ASFs that I bred in the 6 months or so that I was breeding (a family member became allergic to them, so I had to sell my colonies) I only had 1 case of cancer. I had one ASF female that developed a rapidly growing tumor on her chest. In a matter of hours is almost doubled in size. Because I did not want her to suffer, I humanely euthanized her and disposed of her body (she was not fed to a snake because I did not want to take the chance of hurting a reptile by feeding unhealthy food). On the whole, my colonies were relatively healthy. I lost minimal litters, had minimal aggression (that was uncommon for the ASF species) and did not have that many that died.
Breeder B:
How I housed my ASFs: I kept them in 10 gallon tanks and used shredded newspaper and Aspen bedding.
What I fed them: They were fed a diet of cereal, oats, fruits and veggies, dog food, cat food, mealworms, crickets, chicken, Alfalfa blocks, Timothy hay and table scraps. (kept to a minimum) I was not feeding any soy because of my own sensitivity to soy products.
Illnesses: I never had any that got ill while being kept this way.
Diet change: I was in my 5th generation of ASFs when I changed their diet to strictly lab blocks. I figured it would be healthier for them as it contained complete nutrients for them. Up until this point, I had no issues with any of my colonies.
After the diet change: Within a month of the change, I began to notice tumors. Within a very short period of time, my entire colony was suffering from these tumors. Mainly on or around their tails, but it was enough to kill all of them off. It affected not only my adults, but also my weanlings. Any ASF that was eating on their own was affected. I lose my entire colony from this within a very short period of time. The nursing and pregnant mothers died off, I lost all of the babies due to starvation from the mothers dying and all of the males and weanlings died from the tumors. I lost over 100 adults and weanlings, not to mention the litters that died from the lack of a nursing mother.
My conclusions: I would not recommed feeding lab blocks to any ASF (or just about any rodent) because of this experience.
I would like to thank the 2 breeders for taking the time to share with me their story about their own experiences with their ASFs. While I know that they are not rats, it does show that there may be something to the soy and it may not be just the rats that thie is affecting.
Tami
Social Rats Adoption and Rescue
I got ASFs to breed as an alternative to ppl feeding rats to snakes because of the loving and social nature of rats as compared to the lack of socialization in the ASFs. While I found the ASFs to be awesome little creatures to watch as they cared for their young and play in their wheels and hideys.
I housed them in whatever tanks I have. I had a 1m 4f colony in a 15 gallon tank, 1m 5f colony in a 20 gallon long tank, 1m 10f in a 55 gallon tank and a 1m 12f colony in a 55 gallon tank. When I separated the males and females from litter, I kept them in 2 separate cages. The boys cage was a 10 gallon tank with a homemade tank topper on it that was twice the height of normal tank toppers. The girls cage was a 10 gallon tank with a standard tank topper on it. All cages had wheels and places for them to hide.
Bedding I used a mix of Pine, Cedar and corn cob bedding. I used cardboard boxes, hamster balls and small toys for them to play and hide in. One cage I even had a large cardboard box that they used for nesting. I felt that just because they were being bred for snake food did not mean that they had to be treated inhumanely.
For food I used a mix of Sun Seed hamster food and fruits and veggies. In all of the ASFs that I bred in the 6 months or so that I was breeding (a family member became allergic to them, so I had to sell my colonies) I only had 1 case of cancer. I had one ASF female that developed a rapidly growing tumor on her chest. In a matter of hours is almost doubled in size. Because I did not want her to suffer, I humanely euthanized her and disposed of her body (she was not fed to a snake because I did not want to take the chance of hurting a reptile by feeding unhealthy food). On the whole, my colonies were relatively healthy. I lost minimal litters, had minimal aggression (that was uncommon for the ASF species) and did not have that many that died.
Breeder B:
How I housed my ASFs: I kept them in 10 gallon tanks and used shredded newspaper and Aspen bedding.
What I fed them: They were fed a diet of cereal, oats, fruits and veggies, dog food, cat food, mealworms, crickets, chicken, Alfalfa blocks, Timothy hay and table scraps. (kept to a minimum) I was not feeding any soy because of my own sensitivity to soy products.
Illnesses: I never had any that got ill while being kept this way.
Diet change: I was in my 5th generation of ASFs when I changed their diet to strictly lab blocks. I figured it would be healthier for them as it contained complete nutrients for them. Up until this point, I had no issues with any of my colonies.
After the diet change: Within a month of the change, I began to notice tumors. Within a very short period of time, my entire colony was suffering from these tumors. Mainly on or around their tails, but it was enough to kill all of them off. It affected not only my adults, but also my weanlings. Any ASF that was eating on their own was affected. I lose my entire colony from this within a very short period of time. The nursing and pregnant mothers died off, I lost all of the babies due to starvation from the mothers dying and all of the males and weanlings died from the tumors. I lost over 100 adults and weanlings, not to mention the litters that died from the lack of a nursing mother.
My conclusions: I would not recommed feeding lab blocks to any ASF (or just about any rodent) because of this experience.
I would like to thank the 2 breeders for taking the time to share with me their story about their own experiences with their ASFs. While I know that they are not rats, it does show that there may be something to the soy and it may not be just the rats that thie is affecting.
Tami
Social Rats Adoption and Rescue
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Monthly Update - April (month 2 soy free)
Well, I have not had much of a chance to do any meaningful research lately. I am still trying to determine if soy in a diet will affect mega colon, but have not had much luck, so that may have nothing to do with soy.
So, here is an undate on the rattery and the soy study. I am in the process now of treating everyone with Revolution because I had soem rescues come in that looked they had rat lice, so will be treating everyone, just in case. Any rats that are up for adoption have already been treated and I will be doing another treatment on Thursday, once some of my new litters are 2 weeks old. I will be doing the last part of the rattery in 2 weeks, since I had a recent birth just a couple of days ago. This has nothing to do with the soy, but did want to do a rattery update as well while I am doing this. Also, the guys I was planning to have put to sleep, I wanted to hold off on, to see if we could give them just a few more weeks or even days in this life. Meeko has since gotten better, but I do check him daily to keep an eye on his condition. Papa on the other hand, I am not going to have a choice with him and, currently, we are looking at just a couple of days now. Keep in mind, this has nothing to do with adoption status, as these are sanctuary rats. This is because of illness and quality of life.
I hae 2 girls from my first litter of the year, Harmony and Charisma that have been on a soy free diet and are now about 9 weeks old. I have not yet observed estrus in them, so it seems that my theory about the sexual maturity will be correct. Most rats fed a "normal" diet have already have experienced their first heat by now. I am looking for signs of heat like submitting to a mount by a cage mate, bouncing, more hyper, presenting of their rear for mating, anything that could lead me to believe that they are in heat and I have not yet seen any signs of it, which is a good thing.
For breeding, I have discovered a couple of things so far with my rats. One of my males that I purchased from another breeder seems to be infertile as I have put multiple females in with him with no luck. This is not a case of the male and female just being together for a night or 2, but weeks or months. I had Squeaka in with him for almost a month, with no luck. I moved her in with Z, one of my blazed breeders and he got her almost immediately. Mindy who has been in with him for almost 3 months now still has not concieved. So I believe that the soy I had him on actually made him infertile. The research I have done so far has shown me that soy can have 2 major negative affects on males. The first would be, like with NoNo, that he is infertile. It messes with the fertility of male rats. The second, which is likely to affect pet owners as well, is it can increase hormone related aggression. Because soy messes with the sex hormones in all rats, in males it can (not will, but can) lead to hormone related aggression. By feeding a soy free diet, this may be able to be limited. I am not saying that soy WILL cause hormone related aggression, nor am I saying that soy is the ONLY cause for hormone related aggression in males, just that is can, well, make it worse, I guess.
We have only had one major respiratory related issue, but that was our fault, not soy or non soy related. We use modified storage boxes for some of our litters, to save space, money and mess. We have one that has excellent ventilation, however we did not take into account for multiple adult rats in one of the cages when it came to ventilation and it caused ammonia build up. Once I realized how bad it was, I removed the rats into a wire cage, but Squeaka, who was already pregnant, did get a URI from it. It was not a sneezy thing, or even congested, but I could tell that she ws not feeling well from her fluffed fur. It did cause the loss of her litter. She has since recovered without incident. We gave her a 7 day round of amoxicillin and she ws back to normal after delivery and 2 days of meds.
We have had no major sneezing, no congestion this month and all of our rats have been acting healthy and lively. With the fact that we are now 2 months into the soy free, I have noticed drastic changes already in the rats. At this point we have 47 adult and weaned rats and 11 litters of babies ranging from 1 to 18 babies. If I had to make a guess, I would say that we have, goodness, around 120 rats here at the moment, with all of the babies. and even with this many rats in a room, we still have minimal illness. Now, keep in mind that our litters are both those we have bred and those who came to use pregnant and/or nursing. So this is not like I personally bred 11 litters this year so far. Only 4 of those litters are ones that I have personally bred. 1 that will be ready on the 7th, 1 that will be available around the beginning of May and 2 that will be available around the middle of May.
I have actually been using a minimal amount of meds lately, more that was thrown out than I have used, just because I had it mixed for too long. I did a transport to my facility down in IN and we did have some magor issues there with the rats that were transported, but do not believe that to be due to diet or immune system. That would have to be due to 30 rats be backed into a little Ford Focus with 2 smokers. So, cramped conditions, the fact that we smoke, and the weather all had an affect on the rats and quite a few did come down with issues but most have responded well to the meds. I was expecting issues with the transport, simply because of the cramped quarters. Our lab boys, which were among those transported, are the ones having the worst issues and the hardest time recovering. But, you have to keep in mind, they were not raised like regular rats, they had not been exposed to things our rats are normally exposed to in litter, and they were fed a high soy diet for most of their 2 years. All of which has made them weaker, immunity wise. However, other than just a couple out of the bunch, most of them have responded to the meds and cleared up quickly.
At this point, having been open for more than a year now, we have not have 1 case of cancer and I am hoping that feeding soy free, that we will not. My condolences to those ppl who have had to deal with cancer, as I am not one of them. Even though I have raised and owned rats, off and on, for 20 years now, I have never had a rat with cancer, never had to deal with tumors. Even with all of the rats that I have taken in this past year, none had cancer or any type of tumors. We have one rat, a hairless male, that came in with a lump that I thought may be cancer, because it did not come to a head and pop like a normall abscess. He had it for more than 3 months before it finally opened up. Come to find out it was not cancer or an abscess, but an severely ingrown hair, which hairless rats are easy to get. While it was not as bad, gross wise, as dealing with an abscess, it was still pretty gross. Scale of 1 to 10, I would put abscss at a 7 and ingrown hair at a 6.
THat should cover everything, if I think of anything else, I will post a continuation of this at a later date.
Tami
Social Rats Adoption and Rescue
So, here is an undate on the rattery and the soy study. I am in the process now of treating everyone with Revolution because I had soem rescues come in that looked they had rat lice, so will be treating everyone, just in case. Any rats that are up for adoption have already been treated and I will be doing another treatment on Thursday, once some of my new litters are 2 weeks old. I will be doing the last part of the rattery in 2 weeks, since I had a recent birth just a couple of days ago. This has nothing to do with the soy, but did want to do a rattery update as well while I am doing this. Also, the guys I was planning to have put to sleep, I wanted to hold off on, to see if we could give them just a few more weeks or even days in this life. Meeko has since gotten better, but I do check him daily to keep an eye on his condition. Papa on the other hand, I am not going to have a choice with him and, currently, we are looking at just a couple of days now. Keep in mind, this has nothing to do with adoption status, as these are sanctuary rats. This is because of illness and quality of life.
I hae 2 girls from my first litter of the year, Harmony and Charisma that have been on a soy free diet and are now about 9 weeks old. I have not yet observed estrus in them, so it seems that my theory about the sexual maturity will be correct. Most rats fed a "normal" diet have already have experienced their first heat by now. I am looking for signs of heat like submitting to a mount by a cage mate, bouncing, more hyper, presenting of their rear for mating, anything that could lead me to believe that they are in heat and I have not yet seen any signs of it, which is a good thing.
For breeding, I have discovered a couple of things so far with my rats. One of my males that I purchased from another breeder seems to be infertile as I have put multiple females in with him with no luck. This is not a case of the male and female just being together for a night or 2, but weeks or months. I had Squeaka in with him for almost a month, with no luck. I moved her in with Z, one of my blazed breeders and he got her almost immediately. Mindy who has been in with him for almost 3 months now still has not concieved. So I believe that the soy I had him on actually made him infertile. The research I have done so far has shown me that soy can have 2 major negative affects on males. The first would be, like with NoNo, that he is infertile. It messes with the fertility of male rats. The second, which is likely to affect pet owners as well, is it can increase hormone related aggression. Because soy messes with the sex hormones in all rats, in males it can (not will, but can) lead to hormone related aggression. By feeding a soy free diet, this may be able to be limited. I am not saying that soy WILL cause hormone related aggression, nor am I saying that soy is the ONLY cause for hormone related aggression in males, just that is can, well, make it worse, I guess.
We have only had one major respiratory related issue, but that was our fault, not soy or non soy related. We use modified storage boxes for some of our litters, to save space, money and mess. We have one that has excellent ventilation, however we did not take into account for multiple adult rats in one of the cages when it came to ventilation and it caused ammonia build up. Once I realized how bad it was, I removed the rats into a wire cage, but Squeaka, who was already pregnant, did get a URI from it. It was not a sneezy thing, or even congested, but I could tell that she ws not feeling well from her fluffed fur. It did cause the loss of her litter. She has since recovered without incident. We gave her a 7 day round of amoxicillin and she ws back to normal after delivery and 2 days of meds.
We have had no major sneezing, no congestion this month and all of our rats have been acting healthy and lively. With the fact that we are now 2 months into the soy free, I have noticed drastic changes already in the rats. At this point we have 47 adult and weaned rats and 11 litters of babies ranging from 1 to 18 babies. If I had to make a guess, I would say that we have, goodness, around 120 rats here at the moment, with all of the babies. and even with this many rats in a room, we still have minimal illness. Now, keep in mind that our litters are both those we have bred and those who came to use pregnant and/or nursing. So this is not like I personally bred 11 litters this year so far. Only 4 of those litters are ones that I have personally bred. 1 that will be ready on the 7th, 1 that will be available around the beginning of May and 2 that will be available around the middle of May.
I have actually been using a minimal amount of meds lately, more that was thrown out than I have used, just because I had it mixed for too long. I did a transport to my facility down in IN and we did have some magor issues there with the rats that were transported, but do not believe that to be due to diet or immune system. That would have to be due to 30 rats be backed into a little Ford Focus with 2 smokers. So, cramped conditions, the fact that we smoke, and the weather all had an affect on the rats and quite a few did come down with issues but most have responded well to the meds. I was expecting issues with the transport, simply because of the cramped quarters. Our lab boys, which were among those transported, are the ones having the worst issues and the hardest time recovering. But, you have to keep in mind, they were not raised like regular rats, they had not been exposed to things our rats are normally exposed to in litter, and they were fed a high soy diet for most of their 2 years. All of which has made them weaker, immunity wise. However, other than just a couple out of the bunch, most of them have responded to the meds and cleared up quickly.
At this point, having been open for more than a year now, we have not have 1 case of cancer and I am hoping that feeding soy free, that we will not. My condolences to those ppl who have had to deal with cancer, as I am not one of them. Even though I have raised and owned rats, off and on, for 20 years now, I have never had a rat with cancer, never had to deal with tumors. Even with all of the rats that I have taken in this past year, none had cancer or any type of tumors. We have one rat, a hairless male, that came in with a lump that I thought may be cancer, because it did not come to a head and pop like a normall abscess. He had it for more than 3 months before it finally opened up. Come to find out it was not cancer or an abscess, but an severely ingrown hair, which hairless rats are easy to get. While it was not as bad, gross wise, as dealing with an abscess, it was still pretty gross. Scale of 1 to 10, I would put abscss at a 7 and ingrown hair at a 6.
THat should cover everything, if I think of anything else, I will post a continuation of this at a later date.
Tami
Social Rats Adoption and Rescue
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)