I have been speaking with Lanyce Suddeth of Pocket Angels Rescue based out of Bedford, TX. She has been running soy free for almost 4 years now and has come up with some astounding evidence. I am still waiting for her email about all of her data so far as she is also doing a soy free study in her rescue, but, keep in mind this is with rats that are born and raised on soy, only taken off of it when they come to her rescue.
Her longest living rescue is 2 weeks short of 5 and a half years old, FOR A RESCUE!!!
Her average lifespan of her rescues is between 3.5 and 4.5 years. Again, this is for rescues!
Her incidence of cancer has gone down dramatically as well. Her rats are healthier and much more active since going soy free as well.
Here is what she told me:
Here is the deal: My background is in medicine. before I had to quit working, I was a PA for almost 20 years adn the clinic I worked in utilized allopathic medicine along with holistic, alternative, eastern, etc etc. so we had a LOT of patients come see us that were immune compromised. one thing we found within the first few years is that if we didnt rebuild the immune system via supplementation and nutition, nothing worked. one day it hit me that what the rats deal with is exactly like a human with a compromised immune system due to CFIDS (chronic fatigue immune deficiency syndrome)and LGS (leaky gut syndrome). so I just started trying to work with the same protocol for the rats. took me a couple of years to get it 'right'. But now we are having rats live very long healthy lives.
When I asked her: May I ask how long your rats average lifespan is now?
Her response was: the longest lived rat we've had is 5 years & 5.5 months. But thats not average. Average is between 3 years 6 months and 4 years 6 months. give or take and these are all rescues. there is a breeder I am working wiht testing out the protocol since that would be a better way to really look at longevity
When asked how many rats she is working with, this is what I was told: I have 22 personal rats and the rescue has 139. usually we dont do so many but we had a couple larger rescue situatins from cites around us in the last few months
So we are not talking about just a couple of rats, or ever a couple dozen, we are talking about over 150 rats that she has seen a change in. Between Rebecca and I we have had over 300 rats between our pets, our breeders, our sanctuary and our adoptables and we have also seen a major change.
Sadly some rats do not handle the removal of soy as well as others, but the magority of them do very well and are healthier for it.
So, this is just yet another piece of evidence that going soy free makes a major difference in the rats health. We have also discovered that contrary to popular belief, not all rats have been exposed to myco and it is NOT safe to assume that they have. I had to shut down for a month back in Feb because of something going through my rattery. Come to find out, I had a mess of rats that had not been exposed to myco that I inadvertently exposed because I made the assumption that all pet rats had been exposed to it.
However, going soy free has made issues with myco almost non existant as well. While we do have the occasional issue, it is not something that we deal with on a regular basis. Plus, we have found that our rats get colds as well. One day a rat will be congested, so I will decide to start them on meds the next day. By then, they are cleared up, or clearing up and no need for the meds.
So, I would say going soy free has made a major change and we will be breeding Harmony to Batman today, which will be our FIRST second gen soy free litter. If anyone is interested in adopting from this litter, please let me know. There will be a special form to fill out and special requirements, but I will go into those at a later date. Among them, however, is doing a update every 3 months and the rats MUST be kept soy free. This is one requirement that MUST be upheld.
Tami
Social Rats Adoption and Rescue
