Well, things have been hectic around here to say the least. I had surgery on Aug 25th, open brain and currently have 34 staples in my head. To give you a visual, it is from the center of my forehead (behind my hairline) to the bottom of my right ear, nothing but staples. I have no feeling in my head behind the staples for a few inches, so I do have to be extra careful not to hit my head. If I hit the staples, I WILL know it, but if I hit even a quarter inch behind them, I may not. I have been allowed to feed the rats the past few days, but hubby has not allowed me to start cleaning cages and such as of yet and he still helps with watering them.
As far as the rats go, these was a mess up in the food supply, FM Brown's apparently, did not realize that they were the ONLY soy free food on the market, having had it essentially cornered, and put soy into the food. This started an uproar and FM Brown's has been flooded with phone calls and emails about the dangers of soy for rats.
Rebecca of Sweet and Loving Rats (who I will have post an update on her rattery as well because of this) and I both sent Sue Brown links to numerous information and articles and studies online to show them what we see. Although, it does bother me greatly that Sue had stated in an email to a friend, that was forwarded to me, back in March.
This is the email:
"Thank you for your comments. We are very happy that your rats enjoy our food. We believe that it’s the best food out there and contains everything nutritionally sound for rats and mice. We do not put soy in our product because there is no research regarding soy for small animals. Until research is done to prove that soy is beneficial, we’ll remain cautious and not put that in our food. Again thank you for your inquiry. Best Regards, Sue Brown"
Because of this email, we never put any thought into FM Brown's even possibly putting soy into their food, which is why there was such an uproar when this happened.
I called last MOnday and spoke with Sandy and she told me, initially, that the wrong label had been put onto the food, then, calling later, told me (keep in mind, I was on some heavy narcotics trying to deal with all of this) that FM Brown's did, in fact, put soy, a very small amount, into their Tropical Carnival Food.
Wat I find truly disturbing is that it seems that Sue Brown can not keep her story straight. When contacted by one of my adopters, who brought this to my attention, this was the response that Sue sent to her:
"I’m sorry, but we do not have any soy-free mouse and rat diets. This diet has been very successful and many rats and mice are on this diet and they are very healthy.
Not sure why you have chosen a soy-free diet. Is this something that your vet told you about?
Best Regards, Sue Brown"
She states that their diet is very successful and, yes, I agree, it was, WHEN IT WAS SOY FREE!!!
I am hoping that FM Brown's realizes how much damage we can do to their sales, should they chose to keep soy in their food. If I wanted to have my rats on soy, then I could just give them Harlan Teklab lab blocks, which would cost me roughly $100 a month to feed the rats. However, I wanted a soy free food for my rats, because I know that it is healthier for them. So I chose to pay for the Tropical Carnival, and make my mix from that, which costs me $350-$450 per month.
However, since using a soy free food, I have found my rats to be cancer free and very rarely sick. I have found that they can fight off most infection and even had a baby that had his foot eaten off up to the ankle and even though it did get a bit infected, his immune system kicked in and he was able to heal from it.
There have been months at a time that I have gone without treating any rats for URIs, which is the most common rat illness out there. Now I am having to start to treat my guys for resp issues and spending time having to pick the tiny little pellets out of the mix just to keep them healthy. Sadly, because Rebecca also has many sanctuary rats, that depend on a soy free diet to help them just to live, they are slowly, one by one, dying on her, because of some idiot thinking that soy was ok for rats.
I was told, by Mo, that he was unaware of this blog and that he was unaware of the issues that soy caused, but I could not honestly get a straight answer as to why, if they did not know the dangers, then why they added it. Who did they ask if soy was ok for our rats? So many studies out there show how bad soy and specifically GMO soy (which is what 85% of the soy grown in the US actually is) is for rats. Low birth rate, litter deaths, infetility, weaken immune systems, not to mention tumors.
If FM Brown's does not remove the soy from their food, then I will demand a boycott of ALL FM Brown's products and I will no longer be recommending it to my adopters. I guarantee is FM Brown's keeps the soy in their food, IT WILL AFFECT THE BOTTOM LINE!!!
I am supposed to be trying to recover from my surgery and someone over there who does not know what the hell they are doing decides to mess with our food like this? WTF?!?
At this point, I am now back to square one on my soy study. All of my rats have been exposed to soy, including all 5 of my second gen soy free litters. 5 litters of rats that should have had the potential to live up to 5 years and now they have been exposed to soy. I have been set back on my soy free breeding by at least 6 months or better.
I will let everyone know next week if FM Brown's does the right thing or if I will be demanding a boycott of their product. I also have to call my distributor and bitch to them as well, since on their site, they list the ingredients and the list they have on their site does NOT list soy in it.
I am either going to get a replacement for some of the food that I was sent that was laced with soy, or I will get a partial refund and i will go to the head of the company to get it if I have to. Even though I have only lost one rat because of this, 1 rat life was lost in my home because of this. I do not even know how many Rebecca has lost so far, but I believe that it has reached the double digits.
Tami
Social Rats Adoption and Rescue
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