weeding out megacolon?

[pariahdog]

does anyone have experience with this? had 2 megacolon babies in a litter of 12 from a dad I LOVE the temperament of but he's the one causing it. is it possible to use the healthy offspring to breed megacolon out of the line?

[Jeanne]

Do not breed any rats w a blaze. The blaze gene tends to also cause megacolon.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

blazes are more prone to the issue, the only thing to do is to never breed the animal producing those babies again and cull them. Same if you have previously held back rats from that pairing in the past and they appear healthy I would recommend not to breed them and cull them.


http://ratbehavior.org/megacolon.htm

http://ratguide.com/health/digestive/megacolon.php

[Marrissa]

Some good reading from one of my very knowledgable friends:
http://rat-breeder-confessions.blogs...ch?q=megacolon

[artgecko]

I believe MC is recessive, so if any of the pups had MC, I think it has to be carried on both parents' sides... So your doe may be a carrier too.

[chilliscale]

From personal experience, I was uneducated on what megacolon was until I ended up with a rack full of mega colon animals with little to no healthy animals being produced. I recently went through a several month period before I figured out what was happening. If you have mega colon in your feeder colony, best to nip it in the bud now and stop breeding and start fresh.