Pics of my new colony

[OFRD_GRL]

Male:


Females & Babies:

[SatanicIntention]

Male looks pretty sickly. See all the porph on his face and sides? He's not too happy right now.

They're going to need alot better airflow than those tall tubs can provide, especially with three huge females + babies in one small tub.

Get shorter tubs or replace the sides of the tubs with mesh.

I also wouldn't breed the one female on top of the other female on the right. She's high white and therefore can carry the risk of megacolon. If any of the babies have blazes(white on their heads), then I wouldn't breed them either. Megacolon is not something you want in your colony(and we pet rat breeders have been trying to get rid of it for decades, but feeder breeders just keep on using the high white rats).

[OFRD_GRL]

porph??

He seemed fine (happy) to me.. well until I took him out of the female tub...
but I have no idea what porph is.. or what a happy rat looks like LOL.

[OFRD_GRL]

Alright, looked it up:

To the rat enthusiast, one porphyrin is of particular interest: the one that is secreted by the Harderian gland and appears around the rat's eyes. This red substance looks like red tears or blood, and can be startling to those who are unfamiliar with rats. Occasional low levels of porphyrin staining are normal, but regular large amounts of porphyrin indicate stress, sickness, or poor diet.



I know he was getting a good diet...Stress..... not sure... sickness... doesn't seem to be ill, no sneezing.. not sure what else I would notice..

[OFRD_GRL]

The high white female.. what exactly is it that causes her to be high white? I tried looking it up but there were just descriptions online (no pictures) and that didn't help me much.

She is currently pregnant and should be birthing soon from what I gather.... What would I look for in the babies?

[rebeccabecca]

Mine get it from the shavings/corn cobb bedding. I use pine right now as that was all I could afford but normally I use aspin. Only a few of my females do it mainly the older crew( +2 years).

[OFRD_GRL]

He was in, and is in pine bedding..... (as you can see LOL)
All these rats are under a year.

[littleindiangirl]

The staining is indicative of illness or stress. A new environment could do it, allergies could do it, stress can do it.

The stain does take a little while to be cleaned off, so chances are he was sick/"in a stressful environment", and is doing better now. I suggest cleaning him with a wet rag and a little bit of soap. Monitor to see if he gets it again around his nose, eyes (he has a spot under his eyes now), sides, forearms.

If you want to know what a high white marking is, you can visit the AFRMA website gallery, in conjunction with the names or descriptions of the high white markings, and you will be able to see what they are exactly.

Your girl is a capped husky if I remember right.

[OFRD_GRL]

Thanks!

I will have to see what she pops out whenever she births and make sure all is well.
If she had megacolon, would every litter show it?
(Basically if she has this litter and tehy are all fine, does it mean she is fine to continue breeding?)

[littleindiangirl]

Megacolon is not that easy to predict or breed out. Neither does it show up at weaning, with some cases appearing 6-8 months down the road. If it was, don't you think it would be a non-issue?

That's why it is heavily advised to stay away from high white rats, because a rat can carry it and not be affected. However, it does not only affect high white rats, but most often megacolon is found in rats that also have high white spotting or lethal spotting.

If you would like to read more on megacolon, refer to ratbehavior.org or AFRMA.org.