RIP Holly

I am so sorry, Robin :hugs: She was a beautiful girl.
I had a breeder female die in-labor a few weeks ago also.. so sad. I give you my sympathies.

The only other thing I can say Robin, purely from my own experience, as you raise up your own females from birth in your colony and slowly replace the pet store bred ones, you'll see less health issues or at least that's been my experience. Back when we started breeding rats I lost a few here or there to strokes, cancers, etc. I can honestly say since we are now using more and more females that were born into our colony, we are rarely seeing any issues at all. Outbreeding for better genetics, better care of the females during pregnancy and just life long good care will give you the same results and you won't face these awful experiences much at all down the road.

Awwwww Robin! :hug: I know how much you care for ALL your animals. I can't imagine how sad you must have been. :rainon: Wish I could be there to give ya real hugs!


Although....I've got a GREAT BIG HUG on reserve for ya that I'll be sure to give ya in just a couple of days!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by frankykeno

The only other thing I can say Robin, purely from my own experience, as you raise up your own females from birth in your colony and slowly replace the pet store bred ones, you'll see less health issues or at least that's been my experience. Back when we started breeding rats I lost a few here or there to strokes, cancers, etc. I can honestly say since we are now using more and more females that were born into our colony, we are rarely seeing any issues at all. Outbreeding for better genetics, better care of the females during pregnancy and just life long good care will give you the same results and you won't face these awful experiences much at all down the road.

---

this is A+ advice for all of us who breed ratties. thanks jo! http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...ss/36_3_16.gif

Thanks Aleesha. It's not based on any "scientific" stuff, just my own observations of our colony but I remember back in the day when I was buying all pet store stock. I had one apparently perfectly healthy young female rat literally fall over dead from a stroke right in front of my eyes...it was very shocking! One minute I'm feeding my supposed healthy rats, next moment I have a dead one just laying there. That wasn't the only sudden loss either and I remember phoning Becky more than once very upset about losing a rat for no apparent reason. The only other problem I remember having was letting the rats get too fat back when we had pet rats. We've learned with the breeder/feeder colony that a well fleshed, but lean and trim rat is a much healthier animal with a far long life expectancy.

Not that breeding your own means you'll never have sudden health issues but it seems a long time now since I've seen anything other than that one genetic issue with Lightning's offspring and we've since removed him from the breeding rotation for the males.

ah that's good to know... about the weight issue... i'll remember that! i soooo appreciate your wisdom jo... thank you for taking the time to share it with all of us.