Should I just give up?

[WingedWolfPsion]

My rats are mutts that I bought from pet stores--some from a store that breeds feeder rats, and some from PetCo or Petsmart.

I keep them in Freedom Breeder racks.
They were on lab block, but I have switched them to Doggie Bag brand dog food. I noticed no decline in productivity or survivability since switching (over 6 months now).
I tried adding in some cattle range cube for balance, but the rodents don't appear to like it as well, and they appeared to lose some condition on it, so I'm going to quit using it.

I have rexes, double-rexes, beige, hooded and solid in a variety of colors, color-point (love these), dumbos, and a bunch of other random stuff I don't know the name of. I hold back the rats that appear healthy and look cool. I have found albinos aren't my favorites for temperament or productivity. Beyond that, everyone's doing great.

I would say, if you're having bad luck with breeding rats, and your temps, your bedding, and the feed are all pretty much the same as what others are using...
You got bad foundation stock. Feed them off, and get new ones from somewhere else.

[suzuki4life]

jay, if you have mites, you've got to seriously consider stopping breeding and starting over from scratch.

And yes, the blues most people refer to as being weak or ill lines are the english blues. Russian blues seem to have no problems, at least from the lines i have been working with.




And no, it's not just a color, there is more to the colors in rodents and mammals than just a paint job. Take a look at high white animals, horses, dogs, cats. Often they are deaf (along with more serious diseases), this is due to several factors, one that contributes highly to delay in the migration of the cells that create pigment to the entire body.

Secondly, blame the rodent fancy/pet trade for the english blue problems. Eng. Blues were severely inbred to the point where hemorrhaging and other fatal diseases were rampant. We can still see much of this today, luckily, the eng blue gene is recessive, and can be worked away from by careful out breeding. I personally have only seen trouble with the english blue color. Russian blues, not a problem! (and yes, they are very different colors, created by two very different genes)

claiming that color has no other effect than to change the fur color is not correct. I'll step off my soap box now.

[Jay_Bunny]

So anyone have any idea about the flea spray and CO2ing them?

[snakesRkewl]

If your going to feed them, when you co2 them the mites will die.
I don't see why the need for flea treatment anything before co2'ing them.

[Jay_Bunny]

I treated them already. I was planning on keeping them but now that I've decided to CO2 them, I need to figure out how to safely use them as feeders. They were treated about a week ago with a small dab of the flea spray on the backs of their necks.

[suzuki4life]

So anyone have any idea about the flea spray and CO2ing them?

CO2 does not kill a mite. If just removing the oxygen would kill a mite, you could just drown them.(which doesn't kill them btw)


I use the "RID" method. So I can't comment on how long for the neck dabbing stuff. I have no clue on how toxic it is or how long it lasts. But from my uneducated opinion on it and how it works. It is highly concentrated and apparently highly toxic to work so well. I would be super cautious with it.

[Jay_Bunny]

I suppose I could just CO2 them and just not sell them as feeders.