Colony Collapse - Food Tainted

[Freakie_frog]

I have place a call to the Purina home office and they are going to run some tests and get back to me before weeks end.

They said that soybean meal is one of the LabDiet 5012 and Murari 6f ingredients and Korea is one of their suppliers.

So things do not look good

[ivylea77]

I'd love to have some updates as this thread progresses. I too feed lab blocks,a different variety; however, I just bought a 50lb bag of the Mazuri 6F. I have yet to introduce it to them as I have been using this other generic brand. I just found out our local feed store carried the Mazuri so I bought a bag. Now, I'm not sure if it's a good idea to feed it to them. I wonder if any ratteries that use Mazuri are finding similar problems.

[littleindiangirl]

I too, have just shot off an email. I know we are all in different parts of the country. I will post when they contact me.

[Brimstone111888]

Wow, that is a huge loss and setback. I'm very sorry for all that happened.

How did the formaldehyde get into the soybeans? I'm no soybean expert, but isn't formaldehyde use to preserve dead things? I hope they weren't using it as a cheap preservative.

Its terrible since this is one of the things you can't plan for. My 1 female rat just dropped 11 babies, not sure who the father is so we will see. If you need any help with females I will gladly help out.

[lord jackel]

This Sucks guys...I am sorry for everyone. My blend is based on the 5013 but tweaked slightly. So though PMI was helpful in testing and such they have already hinted that since I don't use one of their commercial diets they really can't help me or confirm that the issue came from them...one of those once it is out of our control and Q.C. we don't know what happens to it type responses. Hopefully those of you that use "off the shelf" blends will get more concrete answers.

I would suggest that anyone feeding these diets either stop or closely watch their rats for any unexplained deaths till we get some confirmation either way.

[Freakie_frog]

I would suggest that anyone feeding these diets either stop or closely watch their rats for any unexplained deaths till we get some confirmation either way.

I couldn't agree more..

[lord jackel]

Any help would be hot.

Ed...I feel for you and I don't really have any concrete ideas. What I can tell you is that according to my vet small amounts of Formaldehyde won't hurt them so it has to build up. If you caught it soon enough and change out their food (lots of fresh water, etc.) I would think that they would pass the rest and be OK...but I am not an expert just conjecture on what I was told.

Good Luck

[littleindiangirl]

Also, if anyone gets a chance, I know it's a long shot, but if you find the poison info on formalyhyde and post it... maybe catch some of the symptoms.

Apparently, Purina has had this problem before, I just read a thread on a pig farmer that lost some of his stock when he switched to a different feed by purina.

http://roots.blogs.com/grayrosecavie...ed_dying_.html

[Freakie_frog]

Ed...I feel for you and I don't really have any concrete ideas. What I can tell you is that according to my vet small amounts of Formaldehyde won't hurt them so it has to build up. If you caught it soon enough and change out their food (lots of fresh water, etc.) I would think that they would pass the rest and be OK...but I am not an expert just conjecture on what I was told.

Good Luck

Well I have been feeding this shipment for over a week or so so I wounder if thats enough time.

thanks for the info sean.

[littleindiangirl]

Just for others using some other brand of feed, here is a pretty comprehensive list of ingredients of rat feeds.

http://www.rattie-express.com/Food_I...ts.htm#Sunseed