# pet lab rat



## violetana (Aug 5, 2010)

I recently adopted a pet lab rat (the researcher grew attached to her and wanted her to have a good home). Before me she was in his office, in a small cage, alone.
Now she has a much larger cage, a good diet, and is starting to enjoy my company (although she still is shy for the most part). It was great to see her climbing for the first time! I've had her for less than a week.
I think she's about 6-8 months old (but this is very much a guess).
I want to get her a companion but I'm worried b/c
1. she's used to being alone
2. lab rats are not exposed to diseases like normal pet rats. I'm not sure if this is a valid issue, but I don't want her to get sick.

I appreciate any advice!


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## ema-leigh (Jan 24, 2010)

I would get two younger females to introduce to her, that way the new arrival also has a friend if your girl doesn't want to play. You just have to do intros and see how it goes... females tend to be easy to introduce but she may of lost some socialization skills. 

Also as long as you bring in a healthy rat, and do a 30 day quarantine... your rat won't be at any increased risk.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

ema-leigh said:


> I would get two younger females to introduce to her, that way the new arrival also has a friend if your girl doesn't want to play. You just have to do intros and see how it goes... females tend to be easy to introduce but she may of lost some socialization skills.
> 
> Also as long as you bring in a healthy rat, and do a 30 day quarantine... your rat won't be at any increased risk.


Actually it all depends on what type of experiments she was used for. The majority are just like our own pet rats, but there are much more expensive and specially bred myco-free rats that have never been exposed to myco and when they are, often can get quite ill.

Any idea what the researcher used her for?


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## ema-leigh (Jan 24, 2010)

Wouldn't these rats be exposed to myco upon leaving the lab through indirect contact anyways? Isn't it air born?


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

ema-leigh said:


> Wouldn't these rats be exposed to myco upon leaving the lab through indirect contact anyways? Isn't it air born?


no, direct contact with domestic rats is required.


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## ema-leigh (Jan 24, 2010)

I think the chances of it being one of those myco free lab rats is very low. But I guess only the researcher could tell you for sure.


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## hshelton (Feb 23, 2010)

Maybe she could adopt another lab rat from the same place?


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## brass_gears (Jun 15, 2010)

Its nice that you adopted her, I hope everything goes well! Unfortunately, I have no idea what to say advise wise


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## littlematchstick (Apr 12, 2009)

hshelton said:


> Maybe she could adopt another lab rat from the same place?


this is actually untrue...I'm confidant ALL lab rats are myco free because if they get sick it will interfere with any data collected in the testing. I had a professor (psychology) who worked in the lab and have also taken animal research classes in college, and there are very strict rules as to how rats are raised and treated in labs. They are all kept very physically healthy and are usually bred very strictly within the colonies. I was turned down to work in the lab because I have my own pet rats that could contaminate their lab.

I actually adopted a rat from the lab and I can tell you that once they are exposed to regular rats and contract the myco they CAN get very sick quickly. But if taken to a vet quickly and treated for the side effects (usually a respiratory infection) the rattie should be ok. I can also tell you that she wil will likely be VERY VERY afraid of other rats. When I first introduced her to my other girls she was terrified. She pooped and peed all over herself and just froze and wouldn't move. Because all rats are kept solitary (again to not interfere with testing). She will warm up to other rats and you but it will probably take quite a bit of time. My girl is now a year and 8 months old (I got her at 4 months). She is still a little unsure of me, but loves all of her rattie friends now!

I commend you for adopting her from the lab, most people don't care about the lab ratties (or even think about them). Just be patient with her and definatley get her some buddies, just be slow with introducing them because she probably hasn't seen a rat since she was a baby! If you have any questions you can PM me, or ask questions here!


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Those rats were likely myco-free, but since its very hard to establish a strain of myco-free rats (mom has a Cesarean under alcohol (she dies) so that her babies do not receive the myco during the birth...which is how it is transferred from mom to offspring. These rats are more expensive, but why would you pick up a myco-free rat for a behavioral testing program?

Here are the different types that Harlan offers

http://www.harlan.com/research_models_and_services


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## ema-leigh (Jan 24, 2010)

lilspaz68 said:


> Those rats were likely myco-free, but since its very hard to establish a strain of myco-free rats (mom has a Cesarean under alcohol (she dies) so that her babies do not receive the myco during the birth...which is how it is transferred from mom to offspring. These rats are more expensive, but why would you pick up a myco-free rat for a behavioral testing program?
> 
> Here are the different types that Harlan offers
> 
> http://www.harlan.com/research_models_and_services


Harlan also sells research rats?


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

ema-leigh said:


> lilspaz68 said:
> 
> 
> > Those rats were likely myco-free, but since its very hard to establish a strain of myco-free rats (mom has a Cesarean under alcohol (she dies) so that her babies do not receive the myco during the birth...which is how it is transferred from mom to offspring. These rats are more expensive, but why would you pick up a myco-free rat for a behavioral testing program?
> ...


Yes. They also never sold to the public only to the labs for their animals. They are one of the most well-known suppliers of lab rats in the US.


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## ema-leigh (Jan 24, 2010)

lilspaz68 said:


> ema-leigh said:
> 
> 
> > lilspaz68 said:
> ...


Thats strange. I don't buy from pet stores that sell live animals because I don't agree with that. Going with the same morals, I would have to boycott Harlan because I'm against using animals for research too. :-\


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

We went back and forth with it, and its a toughy but its honestly the best food out there for our kids. I have used the Mazuri 6F and its nowhere near as good. There's not a lot of options for people with more than 4 rats.


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## ema-leigh (Jan 24, 2010)

lilspaz68 said:


> We went back and forth with it, and its a toughy but its honestly the best food out there for our kids. I have used the Mazuri 6F and its nowhere near as good. There's not a lot of options for people with more than 4 rats.


I guess so, its easy to boycott pet stores because they sell junk anyway lol. I agree with the Mazuri... my rat did okay on it but didn't gleam health. I have had fantastic results with Hamsters Extrusion though, have you ever tried that?


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

ema-leigh said:


> lilspaz68 said:
> 
> 
> > We went back and forth with it, and its a toughy but its honestly the best food out there for our kids. I have used the Mazuri 6F and its nowhere near as good. There's not a lot of options for people with more than 4 rats.
> ...


I cannot buy little bags for over 40 rats LOLOL...can you imagine the cost?


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## ema-leigh (Jan 24, 2010)

I have just under 20 rats and it gets pretty pricey, although I am feeding a grain mix along side. I wonder if they would consider retailing it in a larger bag?


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## littlematchstick (Apr 12, 2009)

lilspaz68 said:


> Those rats were likely myco-free, but since its very hard to establish a strain of myco-free rats (mom has a Cesarean under alcohol (she dies) so that her babies do not receive the myco during the birth...which is how it is transferred from mom to offspring. These rats are more expensive, but why would you pick up a myco-free rat for a behavioral testing program?
> 
> Here are the different types that Harlan offers
> 
> http://www.harlan.com/research_models_and_services


thanks for giving me that link (even if it wasn't meant for me). I learned a lot actually. My college gets their rats from there and they are Long Evan's rats. My girl was used for thermoregulation testing (IE: they put her in freezing water and dropped her body temp to 93 degrees and then tested her memory skills). I never knew there were so many different *kinds* of rats ..interesting.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

ema-leigh said:


> I have just under 20 rats and it gets pretty pricey, although I am feeding a grain mix along side. I wonder if they would consider retailing it in a larger bag?


Very unlikely, as its market is for hamsters and since Syrian's are loners to start with...

They won't care about rat owners using it, although they may put out a brand for rats it would still be in small bags, because that is where the money is 

Mazuri is what? $7.00 for 4 lbs or something like that? And I can get 50 lbs for $32, and the better quality stuff.


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## lilangel (Mar 26, 2009)

i contacted living world once about the size and thy said they have bigger forget the size but anyways they said any store selling the extrusions is able to request the bigger bag if you ask your store to do so. Here we only have petsmart selling living world extrusions  and petsmart does not do customer orders. But maybe if your pet valu or any other store may you might want to ask.

Here you go i found the email that i sent and they sent back to me.

ME:
Hello i was wondering if you sell hamster extrusions in bigger sized bags 3.5lbs? Something like 30lbs and up? I run a rat rescue with about 30 rats and a 3.5lbs bag lasts two days for $13 witch gets pretty expensive. It has all the perfect ingredients for rats and hamsters and would really love to continue buying it but not such small bags.

Right now we buy mazuri breeder F6(50lbs bag for $40) but would love to go back to this food if there is bigger sizes or a way to order it.

Please get back when you can.





THEM:
Art.#60368 Living World Extrusion Hamster Food, 18.1 kg (40 lb)

We do not sell directly to the public. We have supplied a link below that will help you locate a pet retailer in your area that sells the Hagen lines of products. If a local dealer near you does not carry the items that you want in regular stock, they still should be in a position to special order it for you, as well as give you the suggested retail prices. If you do need to make a special order, we would suggest that you speak with the manager. We trust this will prove satisfactory.

Pet Retailer Locator:
http://www.hagen.com/canada/english/dealerlocator.cfm

Sincerely,

Diane Lamontagne
Consumer representative

Rolf C. Hagen inc.


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## ema-leigh (Jan 24, 2010)

Yeah I was paying $8.99 for a 3lb bag of Mazuri from Buckerfields. And now $12.99 for 3lbs of the Extrusion. 

Where do you order your Harlan from? Its the shipping that makes it expensive for me.... I pay approx $60 for 33lb bag of Harlan shipped to my parents house. Then I have to drive an hour to pick it up. 

Digitalangel, you live in Vernon right? Thats fairly close to me... do you order Harlan? If so, were do you get it from? The price above is me ordering from Flower Town, with delivery to Black Mountain, Kelowna.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

ema-leigh said:


> Yeah I was paying $8.99 for a 3lb bag of Mazuri from Buckerfields. And now $12.99 for 3lbs of the Extrusion.
> 
> Where do you order your Harlan from? Its the shipping that makes it expensive for me.... I pay approx $60 for 33lb bag of Harlan shipped to my parents house. Then I have to drive an hour to pick it up.
> 
> Digitalangel, you live in Vernon right? Thats fairly close to me... do you order Harlan? If so, were do you get it from? The price above is me ordering from Flower Town, with delivery to Black Mountain, Kelowna.


I get it from Flower Town but we pick it up since its only 40 mins drive away. $25 for 33 lbs I think?


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## ema-leigh (Jan 24, 2010)

lilspaz68 said:


> ema-leigh said:
> 
> 
> > Yeah I was paying $8.99 for a 3lb bag of Mazuri from Buckerfields. And now $12.99 for 3lbs of the Extrusion.
> ...


Wow, that works out pretty good for you! How long would one 33lb bag last you with over 40 rats? And do you feed just Harlan? I'm wondering how much to order at one time, I know I could freeze some too... 

Would it be okay if I resold any extra I couldn't use to my other ratty friends? Or are there any legalities involved? 

Does anybody know if Flower Town stock the 12% Harlan... or can order it in? I didn't see it on their website but thats the Harlan I really wanted.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

I am sure they can order it in, as they order often. 33 lbs is less than a month for 40 rats. It's my staple, but they get veggies, fruits, healthier treats, the oldies and sickies and babies get baby cereal, and Ensure etc. I usually pick up 2 bags every 6 weeks.

As for the legalities, who needs to know right?


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## ema-leigh (Jan 24, 2010)

Thanks for the info Lilspaz  I'm going to try get them to order in some 2012 for my fur babies.


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