# Zucker rats.



## vanti123 (Dec 10, 2012)

Just curious here but Zucker rats are the rats that get really fat due to diabetes. Now I'm assuming this would be a recessive gene so does anybody ever accidentally get a Zucker rat from a breeder? 


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

They are a special type/strain (think of it like a breed) of rat bred only for research, so I Don't think anyone has ever gotten them for a pet since I think the labs that have them will not sell them to anyone other then other labs, and surely wouldn't used them for breeding due to having the genetics for obesity and other issues.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Sadly they were a spontaneous mutation, and have been known to show up in breeder lines.


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## Soarel (Jan 1, 2013)

Zuckers are such _​pufferinos!

_Why would anyone refuse such a cutie?


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## Three B's Mom (Apr 18, 2012)

I have never heard of this until today. My girl Blue is quite obese and has been basically since she started growing. My three are fed a quality diet and no matter what I have tried with Blue I can't seem to get her to lose weight. No matter what exercise or what healthy foods I feed them, she just doesn't lose weight. My other two are a normal healthy weight, I've had them all since they were weened babies. Now I'm wondering if Blue may have something like this. It would make sense that it's genetic because I can't figure out why she won't lose weight. Definitely interesting to me, she looks just like the images I saw of the Zucker rat.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Zuckers make me immensely sad. They don't have any sense of being full (which makes us or rats stop eating), they always feellike they are starving so you have to limit their food, but then they always feel hungry, could you imagine feeling that way??


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## windyhill (Apr 19, 2008)

Zuckers came from the lab, its unlikely to accidentally get one. (They do exist outside the lab, but they had to be ordered,etc)


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

windyhill said:


> Zuckers came from the lab, its unlikely to accidentally get one. (They do exist outside the lab, but they had to be ordered,etc)


I know a breeder who had them show up in her lines a long time ago, I believe she has stopped breeding now.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

http://www.rmca.org/Articles/diabetestype2.htm

IMPORTANT UPDATE from the author (10/9/03) Since that article was written, there have been at least two (2) reported and verified cases, to me, of Zucker rats being born to normal sized, normal weight rats. Although in the article I spoke of heterozygous rats being "very large but lean rats," THIS IS NOT ALWAYS GOING TO BE THE CASE anymore! There are now verified cases of diabetic rats coming from apparently "normal" rats (here within the U.S.). Not all rats carrying the genes for Zucker (heterozygous for the trait) will be large and/or lean. As was explained to me by the head geneticist at Harlan Teklad: "Fatty Zucker- These rats will be obviously obese, and both chromosomes carry the mutation. This animal will be diabetic, but depending on age can be sub-divided into obese, mildly diabetic (blood glucose <11 mM) and obese severely diabetic (blood glucose >20 mM) groups. The origins of you rat will determine which type of model you will have. For example, Harlan carries the obese, non-diabetic model, and Charles River carries the obese severely diabetic model. If your rats have been bred for many generations without selecting for any of these phenotypes, then most likely will will see a mix of all three" (emphasis added).

Cass is right; I was talking about Zucker rats. There was someone on rfc that had a Zucker rat. There was also more info on Rfc about breeding rats that carry the Zucker gene and such. Apparently there was a rattery that found out that some of the rats carried the Zucker gene and then they had to discontinue breeding the rats. I don't know if they were breeding homozygous ones, or whatnot.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

More

http://www.goosemoose.com/rfc/index.php?topic=17000.0

http://www.dazzlemerats.com/new/owen.html


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## iHayleyNorris (Jul 28, 2012)

They're really cute. Too bad it's not a healthy thing. Lol. I love big squishy rats.


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