 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / September 2003Blue Rats
Does anyone know anything about the strain of Blue Rats which are prone to a type of Haemophillia? I'm not sure if it's true haemophillia, but these rats have a tendency to bleed to death from otherwise minor wounds, along with respiratory illness and sudden unexplainable death, suspected due to internal bleeding. In Sydney, I have heard that most blues are derived from the same bloodline. I live in Victoria, Australia, and have been discouraged from keeping Blues due to the 'cruelty' of keeping them, yet I have spoken to two breeders who have never experienced a problem. Please note, I am not starting a politics or ethics thread here. I only want FACTUAL information, if possible including pedigree information, dates, places of purchase, temperament of individual rats, lifespan or date/time of death, Sometime in the distant future I would like to breed blues, but only once I know what is causing these problems. Any contact information for Australian breeders of blues would be much appreciated. I'm hoping to compile a concise source of information based on factual, not anecdotal evidence. -Dale > Does anyone know anything about the strain of Blue Rats which are prone to a > type of Haemophillia? [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > > -Dale Several years ago there were many warnings about breeding American blue rexes to blue rexes, or Australian blue normals to blue normals. Offspring were said to suffer blindness, bald patches, early death from respiratory illness, & internal bleeding deaths. Not all regions seem to report all the same problems, & blues with Australian pedigrees seem to be worse off than in America, & American blues worse off than UK blues. In the US it was supposed to be safe to breed them to anything except another blue, but Aussies reported inheritance of problems even with crosses with other colors & contaminating the health of other colored rats. Problems afflict females worse than males. And it hasn't been discussed in the major rat journals in some while. Here is a website on Blue Rat Syndrome: http://lists.ausrfs.org.au/pipermail/ausrats/2003-August/008458.html There have been some recent scientific studies on Blue Rat cells that show them to be susceptible to leukemia, but only in some strains; I haven't read these studies & don't know if the strains are in the pet trade or restricted to lab strains for studying mutagens, but chances are these special strains of disease-prone rats did get out into the pet trade at some point & so effected pet trade blues. In American & England, not only blue rexes but also pearl, pearl-merle or beige, and hairless have had troubles, though most cases have been blamed on generally mismanaged breeding without sufficient genetic knowledge (which is critical to safely preserve especially the blue), & even then the majority of animals are only slightly shroter lived or more disease prone -- whereas in Australia problems are reportedly more pervasive for blues which are nearly guaranteed to die young of something fairly bad, including bleeding problems, though far more from severe early onset respiratory disease. Here's about the Blue Rat Support Group, which MIGHT have further specifics if you contact them directly: http://www.rmca.org/Articles/blue.htm -paghat  Signature"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher. "Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature. -from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers" See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/ Thankyou Paghat, I've noticed that here, In Victoria, there was a lady breeding blues, so far as i know with no troubles, then I learned of two other breeders who had no problems, yet in the same city, reports of rats bleeding out from cage injuries were reported. > > Does anyone know anything about the strain of Blue Rats which are prone to a > > type of Haemophillia? [quoted text clipped - 63 lines] > -from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers" > See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/ |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2009 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.