Lab Rats Strange Behavior

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M

melon_mayhem

Well-Known Member
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May 11, 2009
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Topeka, Kansas
This is an article that i found interesting on another rat website

Lab rats turn cannibal in cleaner cages

23 May 2008
From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.

As the old adage has it, cleanliness is next to godliness, but it also has sinister consequences for lab rats: they are much more likely to cannibalise their young if their cages are frequently cleaned.

Charlotte Burn at the University of Oxford and Georgia Mason at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, found that nearly twice as many pups were eaten in cages cleaned twice a week as in those cleaned fortnightly (Applied Animal Behaviour Science, DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2008.02.005). Cannibalism was most likely if the cages were cleaned soon after the pups were born.

Burn notes that cannibalism in rodents is not unusual; mothers sometimes eat unhealthy young to conserve energy for raising healthy ones. But while this might be normal behaviour, it could be disruptive in a research context

The findings suggest that cleaning their cages disrupts the rats' ability to recognise their kin, according to Volker Rudolf at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Burn says that scent is the key to rats being able to recognise their pups. She suggests minimising the handling of very young pups to avoid interfering with the scents that bond their parents to them.

It is also important, she says, to avoid introducing foreign scents into the rats' cages. For example, lab technicians should avoid handling several rats one after another.

Finally, Burn advises, cleaning the rats' cages should not "stress the parents with loud noises or physical disturbance".

From issue 2657 of New Scientist magazine, 23 May 2008, page 18
Click to expand...

Do you think that this situation would apply to any rats?
 
It's an interesting theory, that's for sure.

I can see where they're coming from - introducing new smells, such as cage cleaner, or removing the "familiar" smells that a mother rat knows, could cause them to think more babies are unhealthy. However, I have no experience. I've never bred rats, or even mammals. The only thing I've ever bred is crested geckos, and they have no involvement from the mother whatsoever.

Based on their findings, I'd say it would happen to any and all rats.
 
jorats said:
I wonder if the fact that they live in shoe boxes might have anything to do with it. :roll:
Click to expand...

Very true
I guess this article sparked my intrest because i know that sometimes mommy rats will eat their babies and i wanted to know if there was any certain reason of if it just happens randomly
 
In pet rats, it is not common for a mom to eat her young, even in some very stressful conditions, they are good mothers.
But when a mom does... we can only assume it's due to a young not striving.
 
In one sense I agree with Jorats. The results of this study would be skewed because lab rats live in such tiny and unfriendly containers. :(

On the other hand I've seen many postings over the years where rat owners seem to be obsessed with cleaning cages half to death on practically a daily basis. It bothers me when I see this because I know that rats like to surround themselves in familiar scents and I think constant cleaning and disinfecting is just as stressful to them as a too small cage. To a rat I think it's like being tossed into a strange place every day. They never get familiar or comfortable with their surroundings. To a mother rat, that would be a very unhappy home & it wouldn't surprise me to see her destroy her young, no matter how big or decorated the cage is.
 
I agree mumsy... one shouldn't even touch the cage for a bit of time when a new litter is in there. Or at least leave something familiar.
 
Most rat owners will not disturb a mom the day babies are born, although they may have a brief look to count babies and check for milk bellies.

Rat owners do clean the cage but do not generally clean/replace the nest very often, only when necessary. They also don't use the types of cleaners that would be used in a lab environment. Of course once babies are 14 days old and eyes are open, this wouldn't make a difference.

Plus pet rats are hopefully in a home where they feel safe and loved as opposed to lab rats and their environment.
 
That's amazing that the mama rats were better off in a cage that got cleaned only once in two weeks. Those cages are pretty tiny (unless the cages in this study were different than the standard ones), and they would surely get pretty rank in two weeks.... On the other hand, it's a safe bet that the lab rats didn't have fleece in their cages.
 

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