rat with tumors

[phatty]

over the last few weeks i have noticed a few of me rats are growing tumors i am led to believe that it is a common thing
should i start a new colony and feed off what i have left off.
any advice would be great

 

[RSPcrazy]

I found tumors were appearing in my rats (when I bred them), when to much inbreeding took place. You need to kill off your breeders and get some new lines.

 

[ingie]

They don't get tumors because they are inbred (meaning that inbreeding just any old rats won't result in tumors if it isn't something the lineage already suffer from or have lurking recessively), you have just obviously got some not so good genes going on there in your particular rats, so inbreeding just shows it up more. You could select away from tumors in the rats you have, or just source some new ones and start again. Don't be afraid to inbreed the new ones though, as that is the way you can select towards non bitey rats, and rats that have good sized litters and are good mums etc.

 

[phatty]

thanks just what i was thinking

 

[JM1982]

How old are your rats? I would also agree that it could be due to inbreeding or you've somehow selected your breeding stock which are prone to carrying a tumor gene. I would start your colony again with fresh breeders & then refresh your breeders with younger ones every 6-8mths. Apologies if you're already doing this!

 

[phatty]

They don't get tumors because they are inbred (meaning that inbreeding just any old rats won't result in tumors if it isn't something the lineage already suffer from or have lurking recessively), you have just obviously got some not so good genes going on there in your particular rats, so inbreeding just shows it up more. You could select away from tumors in the rats you have, or just source some new ones and start again. Don't be afraid to inbreed the new ones though, as that is the way you can select towards non bitey rats, and rats that have good sized litters and are good mums etc.

so your saying breed only the ones without tumors and that will eventually get rid off the problem my rats already dont bite and have decent litters

 

[ingie]

Yes that is correct. I am unsure how many generations it will take, but I know another person who has done this. I have also had tumours in a particular lineage of rats, and have managed to breed rats that have not developed any for the past year, after just culling the ones with them, and all their babies.

 

[ingie]

Again I will state that inbreeding itself does nothing to harm your rats, the only harm comes when they are carrying recessive nasties, in which case it is a great tool to expose them and breed them out through selecting the individuals without the undesired traits, at each generation.

Labs inbreed particular lineages for more than 16-20 generations before they deem them a reliable and predictable "line" that is useful for experiments. Along the way they select for whatever traits they need for the experiments, and away from traits that they don't need. We can do the same with our rats, and select for and against any genetic traits, including hereditary tumours, litter size, agression, life span, susceptibility to respiratory infections, etc.