Scott's MD-PhD Adventure

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Bunny Burritos

Basic handling of mice, rats, rabbits

Description of a hepa-filter cage:
I refer to this type of cage as a petri dish. I think most people who work in a lab know what that is, so I use this analogy and like to see a lightbulb go off in the person's head.

Determining the sex of a mouse:
Here's a secret they don't tell you - if you see nipples, it's a female!

A question from a student:
"What's taurine?"
"It's an amino acid"

Describing rats:
Rats don't have tonsils, which is one of the reasons they don't vomit.
Rats recognize voice, odor and touch of specific humans, so they do get to know you.

Restraining rats:
To put the rat in the restraining bag, just hold it by the base of the tail, swing it back and forth until it gets in the bag. You have about a minute before it breaks through.

On rabbits:
Rabbit veins are delicate - they tear easily!
Rabbits require a grass type hay, not an alfalfa type hay. That has too much calcium.
Rabbits - we have these restraints. Either towels or lab coats. We call them bunny burritos.

New word of the day:
Mice and rats are coprophagic - so they eat their feces.
Rabbits are also coprophagic, and they like to eat their vitamin rich feces ("night feces")

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