12b Rabbits and Rodents Flashcards
Why is rodent nutrition important?
- can formulate diet to test very specific research question on knock out mice
What are the main differences between the order Lagomorpha and Rodentia?
- digestive tract
- teeth
How are teeth different between lagomorphs and rodents?
- lagomorphs have 4 incisors in upper jaw (herbivorous)
- rodentia have 2 incisors (omnivorous)
Describe the unique digestive physiology of lagomorphs
- non ruminant herbivores
- monogastric species but still dependent on fibre
- poses unique problem and unique solution
- diet cannot vary much in fibre
- during night, bacteria in cecum and colon make cecotropes (high protein cecal pellets)
- consumed by coprophagy
- rabbits can capture more N, improving efficiency
- must have high fibre, low energy diet
Describe the cecum of lagomorphs.
- circular structured
- specialized nervous physiology
- cellulolytic bacteria
Describe the role of circadian rhythm in lagomorph digestion.
- during day: regular activity of GI tract, normal tiny cecal pellets
- during night: tract motility reduced, bacteria continue to grow instead of being flushed out, pellets/cecotropes are produced (high in N, low in fibre)
How is CP increased in cecotropes and what vitamin is produced?
- microbial protein
- B12
What would happen if coprophagy was reduced?
- reduced growth, muscle development and overall health
- deficiency of essential amino acids and vitamin B12
Describe the life cycle nutrition of a rabbit
- suckling: few times a day, at weaning provide small amount of high Q forage
- growth: forage primary source of nutrients
- old age: if high fibre low energy diet cannot be supplied because of teeth, digestive physiology changes (reduced saliva slow) and digesta passage slowed
What is gastric stasis?
- hair balls
- on normal diet, hair will move along and out gut
- with grain diet, saliva flow reduced
- slowing digesta, hair balls will form
What should a grower, maintenance and lactation ration look like for a bun?
grower: 40% alfalfa meal, 45% barley, 15% SBM
- maintenance: 90% grass hay or alfalfa or alfalfa meal, 10% rabbit pellet
- lactation: 40% alfalfa meal, 40% barley, 14% SBM
What were rodents named after?
- specific eating behaviour
- important for food presentation
- rodent holds food with forepaws while lower incision teeth move back and forth against immobile upper incisor teeth
- during this, lower jaw moves forward so top and bottom teeth line up
Describe rat and mouse diet
- can thrive on rat chow and mouse chow
- occasional special treat
- low protein requirements
- overfeeding protein not a concern for kidney function
- during lactation, feed intake increase dramatically (4-5x maintenance)
- group housing occasional cannibalism
What is the AIN-93 diet?
- semi purified diet
- growth (20% CP) and maintenance (16% CP) diets?
- probably the best define diets in the world
- for research purposes
- can easily take out a bit of the purified diet and add something else
- if change an ingredient, changing many different nutrients
Guinea pig nutrition
- originated in South America as food animal
- similarities to lagomorphs: herbivores, enlarged cecum and colon
- coprophagy more important in guinea pigs than general rodent
- requires 18% protein
- green vegetation and fruit
- too little fibre does not allow formation of cecotropes
- multiple small meals per day
- require vitamin C in diet
- collagen and connective tissue synthesis good model for research
