Video Gallery

SCIENCE ALIVE! - Rodent Roundup

Go to Video Gallery Added Oct 08, 2020 •

Copy this URL:
Embed code:	<iframe class="edlio-embed-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="360" src="//www.esc20.net/apps/embed/?v=295182" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Change dimensions

Go HD

Observing physical feature development in different juvenile stages varying from birth to being weaned. How to set a simple habitat for a pet

Show Transcript

Good morning and welcome to Living science, Zoom - SCIENCE ALIVE! and this is our second session and I am Charlotte Tondre and this is Mercedes Marin. We are here to introduce our second video. Just wanted to follow up, there are some upcoming videos; In October we have "Fuzzy Friends" which is about tarantulas. On October 20th, "Grow seed, grow!" which includes our grow kits, and seeds and plants. November 12th, "Talk Turkey" which is a TWA trunk. It has different materials that talks about the wild turkey. December 10th is "Adaptable Me" it's a TWA trunk also on adaptations. So, we hope that you tune in. We are recording this program today and we had done one two weeks ago, they will be available on the Living Science home page under ESC20 website at Living Science and there's a red box on the side of the screen that will mention video library and then today's session is "Rodent Roundup". We're going to be observing the physical features of various kinds of different juvenile stages. Rodents that were just born to rodents that are ready to be weaned. Let's get started! MERCEDES: So over here, we have some newborns that were just born five days ago. These are what we called "pinkies" because well, they're pink! You can see that they have little tiny nubs on the sides of their heads, which are supposed to be their ears developing, so they don't really have ears yet, they just have little tiny nubs. Their eyes are completely shut. You can see their eyeballs through their skin. CHARLOTTE: what is that black dot on their belly? MERCEDES: that black dot on their belly, is called the umbilicus, I believe and that's where they were attached to their mother. That would technically be their belly button. RECORDER: everytime I'm trying to get in dad wants to get in the way-- --that little dot right there. MERCEDES: and you can see that they have whiskers, but you can barely notice them. They do have little tiny claws and paws. Barely any fur, at all. RECORDER: and how long do they stay in with the mom and dad? MERCEDES: so they stay in with the mom and dad for about 4 to 5 weeks until they're weaned. That's about a month and a few days. CHARLOTTE: what's the best way to handle the newborns? MERCEDES: the best way to handle them is to wear gloves. We do that so we don't rub our scent off onto the newborns, otherwise the mother will not recognize it as her own and then she would eventually reject the newborn and not care for it. CHARLOTTE: so don't pick up newborns unless you have gloves on. MERCEDES: It's always best to wear gloves anytime you're working with any kind of animal. CHARLOTTE: and if you do, handle it with your bare hands, make sure you wash your hands afterwards because-- even washing your hands before handling-- if you have anything on your hands they may take it as food and they may bite you, but they're not known to bit. They could be hungry so they may bite you. So they best thing to do is wash your hands before, wear gloves and then wash your hands afterwards. MERCEDES: so these are the pinkies! In this next tub over here we have what we call crawlers or fuzzies We call crawlers because this is the stage where they begin to start wandering away from where they were nested. They don't really walk, they kind of just crawl around on the stomachs. This is the stage where they also begin-- you see they have a lot of fur develop right now. They're very fuzzy and cute. You can see their ears. They're a lot more developed than the pinky stage, they're a lot more open now. They're still kind of folded back, not completely open yet like an adult. A couple days after this state is when they will start opening their eyes, they're still closed right now. So right now we are looking at the fuzzy stage of the juvenile gerbil right now. We call them fuzzies because well, they're very fuzzy! This is when they have developed their fur they're also called crawlers because this is also the stage when they begin to start crawling away from their nest and learn how to walk properly. CHARLOTTE: looks like their eyes are still closed. MERCEDES: their eyes are still closed at this stage, but about week or two after this stage they will begin to open their eyes and their ears are still folded, they're not fully opened yet, but they are more developed than they are in the pinky stage. CHARLOTTE: he's sucking my thumb! MERCEDES: it's trying to feed right now! Over here, we have some hoppers! Usually they are very active right now. CHARLOTTE: they're eating. MERCEDES: these guys are about 19 days old. In about a week or two is when they would be weaned or separated from their mother. Their eyes are completely open. Their ears are a lot open too. I guess he's still kind of sleepy. When they're fully awake their ears are completely open just like their mother and their father's. They do like to hop around. They're very active. CHARLOTTE: I usually called this stage, the teenagers because they are so busy and ready to go as most teenagers are and once they reach 28 days then they can be separated from their parents. So in about another week and a half they'll be ready to sit out on their own. MERCEDES: do these rodents chew? CHARLOTTE: yes, they do chew. MERCEDES: and why is that? CHARLOTTE: they need something to chew on because their teeth grow and it keeps their teeth shorten so that they can keep them in their mouth and they're uncomfortable is they're too long. What do we give them for chewing and for treats So for chewing purposes, you can always go to the pet store and buy, I guess gnawing logs or any type of wooden fixture that you can give the rodent to gnaw on to shave down their teeth. For treats, you can give them fresh fruits or veggies. Examples are like carrots, apples, berries, sunflower seeds and even pumpkin seeds. Don't recommend to feed that all the time, it's just a little treat. Right now we're feeding them just normal rodent chow. We give that to all our rodents here. CHARLOTTE: and because they chew on anything and everything, you have to be careful what you give them because they'll chew it down. Paper, they'll chew up to sheds, which is not bad for them, but plastics, be careful with some of the plastics because they can chew them, the can choke on them if they get a chunk stuck in their throat. So plastic is not good for them to chew on. Wood, paper is not bad, but some people, I've seen where they put a toilet paper roll in there so they can Crawl through it and they chew on it, but you need to clean their habitats out when they get too much shredding in there because they urinate on it and it'll start smell. Their cages should be cleaned-- gerbils are actually cleaner, they are the most cleanest of all the rodents. You can get away with cleaning their cage maybe once a week as long as there's not many in there. This is a good size. We clean ours once a week. Hamsters are probably the messiest. They smell.. so cleaning them two to three times a week is probably your best bet.. and we have some hamsters. MERCEDES: I guess mama is hiding them right now. CHARLOTTE: for classroom pets, I think these are ones that people are most familiar with. Hamsters don't have tails like most rodents. Gerbils have tails and of course we know rats and mice have tails. This is what we call a "teddy bear" hamster, right here, it has to do with the long hair. These are hamster pinkies. These are 18 days old. MERCEDES: you can see similarities; the eyes are still shut, ears are still folded. These guys are about a month and a few days old. So ready to be weaned. CHARLOTTE: yeah, they're ready to leave mom and dad and they do talk! They fight with one another, just like you do, you fight with your brothers and sisters, but they play more than anything. You can go in and you can catch them when they're bundled together. They play, they romp around. You can contact us at (210) 370-5688 or you can email us at livingscience@esc20.net and we look forward to seeing your order.

Video Gallery

SCIENCE ALIVE! - Rodent Roundup

Popular Videos