Sunday Pup-day

One of everyone’s (every mole-ratter’s) favorite days of the week is Sunday. This is because every Sunday morning in the mole rat lab is pup check day. This involves taking out all the pups (animals less than 3 months), to check their weights and redo their dye marks. Much like any other baby animal, baby mole rats are simply adorable. They also aren’t big enough to really bite yet, which is a huge plus.

WILL INSERT CUTE PUP PICTURES SOON

Colony by colony, the pups are removed and kept under a heat lamp during the procedures. Their weight helps tell us that they are growing properly and helps us predict which pups may not make it to adulthood. If necessary, we can provide saline solution to dehydrated pups and provide extra care. It is also important morphometric data to help understand more about how mole rats grow and what may affect growth rate.

To keep track of individuals, almost all the mole rats receive dye on their white head patches. The dyes are a random mix of hair dyes from different countries, including some manic panic. However, since the pups are groomed frequently, we use food coloring for the first few months of their life. This dye does not last as long, but we also have pictures of each individual’s head patch so we can identify them by the shape if necessary.

The pups are by far the easiest to dye, since they hardly move and they aren’t trying to bite the paint brush. We also only use one color per pup since their easily identified, compared to adults whom we occasionally have to do dye combinations on if there are more than five or so in a colony.

There is also an experiment designed by one of the researchers that is often carried out on the pups during pup check day. All the pups are taken from the nest, then put in one of the dead ends closest to the nest. A short focal observation is done to follow how long it takes for the adults to move the pups back into the nest, and which adults take part in the care. Sometimes the adults move them around but not back to the nest, and some even ignore the pups completely.

Usually the queen plays the biggest role in correctly moving the pups to the right location. The other challenge for them is that the pups are quite mobile from a very early age, and they will sometimes make it back out of the nest. The focal observation doesn’t end until all the pups are back in the nest for at least five minutes. This information is useful for identifying what roles the different adults play in pup care and how involved they are with the pups. It’s also quite fun to watch, and never takes longer than thirty minutes.

A queen being checked post-birth.