# rats and copulation...



## metame (Sep 25, 2009)

read this in my ohilosophy notes and wanted to share cause i thought it was really interesting and wanted to share but dont think anyone i know would be interested  and i apologise if people already knew.

the spinal cord nuclei of male rats are different from those of female rats. This allows the male to use his penis during copulation. These neural differences are due to differences in gene expression caused by male pups producing a chemical that elicits maternal licking. This means that the rats ability to copulate depends entirely up to the mothers licking the male pups after birth!

how cool is that?!


(watch someone come and tell me its not true and that the philosophers are lying to me again just as i thought it was really cool!)


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## Pug_D (Feb 21, 2010)

metame said:


> read this in my ohilosophy notes and wanted to share cause i thought it was really interesting and wanted to share but dont think anyone i know would be interested  and i apologise if people already knew.
> 
> the spinal cord nuclei of male rats are different from those of female rats. This allows the male to use his penis during copulation. These neural differences are due to differences in gene expression caused by male pups producing a chemical that elicits maternal licking. This means that the rats ability to copulate depends entirely up to the mothers licking the male pups after birth!
> 
> ...


I had to read it through about 4 times but wow, that is (weird?!) cool!


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## jellybean01 (Feb 19, 2010)

That is bizarre...but yes, very cool...so if the mother doesn't lick them, they can't copulate? Poor ratties!!!


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## metame (Sep 25, 2009)

jellybean01 said:


> That is bizarre...but yes, very cool...so if the mother doesn't lick them, they can't copulate? Poor ratties!!!


yeah!

but then you have to wonder if there would be a problem with the ale pup not producing the chemical. Or if it produces a slightly _different_ chemical so the mother wouldn't _know_ to lick them

it's really complicated and awesome!

you can just imagine it though cant you... male rat meets female rat... everything goes nicely and then... 'oh im sorry dear, my mother never licked me at birth...'

:lol:


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## ....zoe.... (Jul 8, 2009)

metame said:


> yeah!
> 
> but then you have to wonder if there would be a problem with the ale pup not producing the chemical. Or if it produces a slightly _different_ chemical so the mother wouldn't _know_ to lick them
> 
> ...


haha that made me laugh, really interesting though, will have to mention it to my tutors in college when i go back (im studying a diploma in animal care) thanks for the info :thumbup:


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## owieprone (Nov 6, 2008)

pretty interesting.

metame, i would be surprised if one that didn't have the ?pheromone? to induce maternal licking wouldn't be licked anyway due to the fact that most animal mothers would be induced by any other babies to do this and also it would be an instinct to do this. As i am assuming you mean lick the babies bits, it would be instinctive for the mother to do this to induce the baby to pee, without this particular licking babies can have related bladder problems.

if you mean general licking, again without the chemical i would again assume it would be an instinctive approach to cleanliness that most 'prey' mothers have. Also licking not only stimulates peeing and apparently rattie hayrolls, it also stimulates breathing, the skin (sebaceous glands), blood vessels and other such functions upon birth. 

we, as far as i know, don't produce a pheromone to induce doctors to slap us on the arse upon birth to make us cry to induce breathing etc so don't see why other animals would need it  lmao


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