Can Rats Wear Diapers?
WouterUsing a cloth diaper for a rat isn’t a good idea. Rats like to chew on fabric, and it can compromise their GI tract. The intestines can become lacerated, causing the rat to suffer from septic shock. In addition, the smell of urine can harm a rat’s respiratory system. If you notice that the cage of a rat smells, change the litter immediately.
A test was performed to measure how much liquid can be transferred from the diaper to the skin of the animal. The test was performed using a diaper containing 4 mm of mesh nylon screen. The absorbed liquid was measured by the amount of liquid that reached the surface of the collagen sheets. This measurement was repeated several times. A normalized weight gain was also determined.
The core of a diaper contains a polymer called superabsorbent polymer (SAP). The SAP is a polymer of acrylic acid with a high molecular weight. Sodium acrylate is another compound present in urine-wet diapers, although it does not penetrate the skin as easily as acrylic acid.
PERMID is a method for targeted chemical analysis of a super absorbent gel. The results were obtained from five different diapers and five replicates. For each test, the amount of acrylic acid that can be extracted from the diaper was calculated by reverse-phase HPLC using an internal standard, acrylic acid-13C3. The results were confirmed by tandem mass spectrometry under multiple reaction monitoring conditions.
