Like mice, rats are commonly used as models of FASD. One of the more obvious advantages of rats is their larger size, which makes handing and sampling procedures easier. Rat models also offer an advantage over mouse models because more sophisticated behaviors, including tests of learning and memory and executive function (see Behavioral Manipulations) can be examined more easily in rats, whereas mice have a more limited behavioral repertoire. Like mice, rats have a short lifespan, a gestational period that is analogous to the first two trimesters of human gestation, and neither species requires very sophisticated housing facilities normally (see Developmental Timing of Ethanol Exposure).
