Lack of available "feeder" rats at pet stores? Labs buying up?

OK, maybe this is nothing. But the availability of feeder rats, the kind you feed to pet snakes, etc., have become impossible to get lately. The pet stores, which always have had plenty of rats in the past, are saying they are not getting their supplies like usual. Now my first thought was why the heck not as those things are little breeding machines, there is no way there is a supply shortage. Then, my second thought was, great, is there some kind of virus or bird flu thing that is not being talked about, that all the rats are being diverted to local area labs.

Again, maybe nothing, but I'm throwing it out there to the ATS community to see if other areas are experiencing the same situation. I'm in the CA Bay Area, a stones throw from UC Berkeley fyi.

I buy mine frozen from Rodentpro.com by the hundreds. The local pet stores here in Nebraska still have lots of live feeders available.
Breeding mice and rats is a dirty business. Some pet stores don't want the liability of mass producing feeders.

Scientists don't use ordinary rats in experiments. Laboratory rats are a very special breed.

You can read more about them here and here.

On a related note, my local supplier is out of charcoal briquettes. Does this mean there's going to be a poison gas attack soon?

Nah,
my pet python was just really, really hungry..