Longitudinal measurements of dopamine (DA) uptake and turnover in transgenic rodents may be critical when developing disease-modifying therapies for Parkinson's disease (PD). We demonstrate methodology for such measurements using [18F]fluoro-3,4-dihydroxyphenyl- L-alanine ([18F]FDOPA) positron emission tomography (PET). The method was applied to 6-hydroxydopamine lesioned rats, providing the first PET-derived estimates of DA turnover for this species. Control ( n = 4) and unilaterally lesioned ( n = 11) rats were imaged multiple times. Kinetic modeling was performed using extended Patlak, incorporating a kloss term for metabolite washout, and modified Logan methods. Dopaminergic terminal loss was measured via [11C]-(+)-dihydrotetrabenazine (DTBZ) PET. Clear striatal [18F]FDOPA uptake was observed. In the lesioned striatum the effective DA turnover increased, shown by a reduced effective distribution volume ratio ( EDVR) for [18F]FDOPA. Effective distribution volume ratio correlated ( r > 0.9) with the [11C]DTBZ binding potential ( BPND). The uptake and trapping rate ( kref) decreased after lesioning, but relatively less so than [11C]DTBZ BPND. For normal controls, striatal estimates were kref = 0.037 ± 0.005 per minute, EDVR = 1.07 ± 0.22 and kloss = 0.024 ± 0.003 per minute (30 minutes turnover half-time), with repeatability (coefficient of variation) ≤11%. [18F]fluoro-3,4-dihydroxyphenyl- L-alanine PET enables measurements of DA turnover in the rat, which is useful for developing novel therapies for PD.