should i be concerned? reg new girl

so i have had a new girl for about a week and shes gone from 232grams down to 219, granted shes come to a new home, gotten a MUCH bigger cage and a change in diet, she was eating some kind of seed mix that also had crackers, trix and other "treats" in there to eating mazuri lab blocks mixed with a little bit of sunflower seeds and shelled peanuts as a treat.. ive also given them a few treats by hand but im certain its much less than what she had before. shes still super nice, loves being held and has bonded really well with our other girls, her and the girl she came with were once inseperable and now really dont spend a whole lot of time together at all.. all seven of the girls spend time together as a community. so what are your thoughts? could it be the excersize and better diet causing her weight loss? should i be concerned?

as a side question, how many people here bring their feeder or pet rats to the vet? im not talking about a weeping tumor but just regular stuff, like weight loss, respitory, exc

My guess for her weight loss would be the change in diet. What she had been eating was very high in fat, and probably had little space to exercise. Both of which you've changed. I wouldn't be to worried about it, unless it continues to greatly drop.

I'd agree it's probably a more healthy weight for her and reflects a better diet and more exercise through a bigger enclosure and more interaction/play activity with the other rats. However if she continues to drop weight even when eating a good diet, if she gets underweight or looks "off"...have a vet check her just to be certain there isn't an underlying health issue.

thank you thank you.. thats what i figured it was and will continue to keep an eye on her but i thought it couldnt hurt to ask :rockon:

I would agree with everyone else...it is pry a result of getting a well balanced diet as opposed to all they crap (from what you listed it was all sugar and fat). She is pry losing fat she should stablize at a more normal weight for her age soon.


It is really good for her to lose fat as high fat/sugar diets have been shown to cause cancer in rats.

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Originally Posted by lord jackel

I would agree with everyone else...it is pry a result of getting a well balanced diet as opposed to all they crap (from what you listed it was all sugar and fat). She is pry losing fat she should stablize at a more normal weight for her age soon.


It is really good for her to lose fat as high fat/sugar diets have been shown to cause cancer in rats.

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great to know, thanks!!! our treats are almost daily but consist of either hard boiled eggs (two for seven girls cut up) honey wheat oat flakes (just a couple peices per rat) peanuts in the shell and sunflower seeds. occationally i will give them a chicken bone and that will be maybe monthly because we dont eat chicken on the bone very often. otherwise their diet is pretty boring, i was wondering when kitty and cinder came to us why they were so fat compared to our girls who are much leaner i was starting to worry if my girls were underweight (even though they are younger) that was until i saw what was in their food dish, boy did those rats have a rude awakening coming to our house!! not to mentain they lived their whole lives in a "my pets first home" ya know those one level plastic pan cages, better than the feeders at the place i get mine from but no where near as nice as the palace they are living in now.. and just wait till my martin rudd cage comes on monday or tuesday, shoot! my girls have it good lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lord jackel

I would agree with everyone else...it is pry a result of getting a well balanced diet as opposed to all they crap (from what you listed it was all sugar and fat). She is pry losing fat she should stablize at a more normal weight for her age soon.


It is really good for her to lose fat as high fat/sugar diets have been shown to cause cancer in rats.

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Exactly Sean. I remember back before we had snakes and the kids had pet rats. We definitely fell into bad habits about what the rats got as treats and pretty much everyone was giving them treats whenever they wanted. All the rats ended up far too heavy and sadly passed away much earlier than they should have.

We learned through our feeder breeding that a healthy rat is well fed and fit.....not fat. Our old male Casanova whose fathered literally hundreds of feeders is closing in on 3 years of age now and in perfect health other than starting to get that "old rat" look a bit. Same with our first female breeder, HoneyChild. She mothered many litters but was never allowed to get fat and is in great shape for a great-granny rat (and still keeping order in the female only enclosure thank you very much LOL). She's the same age as old Nova, fit as a fiddle and a lovely old girl. :)

hmm.. shes really slowed down this afternoon. im not sure if it sbecause they are up all night playing and im used to them sleeping while im not at home but shes at the bottom of the cage alone while everyone else is sleeping in their appropriate beds in groups of three. i took her out and her color looks good, shes nice and hydrated too. i put in some other food for her (some mixed seeds and mazuri blocks) im almost wondering if shes going through sugar withdraw with all the sugar and fatty food shes used to. our vet is closed now fo rthe day and as far as i know they are closed until monday morning. im going to keep a close eye on her and if she gets much worse ill take her over to the 24hr vet.she is eating and drinking just not interested in running around (or so it seems, i could be making more of it though) not to mentain i have no idea how old she is.. her owner before me (who kept her in small cage and gave her crap to eat) said she was about a year old

Well this time of day most rats would be crashed out...at least most of mine are if I wander in to check. They really are more active in the evening and morning hours and through the night time. Most of mine are total slugs during the daylight hours. It is a bit odd though that she's sleeping alone like that. I'd definitely keep an eye on her. If she's ill the other rats may be rejecting her to some degree or she's not feeling well enough to be bothered with them. Just watch closely over the weekend and if you think she's not right take her in or call the vet Monday. Is she showing any red discharge from her nose or eyes, any sneezing, breathing issues? Any change in her coat quality? Clean butt and so forth?

Sadly rats coming out of iffy backgrounds or pet stores often don't have the lifespan they should. I know when we were buying a lot of rats from pet stores we saw a lot more cancers, strokes, just general overall poor health in the colony. Now it's a very, very rare thing to see any major health issues.

Let us know how she does hon.

well she does have that red discharge from one nostril. ive seen her go up and lay with remy and dolly a couple times today but shes kinda breathing hard even at a rest. i would feel terribly if she died on me so soon after rescuing her, especially since i have been updating her family before us almost every other day. otherwise her butt is nice and clean, shes been eating and ive seen her drinking. aside from the hard breathing she looks fine.. i did notice she was skinnier but thought maybe it was cause of the poor quality food she was getting before and has lots of room to run and play but now im not feeling so great about her.. im to the point im about ready to pull her out of th ebig cage and put her in the old one just so i can watch her stool and otherwise more closely.. if my husband thinks she looks bad when he gets home in a bit im going to just take her out. im going to feel terrible if we loose her!

Yep you might want to pull her out hon....sounds a bit off to me with the breathing and the porphyrin discharge. It could just be her stressed a bit being in with so many new cagemates and her immune system not handling it so well. I hate to see a rat alone though. I'm not sure if maybe you should pull another female that she likes to keep her company or not. Opinions folks????

im going to go ahead and pull her out. im going to put her back with her old cage mate and keep a closer eye on her. ive also been advised to put her on papertowels or newspaper so i can find out if its the bedding agrivating her too.. thanks so much ill let you know how she does

Sheesh Ashley, Went from 2 rats to 7 can we say addiction :D , not to change the topic but I vote for a picture thread :D

;) addiction is an under statement.. ive already ordered my rudd cage (60x30x18) so i can get more rats lol.. i love them.. i love my snakes too but they arent as loving back hehe.. it does make feeding day tough though. it would be awesome if i could get everyone together for a group shot but i dont see that happening anytime soon :sabduel:

And this is why it's SO very important to quarantine any new additions, rescues or not. You don't know where they are coming from and what sort of diseases they are carrying. If your rats get sick, it will happen within a week to a week and a half.

There has been only one time I didn't quarantine. I brought home 3 babies from Petsmart of all places, and put them in with 2 of my other girls. Within about 5-6 days, I had rats having respiratory distress(while the ones from Petsmart were fine). Within 2 weeks, I had 7 rats die from streptococcus based pneumonia(I sent lung fluid into the lab for a culture). I do not like having to put rats to sleep...

Honestly, I would get her to the vet and get her on some antibiotics. She's probably having a Myco flare-up from the stress of moving, but you never really know.. Also, I would get her tested for internal parasites, just in case. If she has them, your others have them now too(which is why it's important to quarantine for 30+ days to ensure that you aren't bringing ANYTHING into your current collection). Once rats start showing signs of stress and illness, in the presence of cage mates, it means they are really not doing well at all and need to be seen by the vet. Being a prey animal, they don't show weakness until they just can't take it anymore.

wow becky, thanks! its good to know that. i will be sure to call my vet this afternoon. i would hate to have animals put to sleep but what has to be done has to be done. ill find out what the deal is for her sake though.. she looks like hell and continues to loose weight. last night she was only 203grams. thank god our new girl and her litter havnt been anywhere near the other 7 girls!