Food Stealing?

I've never heard of rats doing this before, but I think it's happening to my group of 5. They all get along otherwise, no problems (three of them were adopted from the same group, so they've known eachother a long time).
Fafnir, the youngest, is also the fattest. She is overweight.
Edgar, the oldest, is also plump.
Puff is skinny. Very skinny. I haven't been able to track her weight but it's almost like she's sick (but I have no evidence of sickness otherwise!)
Annabel is also skinny.
Draco is on the thin side, but normal.
I feel that Fafnir, especially, is stealing food from the others. What should I do?

Watch them when you feed them and make sure everyone gets some...if you notice the 2 stealing from the smaller ones then you might need to feed them separately to make sure everyone gets fed..I'm sure some people wouldn't agree with me but honestly when I see one rat steal food from another I go in and take it away and give it back to the rat it was stole from and then give the thief their own food Some learn to get their own but some are just thieves by nature hehe

I usually let my rats steal from each other since they all do it. But I have had this happen in the past. Instead of putting all the food in one dish I gave them their own little piles in different areas of the cage and put the rest in the dish. Usually they will be too busy eating their own pile to steal.

Stealing is very normal and usually a rat can only steal a morsel if the victim is not really committed to his piece. Meaning, a rat who wants to keep his food will keep his food or go back and get it. If you give plenty of food, they should all be getting more than enough. Rats really don't need to eat that much to sustain their energy levels if given good quality foods.

They're eating Oxbow; I know food stealing is normal but I feel the skinnier rats aren't getting enough. That the fatter rats are stealing too much.
I'll try and see if giving them two different cups helps.
>_> Stupid question, how many times a day do you feed your rats? Oxbow's bag is like 'give them unlimited access', which is all well and good until I know my group would eat and eat and eat. They love it like little addicts.

Most people feed ad libitum but I really don't like that. Slim rats are healthy rats. I fill up the bowl in the morning and they don't get anymore until the next day. But soon, when my babies are adults, I will be limiting them much more, I've got a few fatties in my colony.

jorats said:

Most people feed ad libitum but I really don't like that. Slim rats are healthy rats. I fill up the bowl in the morning and they don't get anymore until the next day. But soon, when my babies are adults, I will be limiting them much more, I've got a few fatties in my colony.

Click to expand...

So you feed them less than once a day? :!??!??!:Or am I misunderstanding?
My one rat, Puff, is skinny. Not... normal slim. Skinny as in she feels like a sick/old rat who is wasting away. But she has no signs of illness (no tumours, sneezing, lethargy, etc.).

I should have clarified once they are full adults, I will be giving them 2 Harlan blocks each and I will give them have a dish of Oxbow instead of a full bowl of Oxbow and a full bowl of Harlan a day.

Both of my pairs of boys had a dominant rat who would steal from the smaller brother. It was usually pretty obvious because the victim would make little squeaks in protest. I usually gave each rat about three Harlan lab blocks a day, plus a shared salad.

When they were younger, they would eat at the same speed and it wouldn't cause issues, the dominant rat would just take the last little bits of block. When they got older (around two years or so), one rat would start to eat slower and that meant a lot of bullying. With my first boys, I had to feed them separately because otherwise they would fight and it could be pretty nasty (I found a pool of blood once in the cage; scared the crap out of me even though the injury healed fine).

I've heard food stealing isn't as much of an issue when you free feed them, but I'd prefer not to have fat rats. Also, when we used to go away on vacation for a day or two, I would leave them a pile of blocks. They would then "argue" about where to stash the blocks. One would thieve the blocks from the other pile and they did that for hours and hours, sometimes squabbling when a thief was "caught".

I always free fed my rats oxbow and they were all slim and healthy, no weight issues whatsoever. It really is just a matter of finding what works for you, and maybe weighing your rats every now and then to make sure they aren't putting on/dropping weight. I recommend you get a little kitchen scale and do this like once a week or two, because that also is a good indicator of other health issues.

I free-feed my rats. Some are overweight and some are not. If you give them lots of low calorie foods to snack on, perhaps their weight would decrease because they would be full of lettuce and carrots instead of always a block...

And I would definitely be worried about your skinny girl. Every time one of my rats has lost a lot of weight they have had a pituitary tumour. That's because they are not really eating properly. Take a good, hard look at your girl. You may notice signs of something amiss that your vet wouldn't notice.