Baby wont eat

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shade

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2008
Messages
199
Location
Burbank, CA
Ok so you all probably know about my newest boy Quill who is an absolute sweetie. One of the best babies i've had in terms of being calm and chilled.

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However I can't get him to eat anything. I know he's probably nervous being in a new home but I've never had a rat that didn't want to eat anything. I put some seed mix in his cage and he nibbles on the bits of corn but that's it. I offered him all sorts of things and he just wont take it. I'll even leave it in there for him just in case it's me he's afraid of and he still wont take it. He even snubbed a nibble of turkey last night, which is something all my rats go bonkers for. I haven't seen him drink either and I'm not sure if he's familiar with the water bottle or not but it's there for him and I showed him what's inside it. I know it'll take some time for him to warm up to me because even though he's pretty calm when you hold him, when you go to pick him up he tries to avoid you and hide, but he's real quiet about it.

Any suggestions to get him to eat? he's so small that I know he's gotta be hungry but I think he's too nervous/scared to eat anything.
 
hmm well he sounds a little squeaky when he breathes like umm.... "ur ur ur" it's hard to listen close because when you hold him still he starts to tremble and the sound of him trembling and his heart going "da da da da da da da" makes it impossible to hear anything. but when he's moving around I hear him going "ur ur ur " quite often could it be him making the noise or is that his lungs?
 
I wear my hoodie when I have him out and let him hide in the pouch, he also likes to climb up on my shoulder and snuggle into where the hood is. He's not like super calm but calm to the point where he's not frantically trying to go here there and everywhere. I still can't get him to eat though, any suggestions on that?
 
Well he's in a small travel carrier right now which is really big for him because he's such a tiny thing and he mainly hides in his blanket. I put food outside of it last night but the only thing he nibbles on is the dried corn and I don't think that's enough for him. I'm tempted to make some oatmeal but I don't think he'll eat it, he's refused everything else I offered him.
 
Oh update, I left some kix in his cage and he's munchin on those so maybe he was just a little too nervous to eat before
 
Think nutrition when feeding him, especially if he's not eating much. Try him with some baby cereal. I used to make it up regularly and warm it a bit in the microwave. My kids seem to like it a little warm. You might want to try a rodent block instead of a seed mix. They generally won't get a balanced diet with the seed mix because they'll just pick out the things they like and leave the rest. Keep offering him different things and make sure there's always food available even if it doesn't seem like he's eating it. Good luck!
 
What age is he? He looks very young, he might be a bit too young to be away from his mum. You could try lactol (don't know if you get that or something similiar there), baby foods, etc. Mine have always liked baby rice which is easy to make.
 
He's about a month old. I'll try some baby cereal and maybe some veggies too. I'm sure those will be good for him too. Thanks
 
You may like to add a shallow bowl of water just incase he has never used a drinking bottle before. Sometimes they are not strong enough to get the bottles to drip, he will get there ;-)
 
alright thanks for the advice. The bottles I have kinda drip naturally too, it's a slow drip but I'll add a small bowl beneath it so none of the water's wasted
 

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