My rat has a hunched back?

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TheFatRatGirl

Active Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2019
Messages
29
Location
Bristol, England
Hi there, please see the photos below. One of my female rats, Penny, has a really hunched posture. I know that this can be seen as a sign of illness if it happens suddenly, but she's looked this way since I got her at three months. She's now six months old and has grown a lot but maintained her hunched posture. She's not showing any signs of illness or pain. She's happy to be handled and runs and plays happily during freerange time. The only thing that sticks out to me is that she's not as good at climbing as the majority of other rats i've had.

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At first I thought it might be that her natural posture is more emphasized due to the fact that she's hairless. But if you look here at my brother's girlfriend's hairless rat you can see her back is not as hunched.

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Could this have been an injury she suffered before I got her that didn't heal correctly? Any and all advice welcome!
 
Thanks guys. So the poor climbing skills isn't anything to worry about either? She always looks fairly awkward chasing after the other rats if they climb up and down the cage bars or over my furniture.
 
Absolutely lovely girls! I love those big ears!

My now passed rat, Maddox, had a posture very similar to this. He was not the most gifted with climbing or ambling around, but he was also a lazy rat that slept most of the time. He didn't express any signs of pain or discomfort in the near-three years I had him. He never had much of an interest in playing either. Maddox ended up living to be just shy of his third birthday (he was 34 months old).

I think he did develop arthritis in his old age, but that was at the very end and that's normal for elderly rats.


My Maddox looked pretty similar to your lovely Penny, especially when he was old and lost his fur (he was a rex rat). Big ole dumbo ears and adorably wrinkly skin :D
 
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