Underweight Rat

[DamienBlade]

One of my rats, Willow, has recently lost alot of weight. The other day her older cagemate/sister Coco died but she started loosing weight before that. I have noticed she is eating less food, and when I do give her food she likes to eat, she takes a long time to eat it despite gnawing away at it. She is only 1 year old, roughly, so is it possible it's an issue with her teeth? She has always had a habit of chewing on the cage bars constantly; could her teeth have misaligned or grown too big? I'm just worried by how light she has become compared to her sister, though I bought some Ensure to help her gain weight if it is an appetite issue. I don't want to loose two of my babies so close to each other;

 

[Dena]

When she's eating, do you notice if she looks out of breath, or if her whole body kinda rocks forward and backward, like she's using her stomach muscles to breathe? If so, she may have a respiratory infection, or be having trouble breathing. When they can't breathe, they will eat slower, or take longer pauses between bites to catch their breath. It's hard to eat when you can't breathe, and often rats will avoid eating as much, so they can breathe. Rats hide respiratory infections well, until it's too late many times.

Or do you notice if she's having trouble holding their food in her front paws? That could be indicative of a PT.

In either case, the ensure, with a little bit of infant rice cereal added, or their rats blocks soaked in cool water to make a mush, could make it easier for her to eat.

In the meantime, try to get a video of her eating, and upload it to YouTube, then copy and paste the link on here, so others can see and better help you to know what direction to go in.

 

[DamienBlade]

The Ensure I have is the powdered form - how should I prepare it? Should I just scale down the ratio to a much smaller portion?

 

[lilspaz68]

I think the first thing you need to do is look at her incisors. See if they are even across the tops or growing crookedly. Often weight loss is a sign that something is wrong with their teeth. Don't worry if the bottom teeth open up a little like a V then close again, they are flexible but shouldn't stay open all the time.

 

[DamienBlade]

I've been giving her as much Ensure as I have been able to, but at the moment there is only so long I can actually spend out of my day holding the bowl for her. For some reason, Willow will eat plenty if I am the one giving it to her but will completely ignore any and seemingly all food/drink otherwise. I hold the bowl of liquid ensure and she will lap from it, but if I leave it in their cage, only her sister will partake whilst she just stares at me from the same position for hours on end. Is there any reason she is so selective in when she eats, since she seems capable of it when she actually tries. Additionally, she does seem to have something respiratory-related (some sneezing) but it is not as bad as she has had before.