Young Female Rat with 3 legs

Advertise with us
Fins us on Amazon
Shop with us on Ebay
The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
W

whirlytwirly

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 22, 2008
Messages
53
Location
Newcastle NSW Australia
Well the needy rats keep finding their way to me.....

My newest arrival is a little girl, about 6-7weeks by my calculations who only has 3 legs. She's completely missing her back left leg right up to the hip socket. It was removed by mum at birth. Unfotunately I think mum also had a nibble to her other back leg, as her toes are not quite right and she doesn't have the full range of movement.

She gets around ok and is a fat little thing so I think she's definitely been getting her share of the food. I've popped her in a large tub (no wire surfaces just a couple of hammocks) with two of my smaller girls and they are all getting along wonderfully.

Does anyone else have any rats who are missing limbs? How to they get along? Is there anything I should be mindful of?

I'll try and post a piccie later, I'm having camera issues again
 
i have a youngster with 1/2 back leg missing. she has recently developed a head tilt but neither seem to slow her down. one big thing is she cannot groom her face, ear or neck on that side so she really likes scritches and her ear cleand with a cotton tip on that side.
 
My mom's Sven had to have a leg amputated when he was 2 years old. He came out of it well, adjusted well, remained in a multilevel cage and also reigned as alpha till the day he left us at 33 months old. Nothing slowed him down.
 
I think at such a young age the rat should adjust well. If its been like that since birth, then the rat wont know any better, and therfore should have adjusted whilst growing up. I bet she turns out to be an acrobat and surprises you Whirlytwirly. Id keep any cage so that she couldnt get any limb stuck (just fleece would sort it). Is there a 'stump' or is it just completely gone?
 
Its completely gone, I can feel her hip bone but there's nothing coming out of it. The thing that kinda worried me the most is her other back leg is damaged too so she doesn't have a full range of movement even on one. She has to drag her tummy to get around so thats why I put her in a one level cage.

She's such a sweet little thing!
 
I have a male here that has no use of his front left leg.

He gets around well but has always had trouble with getting up and down off tall things.

They normally use they back legs to clear out wax and dirt from their ears so that would be my main concern with your little girl so cleaning her ears regularly will help.

They do learn to live with what they have so i am sure she will be fine.

Our 3 legged boy is almost 700 grams (HUGE) even though i control his diet he is just a big boy.
 
i have a girl hamster and she is missin a foot since she is a baby so it should be ok but just watch the wheel that you give her make sure that her foot dosent go true
 
I actually logged on tonight to discuss my three legged youngster, in my own post, but since so many others who've had experience with threelegged ones are replying here, I hope the OP doesn't mind if I post something here, too. The three legs appeared to be a birth defect (pet store buy). He died tonight, only being about 1.5 months old. He was so awesome. My boyfriend and I loved watching him run around...quite quickly, I might add! Def the most unique, both physically and behaviorally, rat I've ever owned. This is really hard because just a few weeks ago, my favorite rat, Mr. Magoo, died (appeared to be heart failure). Magoo was the sweetest, most loveable and good natured rat. Then this guy dying. Sigh. There's another youngster in there with him. He's very gentle and sweet...which is why I'm here, actually...

So when we discovered the dead one (Lil Baby), we were pretty sickened. One side on his face was completely pulled back, from the mouth, exposing the entire jaw, muscle, etc. It was horrible to see. Oddly, theres zero blood in the cage and the "wound" is all clean lines, no teeth marks or rips. I'd it possible the other one caused this by dragging him by the mouth to "hide" him? He was, after all, hidden under bedding in a way that was obviously done post mortem by the other one. They were best buddies, never fought, and in fact the living one took care of Lil Baby in many ways, daily. I'm just having a hard time accepting that he ate phat if his face off after death. I believe the death was natural due to his behavior the past few days.

Thx for any comments and sorry to hijack your post!
 
tiffmarie said:
I actually logged on tonight to discuss my three legged youngster, in my own post, but since so many others who've had experience with threelegged ones are replying here, I hope the OP doesn't mind if I post something here, too. The three legs appeared to be a birth defect (pet store buy). He died tonight, only being about 1.5 months old. He was so awesome. My boyfriend and I loved watching him run around...quite quickly, I might add! Def the most unique, both physically and behaviorally, rat I've ever owned. This is really hard because just a few weeks ago, my favorite rat, Mr. Magoo, died (appeared to be heart failure). Magoo was the sweetest, most loveable and good natured rat. Then this guy dying. Sigh. There's another youngster in there with him. He's very gentle and sweet...which is why I'm here, actually...

So when we discovered the dead one (Lil Baby), we were pretty sickened. One side on his face was completely pulled back, from the mouth, exposing the entire jaw, muscle, etc. It was horrible to see. Oddly, theres zero blood in the cage and the "wound" is all clean lines, no teeth marks or rips. I'd it possible the other one caused this by dragging him by the mouth to "hide" him? He was, after all, hidden under bedding in a way that was obviously done post mortem by the other one. They were best buddies, never fought, and in fact the living one took care of Lil Baby in many ways, daily. I'm just having a hard time accepting that he ate phat if his face off after death. I believe the death was natural due to his behavior the past few days.

Thx for any comments and sorry to hijack your post!
Click to expand...

You probably found what was left of a "rat funeral". It is their instinct to get rid of the body so the other rat(s) probably were eating him. I know that sounds awful, but in the wild they cannot let a dead/decaying body lead predators to their pack. They meant absolutely no harm to your deceased baby its just their instincts.

Very sorry for your loss. :redbud: RIP Lil Baby
 
This is a very old post from 2009, and I don't think there's a hijack anymore.

It sounds like a ratty burial where they instinctively try to dispose of the dead body before predators are attracted to the colony. Perfectly natural, and horrific to find as humans.

I am very sorry for your loss.
 
Thanks for your reply. Somehow I missed it til now. Logged in and said oh, I have a comment! Anyhow, I appreciate it, thanks :)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top