Goosemoose Pet Portal

My new foster (name is yet to be decided) is extremely overweight to the point that he can't clean himself well. He has accumulated buckgrease on his back, causing his hair to feel so matted and greasy. I tried giving him a bath using a dish soap but it did very little to help him. His soon to be cagemate, is a 3 month old skinny little thing. My two questions are:

1. What else can I do to clean the gross stuff off his back?
2. How can I put him on a limited diet without starving the cagemate?

On the positive side, he's a sweetheart. He squeaked in protest during the bath, but pretty much let me do what I wanted to him. He even gave me kisses between protests!

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I think dish soap is way too harsh for their skin.  You might try using some kitten shampoo or baby shampoo.  I've also heard that if buck grease is especially thick, you can rub some olive oil onto it to thin it out and then either wash it off or let the rat lick it off.  But since he's so fat and can't reach it, you'll probably have to wash it off.  You could try feeding the skinny one extra-nutritious stuff separately.  Like take him out of the cage, and let him have some baby food, baby cereal, cooked mixed veggies, etc.

Deb

I would try to clip the worst of the hair off.  Then rub in olive oil and clean with kitten shampoo.  The more of the grease you can get off to start with (before the bath) the more likely to see improvement.  The hair will grow back and hopefully with a cagemate to help, he'll be able to keep himself clean back there.  Poor baby!!

Dawn dish detergent helps -- but is very drying to the skin.  I second the vote on clipping the hair.  Your vet might even be able to do this. Then you can bathe him -- this body condition is a result of a very poor diet, poor guy!  :BlueDumboBigEyes:

You can change his diet and feed him the normal amount of (nutritious) food -- but he may try to take food from his cage mate if he's used to a huge volume of food.  -- You'll have to separate them to feed them (or hand feed the big guy) or feed the normal sized rat extra nutrients on the side as Deb said.

He's lucky he has you. :)

Olive oil does work very well for removing buck grease.  You can also feed him tiny amounts to help with the production internally, as well.  Not sure why it works, but it does.  :)  If he was on a seed diet before you got him, that could contribute to the over-abundance of buck grease, as well.

As far as weight loss goes, I'd say feed him much smaller amounts, and take his buddy out for supplemental feedings, if necessary.  Good luck!

Poor guy.  My boys have never had buck grease that bad, but it breaks up much more quickly if I rub them with olive oil first, then bathe them with Dawn dish liquid.  With how bad it is, you might want to let the oil set for several minutes after the rubdown.  After, I rub them with a bit more olive oil while they're still damp.

When Dana was alive, I just took her out for supplemental feedings a couple of times a day so as to keep the boys from getting extra food.  And to cut down on hoarding, I'd give each of them half a block at a time, so they'd each finish them around the same time.  If I'd put the daily amount in there, a certain someone would have just kept eating until they were gone. His brother wouldn't have gotten his share, and both might have felt hungry later in the day.  I had a plate of veggies (broccoli, brussels sprouts, other leafy greens) available all the time, and they each got about 2 to 2 1/2 blocks a day.  (For a rat as big as this guy, I'd probably start with three and cut down to 2 1/2 or 2 as he slims and you're able to see if he has a larger or smaller bone structure.)  They also get a snack of fruit/more sugary veggie every day, like a grape or small piece of apple or orange, or a carrot coin.

But then it was easy for me to feed them like that throughout the day, since I'm home all the time.  It made putting them on a diet easier, as I knew they never had to feel hungry.

Thanks for all of the suggestions,

He was not only on hamster seed mix diet, but apparently on sugary cereal diet as well. I must've picked out 2 cups worth of Pops out of his cage after I got him  :doh:

I'll stop by the store and get some Dawn dish soap later today. I'm also trying to think of a clever way to place the lab blocks so that only the little guy can get to them (maybe get one of those feeder baskets and hang it higher in the cage). The little one is still soooo skittish that I don't think I can feed him separately just yet.

The big guy (Boston) is getting twice a day workout but it would only last 20 mins at most. He'd get tired and would just lie down  :puppy_dog_eyes:  Small steps at a time, I guess.

Aw, poor little guy. I'd try the olive oil, and clipping the hair back.
Does he get any out of cage time? It's might help with losing weight.
A cage mate will also be helpful grooming wise.

Even shorter workouts will help.  Skinner wasn't nearly that big, but he was a total slug at first.  I'd have to prod him into activity every few seconds during his workouts.  The boys are large rats, but they're both slim and very active now.  Skinner even runs on a wheel!

Now that you've gotten him off that crap cereal and seed diet (UGH!), he'll probably shed the weight pretty quickly.  It only took the boys a couple of months to shed about 80-100 grams each and firm up.

Yeah, just switching to real food will probably show a huge improvement in his weight. 

I agree with the above posters and olive oil does do wonders for buck grease. I can hardly believe that someone would let a rat get into that condition. Poor thing. He's lucky he has you.  :heart:

When I had intact boys, I would rub a ton of olive oil into their skin on their back, and then wash them a couple times with dish soap.  Did the trick everytime!

And youch, he is so overweight  :(  I would feed him a low-fat food such as Oxbow's Regal Rat with fresh veggies and fruit a few times a week to supplement.  Poor thing!

A little update:

I'm having a hard time to completely wash off the olive oil off his back so it still feels a little greasy. However, when I was toweling him dry, the towel seems to have rubbed off a lot of the gunk. So that's a good thing.  He still looks a little "spiky" though. I'll give him another bath in a couple of days.

He also refuses to climb up the ramp in the cage. I'm not sure if it's because he's too overweight to climb (even though I lowered the platform as low as I could while still giving him ample room at the very bottom of the cage) or is it because he has no idea what the ramp is for. In a way, it makes it easier for me to put him on a restricted diet: I just put a couple of lab blocks at the bottom cage and put the rest on the top most platform where the skinny one can get to  ::)

I'm planning to feed him roughly 4 blocks a day: 2 in the morning, 1 after I get off work, and another 1 at night. Is that enough? Hubby thinks that's too much but really, I don't want to starve him.

I wish I had a scale to keep track of his weight.

Four blocks a day is okay to start out with, but you should really restrict it more as he loses the weight.  It depends on what block you are feeding him and what the fat content is.  My boys get three medium sized blocks a day (Harlan 2014) and really that is more than they should be getting as they become less active with age.  One boy is getting fewer and the other more because of dominance problems so I'm having to work out a solution as well (though I don't think it will be as easy as yours!  :yelcutelaugh: ).

I have found Dr. Brommers peperment soap works wonders for buck grease.

Poor baby. He's lucky he found you.

Is there a Walmart in your area?  They have a digital food scale that costs about $20.  That's what I use for my rats, and I love it because it also has a pan that sits on the scale.  It's great for putting the rat into so that it won't climb right off of the scale.

Deb

Yup, 4 blocks a day is good to start, but cutting back will work out better in the long run, too.  My boys get 2 blocks a day, plus some treats (veggies mostly).  It sounds terribly like you're starving them, but, in reality, they don't need that much.  However, like some human men I know, they'll eat just because it's there.  :)

My boys gained nearly 100 grams apiece (so one was up to 700) over a three-week vacation, eating four blocks apiece.  As big as he is, he might lose on that amount at first, but it will probably need to be cut down to 3 pretty soon, then 2 1/2, then perhaps 2.

Maybe he's mostly spiky from the oil now, since it didn't all come off?  I have to watch how much oil I put on my boys after their bath.  If it's more than just a little bit on my palm, they look like I've styled their hair with gel.

Those pictures of him make me so sad.  It's wonderful he has someone to clean his poor little back and care about his diet now. 

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 :hyper:

When I had a rat with difficult buck grease I would comb the olive oil through his fur with a nit comb.  That really helped break up the grease and got it out really well.  You should be able to get one at your local drug store.  If I were you I would treat him for mites also.

Make sure and post after pictures for us.  I'm sure he'll be pretty once he's all cleaned up! :wink5:

It is very important with any overweight animal (but especially ones with high metabolisms like rats) that you do not cut their amount of food too much too quickly.  Feeding them too little all of a sudden when they are used to eating a lot can send their bodies into "starvation" mode, where they won't lose the weight but will start conserving every bit of energy, and it can even cause heart problems like a heart attack!

I would offer him as much quality lab block or Oxbow Regal Rat as he will eat in a day to see what he will intake on his own free will (measure how much he eats free choice of it per day for a couple days).  Then start subtracting from that amount a little at a time, something like 10%.  You need to cut him down to a healthy amount gradually. :)  I think just a switch to high quality food will help a lot, too.

Ouch, it looks like it'd be painful for him to walk. I've never even seen that much buck grease before. Yikes! :( Good thing he has a nice, new, home now.

Sometimes my shop gets in really yucky dogs with tree sap on them. Sometimes it works to put cornstarch on the affected area and then bath with a degreasing shampoo (original dawn works well too). It might be a try.

will he "walk about" ?? 

When I was trying to help Murphy lose weight, I had him walk the hallway several times a day.  I would shut all the doors so he could get into in of the rooms, then walk with him.  when he would stop walking, I would gentle nudge him with my foot.  I found it worked best if started as far away from the cage and had he walk toward the cage area, since he would hurry up heading back to his cage. 

good luck

Knuckles,
That's exactly what I've been doing. Last night, I put a dollop of green mush mix and using that as a treat (think donkey and carrot), I made him walks as far as the hallway permits.

I think he's doing much better. He seems to have more energy to sniff around and explore. I even saw him attempting to climb to the top most platform (climbing the steepest ramp in the cage) although he gave up halfway  ;D

Tonight I'm going to give him his second bath and I'll take more pics.

Btw, I clipped most of the matted hair and now he has this bald patch running along his back. It will grow back, right?

I'm pretty sure the hair will grow back.  It does when they're shaved for a spay.  I also second that he's lucky to have you as his trainer and nutritionist in Rats Biggest Loser challenge.

poor guy will be so glad to have his fur straitened out and to lose a few pounds, he is very lucky to have you! when i first saw the picks i though he looked like some kind of crazy hedgehog rat hybrid.

Hi guys,
Just a little update:

Boston's fur is looking sooooo much better. It still has an orange-y tinge but just a little more than usual for a PEW. One more bath and I think he'll be able to swoon any ladies he comes across  :heart:. He's also a lot more active: climbs up and down the ramps, popcorn (think seal on land, lol), and explores during playtime.

For more pics of him: www.freewebs.com/3ratrescue (http://www.freewebs.com/3ratrescue)

And oh, he and his friend, Monkey are also up for adoption in case someone's interested :)

Oh, my!  He really is getting so handsome!  :heart:  And this is mean, but I would so love a video of him "popcorning".   :yelcutelaugh:

I know this is a bit late, but I use kitten shampoo and my girls are always super soft and pretty after a dip in it.

That is very true. When trying to loose weight, be it a person or an animal, you always want to do it very gradually. Rapid weight loss is not good.

He looks like a total sweetie in his new photos but it did make me laugh that you took it from his best angle ie not from above.  Can we have a Biggest Loser update photo as well. :yelcutelaugh: