Weight gain needed

[swub]

Mouse has been losing weight for some time but when I looked at her tonight I noticed her tail is now angular, she's lost so much.

I'm always giving her treats to fatten her up but it's obviously not working.

I need ideas please.

I seem to recal somebody saying Complan (high energy drink) worked.

[Kendra]

How old is she?  I've noticed that my older rats, especially when sick, can drop weight seemingly overnight. 

I like to give them Nutrical, avocado, and Boost or Ensure supplement drinks.  Good Luck with Mouse!

[swub]

By my reckoning she's just hit 2 years.

She's started with breathing problems (for which she's seen a vet) and I suspect that's using a lot of calories. Also, she never stays still. I'm going to change her cage layout tomorrow so that she burns less energy getting around it.

Am I right in thinking Nutrical is for animals and can be bought from a pet shop? What about Boost an Ensure? People drinks or animal drinks?

[Kendra]

Nutrical is a pet supplement.  I get mine at:  http://www.theratshop.com/shop.php?cat=4

Boost and Ensure are people drinks that I can get just about anywhere, Kroger, Wal-Mart, etc.  I'm not sure what the UK version would be, but here are links to the webpages.  That way you'll know what's in them. 

http://www.boost.com/boostdrinkcons.html

http://www.ensure.com/

[swub]

Great, I'll have a look for them.

I've been looking on the internet for some ideas. One thing that does keep coming up is those weight gain drinks for body builders. Would that be any good or dangerous? I don't know much about them.

[Kendra]

I think that would depend on what is in them.  I've read that some can actually contain some dangerous compounds, like creatine (sp?) which isn't good in liquid form.

[Beth]

Swub, I've had good results with Complan (original flavour) and Complan with Oats (Superdrug or Boots), both always avaliable in dishes. I also give all meds etc in warmed baby food or ferretvite. When I'm home I also give mashed banana, avacado, yoghart etc - just a spoonful every couple hours. I've definately found little and often seems to work better, I can get more into ratty that way than offering greater amounts just morning and evening.

Beth

[emmie]

Have you tryed giving chese? This is fatterning and will work

[swub]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'm going grocery shopping tonight so I'll see what I can get.

Emmie, I do give her cheeses occassionally and she does eat it but it doesn't seem to be enough on it's own. I might try a softer, higher fat cheese.

[pigsandrats]

I get Nutri-Cal from my vets office. The girls don't like the taste of it so I mix it with their soy yogurt and they'll eat it that way.
Nutri-Stat is good also.

[swub]

Well, I've been shopping and managed to get some of the things on my list.

I got bananas, an avocado (how do I know if it's ripe?), some soft, full fat cheese, some olive oil to put on bread and some chocolate chips (should help with her breathing too).

I couldn't find any Complan, Boost or Ensure so I'll have to look around a bit more.

Oh, I got some Soreen (malted fruit loaf) which I'm sure is loaded with bad stuff so I'll give her some of that too.

[RKEM]

You can give her some scrabled eggs ... or even more energy packed is to hard boil them and give her just the yoak (sp) ... but not too much.

She might enjoy some cooked meat (chicken, beef, pork) and fatty fish like salmon and tuna as well ... for younger rats you have to watch out for excess protein but if you're fighting the weight loss battle, the important thing is to get something into her ... so as long as its not empty calories like refined sugar .. I say go for it.

When I was fighting to keep Jeckyll alive and who was seriously underweight 3 things made the difference : sunflower seeds, cooked rice noodles and potatoes stewed in a mild coconut-flavored curry sauce (don't ask ... he liked it so I just gave it to him ... the thai restaurant place must have thought me crazy ... I was buying the stuff every other day for him).

The avocado is ripe when its almost black (as opposed to green) and soft to the touch that is ... you can squish it a bit.

[rattical]

all three of my girls arnt what they used to be.  peach has seemed to slow down a little, i think they all have. peach and her sister are almost 2 and zoe is 2, and possibly older. i got them some mealworms today, and some nutrical (which they LOVE) and am boiling an egg right now  im hoping to get some weight back on my girls. there not tecnicly 'old' but have VERY bad myco and it makes them over all weeker...