Monster rat!

[-Wolfie-]

Is my rat Reggie severly overweight?

He is about 840g

Are some rats naturally huge because he doesnt look particularly obese?

His cage mate Ray is 430g

If he is overwieght whats the best way i can get him to loose weight?

Any help will be greatly apreciated! thanx 

[Doxiepit]

I dont have an answer for ya but Im kinda curious on weight loss to I have a pudge in need of a diet

[ratlets]

Can you post pictures of him?  Some rats are naturally larger than others, but at 840g, I'd assume he has a bit of pudge on him as well.

[italianqt]

Oh man, that's pretty big. I do have a boy who is 720 grams (although he may lose a bit today after the neuter and tumor is gone, haha), but he is just LARGE. Big head, long body. So it does depend on the rat. Even with my guy being long, I still want to get his weight down to avoid future issues.

Personally, after seeing the decline of my Bear who used to be around that weight, I don't like having rats that heavy. He has NO use of his back legs and it is absolutely heartbreaking to see the muscle deteriorating throughout his body now that he's 3 years old.

What food is he on now? What treats does he get? Dinner, veggies?

[-Wolfie-]

He is BIG but i think he is very very fat

This is him





Sorry for the bad quality i've just took them now and he wont sit still!

I feed him a home brand rat food from my local pet shop. I have tried to cut down his treats to almost nothing now but he still doesnt loose weight

[italianqt]

Looks like he needs a good diet of some low protein Harlan (2014), no seeds at all and veggies only.

He's a cutie though.

[Bekah]

Skinner wasn't quite that big, but he's been on a diet for about a month.  He looked a lot like those pictures of your boy.  He was 685 grams and is down to 645 as of yesterday.  He's got some loose skin still, but even after just a couple of weeks I was able to see underneath him while he ran, and I'm seeing more muscle definition every day.  His brother Gollum has held pretty steady at around 600 grams, and he's very muscular, so I doubt Skinner will get any smaller than that.  

Restricting lab blocks and offering lots of veggies just didn't work for me.  They acted hungry and begged for food all the time.  (Not restricting the blocks was the same story, and it's how he got so big in the first place.  And when I say "restricting," I don't mean to a ridiculous extent--it was a pretty light restriction.) At the moment, they get a half a block apiece per day, just to satisfy their urge to chomp on something.  I cooked up a mixture of grains and legumes for their main diet--all are whole grains, so it's more filling than the blocks.  I froze them in ice cube trays (1 Tbsp. per cube), and the three of them--two boys and a female--get two or three blocks spread out through the day.  (Two if we have something for dinner that's healthy enough to substitute.)  I supplement things like calcium, vitamin D, and B-12 daily, since their diet isn't rich enough in those things naturally.

For the bulk of their diet, they get a lot of veggies.  They each get a brussels sprout a day (for vitamin K), and a lot of broccoli.  (People say this causes gas and stomach upset, but it doesn't if you start slow.  They've had it since they were babies, and their poops are perfectly normal.  Chickpeas give mine gas, but broccoli never has.)  They get a couple of cubes of cooked sweet potato, and a bit of whatever veggies we have available--green beans, a few peas, cooked cabbage; that sort of thing.  They get oysters a couple of times a week, for the iodine and copper, among other things.

Overall, the idea is to give them foods high in fiber, to help them feel full longer, and low on the glycemic index, to avoid blood-sugar surges and crashes and the sluggishness and cravings that causes.  Whole grains are better than refined one, green veggies are generally better than things like corn.  (Corn and fruits are great, but given in moderation.)

Exercise is super important--without it, I'm not sure any diet would have shaved off the grams nearly so quickly (and probably not at all healthfully).  When I first started, Skinner had to be constantly prodded into spending his time running around the bed and playing instead of lying down for a nap.  Now he stampedes around all bright-eyed and scaly-tailed...heh.  Before, Gollum initiated every wrestling session, and Skinner just gave in.  Now Skinner initiates about half the time, and they seem to have more fun with each other.  They get at least a couple of hours of playtime per day, and they're encouraged to run around for at least a cumulative of an hour of it.

[Doxiepit]

  My fatso has a twin lol  altho yours a bit more brown but still whoa thats trippy. My lil pudge is on suebees and veggie dog kibble I'm cutting down his portions before he gets any more pudgy. Sorry for the pic size my comp is being mental today

[aphoeniceus]

It's probably because you are feeding him a petstore food mix that probably is not appropriate for rats.  If there are a lot of seeds, seeds = fat.  Might want to feed him a high quality rat lab block such as Harlan.

[-Wolfie-]

Sounds easy but i can't easily get hold of Harlan food in the UK. The food they have now is a nugget type thing so it doesn't have seeds in and stuff so they can't pick and mix. Their food is 16% protein is that OK?

[italianqt]

I think I've seen other UK members use the term nugget interchangably with a block type food. Any way you can get a list of ingredients on that?  The protein level sounds ok!

[-Wolfie-]

yes, heres the ingredients

Ingredients:
Wheat, Maize, Peas, Soya, Chicken Meal (min 2.5%), Poultry Fat, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Fructo-Oligosaccharides (min 0.3%).

[aphoeniceus]

Sorry!  Didn't know you were in the UK 

[Ratlovingkippy06]

Can you post pictures of him?  Some rats are naturally larger than others, but at 840g, I'd assume he has a bit of pudge on him as well.

my largest boys are 500 something grams and they are 6 months old.

[Ratwings]

Ack! My boy Charlie was 900 g at his last weigh-in. I am trying to feed him a diet with more fiber and less carbs, more fresh foods and less dry food.  With dogs and cats (and people) it's the processed, refined, carb-laden foods that cause obesity and health problems.  However with older male rats it is hard because exercise is also a huge factor, and old guy just don't like to move around much. Charlie was always a large rat, but he used to be sleek, solid muscle.