I have a problem with my rat, (I'm a ratty noob) I gave him some organic cereal as a treat (its granola with almonds and honey) and now he won't eat his food... I withheld the cereal treat for 3 days but he would barely pick at his food so I gave him some so he wasn't too hungry. What should I do? I bought different types of food (mixed it with his regular stuff- even though he barely ate it) but all he'll eat are the seed and nut blocks and cereal. Is that ok?? Could some one please give me an email or send me a link to a rat vet?
Thanks,
Cassy

He's about 4-5 months old. I just got him. I've never had this problem before... He freaks out if he sees the box of cereal lol. He's EXTREMELY active... never noticed any breathing problems he used to sneeze a lot but that's stopped I believe it's because we had just moved in and had to airate the house because of the chemicals for cleaning. I just don't know what to do he eats the blocks that are made up of the food and honey but he hasn't wanted his "real" food in about a week. My only other rattys I got from a teacher at my school and they died from the cedar bedding before I even got to learn much about them 
Thanks for the help!

You may want to take him to a vet to clear his health just to make sure. Like Mandy said, if you post your state/location we can try and help you out with that. Or you can try calling every vet in the yellow pages until you find a rat savvy one.

Rats can be picky eaters...but they wont let themselves starve to death. What is the "real" food that you are feeding him? The staple of a rats diet needs to be a good quality lab block, and that should be supplimented with fresh fruits, veggies, and possibly a good grain mix, and occasional other treats. I'm guessing the cereal you're feeding him is probably too sugery to be given as more than a snack, so you need to make it ONLY a snack. If he gets addicted to it this easily maybe only once or twice a month.

So if I were you, I would just totally cut the cereal out of his diet until he starts eating better. Start feeding him what I suggested to you and ONLY that. You can make a big mix of different veggies or fruits and there's bound to be something he'll be interested in. You can even drizzle a little bit of olive oil on his food to make it more appetizing. Baby food is another healthy choice that most rats LOVE. I use baby food to hide icky medicine or get sick rats to eat.

Keep on that plan until he starts eating well again. It may take awhile, and he may eat less anyway because healthy stuff is more filling than junk food.

Thanks a lot! I just don't know what to feed! I live in Toledo, Ohio and the only place I've found that has food have those types(petsmart & sweet feed). I tried lab blocks but he lost so much weight in a week that I stopped. I figured the other stuff was garbage- I just wanted to try anything. I didn't know about olives and peanuts so thanks, hes just crazy about them! I've recently went organic and I was wondering if there was a way to get the rat on a more "natural" diet too?? I can get all types of veggies and fruit... let me know any ideas. Thanks!!

Thanks, of everything I've fed him he loves the organic stuff the best. I looked it up and there was a study done that showed that a significant (don't you love when they don't give a percent  ) amount of rats preferred the organic diet to the other stuff. It's funny- we should follow their example. I didn't know about baby food! that makes sense, it's gentle to stomaches and has lots of vitamins and protein. Thanks!!

Is it ok to give him juice??  I've given him some Nantucket Nectars and He loves the peach orange.

Male rats shouldn't have oranges, juice included. It can cause cancer.

I would talk to your vet about what his ideal weight would be, the weight he's losing on lab blocks might just be extra weight anyways.

Ok, thanks, I thought rats could eat just about anything. i give him lots of healthy things too. I don't see a problem with granola as a treat... He's VERY active and he isn't in the least fat. He seems to like the baby food too. He won't eat the lab blocks  he starved him self for almost five days, he's still young and growing i'm not a fan of him being hungry.

a friend is a must.  rats are highly sociable animals and get depressed with out compainions while you are gone.


suebees mix is good and you vcan make it all organic by buying the organic cerals.

lab blocks are a must too. and trust me rats will eat when hungry.


fruits and veggies and stuff is good too. yougart.  mine love baby food veggies.

theres lots you can give and  treats are a treat not every day stuff. 

I've tried to find him friends but he only likes girls -.- hes a lady's man lol. But I can't afford to spay a female  Any ideas? Plus I've been trying to get a bigger cage for him, I can't buy new right now but I've been talking to topaz about the cage posted. I think it may be too far tho I've tried on craigslist but there aren't any ratty fanatics around here I guess.

Have you read about propper intros? Or has it been a 'plop a friend in his cage' kind of thing? I've just put a new girl in the cage before, twice, before I knew anything about intros. It worked once, but the other time was a disaster, I bet if you got another boy and did propper intros it would be fine!

Edited because I can't spell!

Taking him in to a pet store would be a bad idea. The rats at the pet store could be sick, and if you're rat interacts with them he could get sick too. Speaking of which, when you get a new rat it's a good idea to do a quarentine period with the new rat, where the rat is kept in a different area ((someone elses house is the best option if possible)) and kept an eye on for three weeks to make sure it isn't sick.

After that, you can start intros. Good steps to take are to first put the two cages close enough together that the rats can smell each other but not  touch. Then, have the rats swap cages so they can explore and mark each others territory without confrontation. Next is to actually have the rats meet in a neutral territory such as a bathtub or on top of a table. You can put a bit of vanilla extract on both rats so they smell the same. Sometimes they will also try to groom the vanilla off each other which makes for good bonding lol. Then you can try letting them live in the same cage. When they first meet, and when they start living together, they may tussle a bit, which is normal. They just need to figure out who is the "alpha rat". Here's a good link about intros you could take a look at: http://www.ratz.co.uk/ratintro.html

I also wanted to suggest you look at a shelter or rescue for rats. Try Petfinder.com. Sometimes rats that come from shelters are already spayed/neutered so you could look into a girlfriend for your man rat with no baby problems.  Try a slow intro though, and another male may work out just fine.