Overweight Rat

[Katie_Scarlett]

I have been asked to rehome a rat by a friend of mine, I've been over to see him but I am concerned about his size.

I've seen him before (back in the summer) when I was asked to rehome 2 females that this person had.

Since he has been on his own he appears to have put on an awful lot of weight.

I am looking at having him neutered so that I can put him in with the 2 females again, without ending up with all the little rats like I had when I took in the girls!!

But at the moment I am concerned about his size in comparison with them.

What would be the best way of putting him on diet?

I have looked at a larger cage with will provide plenty of space for the 3 rats, would I be best off putting him into the larger cage for a while to see if the extra excerise (its got 4 instead of 2) would do him good?

[Rhi01]

Do you know what his weight is? Or do you have a picture?
Boys are bigger than girls so he may be normal but just seems massive compared to them.

[Katie_Scarlett]

I don't have a photo or his weight at the moment but I am collecting him tomorrow so should be able to have one or the other then.

He is more than double the females size i think, he doesn't appear to move much, just kind of sits in the corner.

He has a couple of rolls at the back of his neck

[LisaLQ]

Most bucks will be bigger than does, but if he is genuinely fat and not just big and stocky, extra out time and less food/treats should sort him out. But some bucks are just genuinely lazy, I have a buck who is 950g+ who will never shift his weight as when he comes out for "out time" - he curls up and goes to sleep. When I feed him less his cagemate loses weight!

[Katie_Scarlett]

Originally Posted by LisaLQ

Most bucks will be bigger than does, but if he is genuinely fat and not just big and stocky, extra out time and less food/treats should sort him out. But some bucks are just genuinely lazy, I have a buck who is 950g+ who will never shift his weight as when he comes out for "out time" - he curls up and goes to sleep. When I feed him less his cagemate loses weight!

I can only go by when I first saw him back in the summer (june I think) when I saw this really adorable active rat. He seems to have doubled in size since then

I'm just really worried about putting him back with the 2 girls with the huge size difference

[Rhi01]

You tend to find boys get bossed around by girls regardless of their size.

[Katie_Scarlett]

Originally Posted by Rhi01

You tend to find boys get bossed around by girls regardless of their size.

Just like in real life then!!! lol!!

[Horatio]

If he is overweight then the risks of surgery will be greater. If he's been on his own for all that time then he's probably miserable, so may well have been less active than normal.

[x Sarah x]

Do you know how old he was back in the summer, if he was younger than it would be normal for him to have filled out since.

Get a pic up when you can and you'll soon know

[Lover]

i love chunky males