Do runts always die?

[stephanief987]

In my litter there is one runt, he's really active and almost more-so than the rest of them.
It's been ~2-3 weeks since he opened his eyes and he's just the most outgoing little one.

I understand they often have medical issues and such but do runts ALWAYS die?
He's not THAT much smaller but it's noticeable, his tail is much thinner and his body is a bit smaller but he's also really fuzzy compared to the rest.

 

[lilratsy43]

they do tend to be the ones more likely to have health issues but i have a runt in my litter as well and he is doing great! They do not always die...

 

[Joanne]

In my litter there were 7 boys. 5 went to a new home. The remaining two boys are 3 months old, and when I weighed them this week one boy was 62 grams bigger than the other!! I kept the runty boy just in case, but he seems perfectly normal in every way except he is quite small for a boy, and barely bigger than his sisters.

 

[MumsyRat]

A couple of years ago I had a whole litter of "runts" dropped off to me. These babies were so small I thought it was some sick joke & that someone had put a litter of baby mice with a mother rat. Two of the tiniest babies died but the rest grew up into happy & healthy rats. One of the boys had his picture posed in GooseMoose recently. 2 1/2 years old now!

I know it's poor quality but here is a picture of the above mentioned boy as a baby - I remember putting the Lego man & guitar pick beside him for perspective. This was at 3 weeks old. So tiny!

 

[jorats]

Runts don't necessarily mean they will die nor will they have medical issues, they are just smaller and needs to catch up a bit to their siblings.
I've never heard of runts always dying.

 

[lilspaz68]

Runts are the ones more likely to die within 24-48 hours from birth, and possibly within the first week, but after that they just need to catch up. Some stay smaller, some catch up and surpass their siblings. I wouldn't worry since your boy is a good age

And yes, I have never heard that all runts die, I will have to tell Spree, Pez and my former Megan they weren't supposed to live. :lol:

 

[Pegger]

My girl runt, Happy is doing fine at 3 months. She is a little smaller than her sister Skitty but I always make sure she gets a share of the food as Skitty is such a pig! I was worried about Happy as she is rather lethargic during the day compared to Skitty but I woke up one night at 4 a.m. and went downstairs to take a peek at the girls, and Happy was very active and normal. I guess she is just really tired from partying all night!

 

[SQ]

No, some runts die but as far as I know, most don't.
It is assumed that the ones that die had something wrong with them,
or if there are more than 12 babies they need extra help to compete for a nipple (easy to fix that problem).

 

[Argent]

My first runt outlived his huge brother, and I have two other runts who are chugging along fine. One is absolute perfection despite being smaller than his 12 week old bros and the other came from a bad background but he's still plowing through, he's about 9 months.