fat rats and bumbles

[temblabamomo]

Obie has a bumble. I'm doing epsom soaks, followed by soaks in diluted tea tree oil, twice a day. I'm ordering Blu-Kote today, since no one locally seems to have it in stock. As far as bumbles go, it's not too bad yet.

This isn't the first time a bumble has reared its ugly head for Obie. He had what looked like the beginnings of one awhile back, but I immediately started soaks and stopped all treats for my tubby little boy. It's back now with a vengeance. Obie is way too big. I stopped giving him extra food (such as veggies and fruits) a couple weeks ago, and he's been on HT 2014 for over a month. At his July weigh in, he was 720g He's never been fed a ton of treats, aside from lab blocks it's always been veggies or a bit of fruit. He's highly active during his playtime, but he continues to be a lardball. Playtime is usually an hour in the morning, and an hour+ in the evening.

He won't run on a wheel, he will chase toys on strings for a few minutes before getting bored and giving up. What can I do to help this piggy lose weight?

PS he has plastic flooring and shelves in his cage, the bedding is changed every 3 days, shelves are wiped down twice daily.

 

[jorats]

I would up his veggies especially romaine, cucumber and maybe even give him watermelon...anything that will make him feel full but not put on the calories.
What you could do is make him run after yummy stuff. Mine go nuts for those edible nylabones, meat flavoured ones. You can make him run after it, let him grab it and lick, bite on it then run again...and so on.
You could pad down the cage, make it more soft. It's the hard surfaces that can be aggravate the bumbles.

 

[lilspaz68]

Also you could try a feather cat toy for more activity

 

[hopefloats]

Bubbles! dont forget bubbles!

 

[SQ]

Clavamox helped clear up infection and keep bumbles from getting worse when my heavy seniors have developed them