How to get rat to lose weight in about 3 and a half weeks?

[Olympia✨]

I need help,

My rat Obi is going in for a small tumour removal on the 25th or June but he’s about 150g overweight. There’s already a high risk of death in rats from anaesthetic and obese rats have even higher ones.

He gets engaging playtime everyday but won’t use his wheel. I feed him fresh foods each night with a pinch of his daily DrS small animal essential nutrients and calcivet.

I’m probably going to have to start limiting his foods and not leaving them overnight anymore. Does anyone have any other tips?

EDIT: Sorry for the lack of information. Here’s some more details:

Obi is about one and a half, he’s 900g which sounds bad as is but he’s a very big rat in general hence why the vet said he’s only about 150g overweight.

The vet is great and specialises in small animals, she did a thorough check of him and said he seemed to be in great health other than his pudge. He’s not had any previous history of sickness or URI’s as I make sure to keep them on a healthy diet and keep them in a clear and pollutant free area and provide lots of exercise. His brother is a lot leaner and smaller than him if that’s of any importance.

As for their diet: they have never eaten lab blocks, I have tried about 6 expensive and well regarded U.K. rat food brands and they always turned their nose to it, I even tried basically not feeding them anything but lab blocks and they preferred tostarve. I made them a homemade mix which consists of nuts, seeds, dried fruits like apricots, goji berries, bananas and coconut, oats, cereals and and an omega 3 booster powder I got from a rat website. They get lots of variety of fresh foods every day, for example kale, other greens, fruit, veg, tuna, red quinoa, wild and whole grain rice, eggs, sweet potato, manuka honey, soya yoghurt, beans and legumes etc...To make sure they’re getting their nutrients I also use the DrS small animal essentials vitamin/nutrient powder and calcivet by the same brand to make sure their teeth and bones are strong along with driedScandinavian seaweed.

Here is a recent video of him, sorry for the quality I can’t seem to figure out how to fix it:

As this was asked a lot, he will be receiving gas anaesthetic, he will be getting an injection but that will just be pain medication.

I hope that’s enough info, please feel free to ask anything else

 

[SQ]

You can not reduce his weight by that much so fast …. it would put a great strain on his body and he would be less healthy physically.

I do not understand have a good understanding of what you are feeding him.
Could you provide more details.
How old is Obi? What does he weigh? Can you post a recent picture or video? (post video to youtube and put the link on here)

Here in North America, the recommended diet for rats is a good quality rat block usually available at all times, plus daily vegs and occasional health treats such as cooked whole grains, a piece of fruit, berries, a few organic pumpkin seeds etc

When rats here are overweight, people will limit the rat blocks fed daily and increase the vegetables. So you will want to start limiting some of the foods and giving more of others to ensure he gets enough to eat - if you are feeding meat, I would suggest that you reduce the amount or gradually stop …… in order to gradually reduce his weight. Please see the diet and nutrition information in the Reference Thread https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/reference-thread-read-only.35894/

If there is a high death rate from anaesthetic then there is a problem.
Only gas anaesthetic is given, and nothing is given by injection until after the surgery is over, when rats are given an injection of metacam (a pain med). If there is a high risk of death then vets are likely giving too much anaesthetic.

You may want to ask your vet to consult with other vets - on the vet site on the internet ..... my vet, Jorats vet and Lilspaz68s vet would likely be willing to consult with another vet as well

 

[jorats]

You definitely need to start slow. I would begin with removing all sugar or fatty treats. Fresh veggies daily is a good supplement and if you can get rat blocks, that will be much easier to control his food intake while knowing they are getting their full nutrients. Rats require 55 grams of food daily. Start higher to make sure it's a slow progress in weight loss. I fostered and extremely obese rat and I got him from 900 grams to 500 grams but it took several months.

 

[Rocket99]

First of all, not enough information. How much does he weigh????? And it would be worse to do a rapid weight removal than to just do a better diet transformation. Just remember, age is the biggest factor, and any othar mitagating factors, like URI issues. But imo, the biggest factor is the experience and expertise of your vet. I recommend you ask what type of anethesia they use, injections or gas. I refuse anything but gas, injections can easily be overdosed, and they can't come out of the fog they're in, so they often pass away after surgery if over sedated. Good luck.

 

[Olympia✨]

You can not reduce his weight by that much so fast …. it would put a great strain on his body and he would be less healthy physically.

I do not understand have a good understanding of what you are feeding him.
Could you provide more details.
How old is Obi? What does he weigh? Can you post a recent picture or video? (post video to youtube and put the link on here)

Here in North America, the recommended diet for rats is a good quality rat block usually available at all times, plus daily vegs and occasional health treats such as cooked whole grains, a piece of fruit, berries, a few organic pumpkin seeds etc

When rats here are overweight, people will limit the rat blocks fed daily and increase the vegetables. So you will want to start limiting some of the foods and giving more of others to ensure he gets enough to eat - if you are feeding meat, I would suggest that you reduce the amount or gradually stop …… in order to gradually reduce his weight. Please see the diet and nutrition information in the Reference Thread https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/reference-thread-read-only.35894/

If there is a high death rate from anaesthetic then there is a problem.
Only gas anaesthetic is given, and nothing is given by injection until after the surgery is over, when rats are given an injection of metacam (a pain med). If there is a high risk of death then vets are likely giving too much anaesthetic.

You may want to ask your vet to consult with other vets - on the vet site on the internet ..... my vet, Jorats vet and Lilspaz68s vet would likely be willing to consult with another vet as well

Sorry for the lack of information. Here’s some more details:

Obi is about one and a half, he’s 900g which sounds bad as is but he’s a very big rat in general hence why the vet said he’s only about 150g overweight.

The vet is great and specialises in small animals, she did a thorough check of him and said he seemed to be in great health other than his pudge. He’s not had any previous history of sickness or URI’s as I make sure to keep them on a healthy diet and keep them in a clear and pollutant free area and provide lots of exercise. His brother is a lot leaner and smaller than him if that’s of any importance.

As for their diet: they have never eaten lab blocks, I have tried about 6 expensive and well regarded U.K. rat food brands and they always turned their nose to it, I even tried basically not feeding them anything but lab blocks and they preferred to starve. I made them a homemade mix which consists of nuts, seeds, dried fruits like apricots, goji berries, bananas and coconut, oats, cereals and and an omega 3 booster powder I got from a rat website. They get lots of variety of fresh foods every day, for example kale, other greens, fruit, veg, tuna, red quinoa, wild and whole grain rice, eggs, sweet potato, manuka honey, soya yoghurt, beans and legumes etc...To make sure they’re getting their nutrients I also use the DrS small animal essentials vitamin/nutrient powder and calcivet by the same brand to make sure their teeth and bones are strong along with dried Scandinavian seaweed.

Here is a recent video of him, sorry for the quality I can’t seem to figure out how to fix it:

As for the anaesthetic, I asked and it will be gas, he will be getting an injection but that will be pain medication.

I hope that’s enough info, please feel free to ask anything else

 

[SQ]

Awwww Obi is a beautiful boy - he looks very healthy and well loved

Some of the food items you listed are fattening (nuts, seeds, dried fruit, eggs) so it will help if you remove them from his diet and replace the nutrients they are providing by giving different foods. For example maybe a small amount of fresh or frozen/thawed fruit as a treat instead of dried fruit, etc
Rats require low protein (10% of their diet) and research has found that it is best if it comes from plant sources

Chronometer is a free internet tool that can be used to keep track of nutrition so with a knowledge of the nutritional needs of rats, you can use it to try to offer a nutritionally complete diet

Please see the info in the Reference Thread …. Jorats has been reading about and looking into rat nutrition since I met her (online) in 2004 so her suggestions re a good diet would be worth considering

To my knowledge, no one has been able to come up with a good, nutritionally complete homemade diet for rats