Weight GAIN advice needed now

[ryelle]

I have started paying more attention to my rats weights - mostly because Clodagh is only around 7 months old and is piling the weight on way too quickly and i don't want to have really bad problems with her in the future, and Patrick has a really bad Moob situation going on. They are being stimulated to exercise instead of just coming out and lazing around (making them run up and down the stairs, rummaging around for things, etc.) and i am watching how much they feed and making sure they eat more veggies and such (told my mum no more feeding them junk food - biscuits etc.).

I am recording it all on Google Docs, because i don't have Microsoft Excel at the minute, but i can't get the damn thing to make my chart into a scatter/line chart ><

Last week i weighed for their beginning weights, and tonight was the second weigh in (weighing on a weekly basis).
Patrick lost 11g (total weight now: 560g, aiming to get him to 550g)
Clodagh lost 9g (total weight now: 424g, aiming to get her to 400g)

but.. Muirenn lost 19g :shock: (now weighs 367g). I don't really feel like she needs to lose weight because she is so athletic. Is it bad that she is losing weight, does this mean that she was supposed to lose it or is it something i should monitor closely? She runs all night in her wheel and zooms around when shes out of the cage (you literally cant stop her), so i don't know if i should bring her out on her own and feed her some more carbs for a bit of extra energy boost while the other two are on their strict diets.

Im not so sure what i should do. Any advice/suggestions are welcome

 

[Ktina]

It really depends on their body types. I had a male rat living with other boys that had some moobs naturally but he wasn't overweight, just extra skin. The rest of his cagemates were in perfect health. What is their staple diet?

 

[Rattus]

I have some boys that appear a bit over weight or "husky" but after feeling them up and vet visits, they are just built bigger Willy is so much wider then legion but hes not overweight.. its like his bones are broader but at first glance you would think he was chubby. My one rat Legion, he eats all the time and is very athlete and he is a bone rack. If they are still acting fine and the weight doesnt jump too crazy from one extreme to the other, I wouldnt worry about it, every rat is different. :nod:

 

[ryelle]

The main staple of their diet is lab blocks. 15g pet rat per day, with added chopped up veggies after (broccoli, peas, carrots, anything else thats in the fridge). Im just at a loss and rather concerned why my fittest, most active girl, Mu, has gone and lost the most weight when the intention was to make the other two lose weight and leave her at what i thought was her adult weight! 19g seems a lot for her to lose in only 7 days. I was expecting Patrick to lose the weight he lost, but was shocked at Muirenn losing all that :shock:

Patrick piled weight on after his neuter surgery and hasn't lost it since (he bounces between 560 to 577 so the aim is to try and get and keep him at 550 - he has been more active, bouncy and playful this past week and is excited to come out to play so its obviously working), and Clodagh is just one of these rats that seems to pile weight on very very easily.

 

[Rissa]

How did you come upon 15g per rat per day? I find that interesting

 

[xxchelle]

How did you come upon 15g per rat per day? I find that interesting

The average rat eats 1lb of lab blocks per month. Convert this to grams and it's roughly 454 grams. Divide this by the average days in a month, 30, and you get roughly 15 grams per day.

I've never weighed out my lab blocks, they're free-fed. I fill up bowls (usually by emptying their stashed piles :giggle as needed.

 

[Rissa]

Now I feel dumb LOL that was too simple

 

[ryelle]

Haha, the bag says "feed 15-20g per day". Thats how i came up with the 15g ^^ Im not too specific, like at college it HAS to be the specified amount, but if i go over a gram its not the end of the world!

I normally free-feed, and i've had problems with overweight rats from free-feeding (three out of five so far), so the "diet" is basically the recommended amount of blocks per day and then veggies on top of that. And its working so far, although im going to bring Mu out for seperate feeding i think

 

I have started paying more attention to my rats weights - mostly because Clodagh is only around 7 months old and is piling the weight on way too quickly and i don't want to have really bad problems with her in the future, and Patrick has a really bad Moob situation going on. They are being stimulated to exercise instead of just coming out and lazing around (making them run up and down the stairs, rummaging around for things, etc.) and i am watching how much they feed and making sure they eat more veggies and such (told my mum no more feeding them junk food - biscuits etc.).

I am recording it all on Google Docs, because i don't have Microsoft Excel at the minute, but i can't get the damn thing to make my chart into a scatter/line chart ><

Last week i weighed for their beginning weights, and tonight was the second weigh in (weighing on a weekly basis).
Patrick lost 11g (total weight now: 560g, aiming to get him to 550g)
Clodagh lost 9g (total weight now: 424g, aiming to get her to 400g)

but.. Muirenn lost 19g :shock: (now weighs 367g). I don't really feel like she needs to lose weight because she is so athletic. Is it bad that she is losing weight, does this mean that she was supposed to lose it or is it something i should monitor closely? She runs all night in her wheel and zooms around when shes out of the cage (you literally cant stop her), so i don't know if i should bring her out on her own and feed her some more carbs for a bit of extra energy boost while the other two are on their strict diets.

Im not so sure what i should do. Any advice/suggestions are welcome

My boy's just turned 9 months.

Oscar - 650

Bruno - 600

Toby - 560

Teddy- 550

Hunter - 500

They are all at healthy weights. So I am sure your boys are fine. Just make sure their rat food is not too high in protein, feed no surgar and feed more veggies.

My girls weigh:

Abby (momma rat) (1 year, 4 months) - 275
Sophie (9 months) - 335
Bella (around 8 months) - 288
Hannah (10 months) - 380

Girls all tend to way different dependin gon their activity level. My smallest (momma) does not stop, she is always going, that' why she is so tiny).

I always have food in their dishes, rat's don't overeat, they stop when full.

 

[ryelle]

i only have one boy, and he is definately a bit larger than he should be, and i know he would benefit from losing a little bit of weight. One of my girls is very active, and is fine, but the other isn't and needs to get to a healthier weight now before she has problems when she is older. my last rat was overweight at 650g, but my current boy is only a tiny bit overweight at 560g. I don't want my girl at 367g to lose any more weight

All rats are built different and are generally different sizes so i know all their weights arent supposed to be the same, but i also know when a rat is overweight. They have food scattered all over so they are never starved of any food

 

Your right are all different, 650 for one rat my be over weight, but 650 for another may not be.
You know what's best for your rat's because you know them well.
I was just trying to help

 

[ryelle]

haha sorry, that was the point i was trying to make. I had another boy once who was a massive rat, yet he wasn't overweight and weighed around 650g too lol

 

oh haha okay

 

[ryelle]

I've been monitoring the rats over the past four weeks. I was originally concerned because Muirenn lost what i thought was a lot of weight for a rat with an athletic build. The past few weeks she has been stable so i am happy.

The past two weeks have been CRAZY for me at home, and i went away for a few days last week (from sunday morning to wednesday afternoon), and since - Clodagh has been out of control with her weight. You can feel it more than ever now.

Im still weighing weekly (on a wednesday evening) and documenting it all.
Here is what i have so far (not sure yet how to get it directly from google docs so ive had to save a pic to photobucket)

Week 1: beginning weights (on original post)
Week 2: Clodagh -9g
Patrick -11g
Muirenn -19g

Week 3: Clodagh +32g
Patrick +7g
Muirenn -1g

Week 4: Clodagh +23g
Patrick +9g
Muirenn +4g

I have no idea what to do with her lol

 

[ryelle]

Week 5:

Clodagh -15g
Patrick -11g
Muirenn +3


Hoping the new larger 'Explorer' cage I am getting soon will make them all more active and will give them more things to do on a night. Changing food next week to a block with 2% less protein. I will begin the diet change on Wednesday night after weigh-ins
*fingers crossed*

I shall report again next week

 

[jorats]

Clodagh is a chunky monkey. :giggle:

The other two seem to be doing very well.