White teeth...

[smmmiley]

Our newest darling is about 4 months old. We got her mid-Jan. at around 4-5 wks. of age. She had white teeth then, and I figured they would change colour with age. We feed her Harlan Tekland blocks freely, with veggies in the evening, and the odd fruit, etc... So, she is eating a good balanced diet.

Her teeth are Still white. Which would suggest she is not absorbing her nutrients properly, I would think. Or, does it take longer for their teeth to get yellow-orange?

I'm concerned. She still seems a little small too... which would also suggest that she might not be absorbing all the nutrients she eats.

I need to have her seen... Does anyone have any suggestions/insight about this?

I will try to get a few pics. up tomorrow.

Thank you!

 

[mamarat]

Good luck with your little girl. I know long term meds can cause white teeth.

 

[SQ]

There are many causes for white teeth in rats.
Kidney disease, lack of iron in the blood, medication, and genetics to name a few.
I have had many rats that had white teeth their entire lives. In their cases, it appeared to be caused by genetics and all led normal healthy lives.

Please see the reference section: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1216&p=17729&hilit=white+teeth#p17729 for info.
Check out what Maple wrote re a discussion with her vet:

OK, so yesterday my vet came to the house to do a basic examination on my 8 ratties. Of course I brought up this "white teeth" thing. She told me white teeth can be several different things or a combination of things together. All ratties start off with white teeth and gradually change colour if they change at all. Kidney disease, meds, malnutrition, lack of the iron containing pigment during development as well as simple but complex genetics can cause the teeth to remain white. After looking over each and every one of my little critters she feels, in my case, based on the physical exam, some of our rescues have white teeth most likely based on heredity. She told me to look long and hard to figure out who the original breeding pair was and I would find that one of the two parents would in fact have white teeth. I went through the rescues and she made up a quick "family tree" based on the info I gave her. The conclusion....Boe aka Gaston and Momma aka Poupet appear to be the original breeding pair. Although Mommas' teeth are yellow, Boes' are in fact white! She told me not to read to much into it that all the rats currently in my possession and the 15 I originally brought home (looked back to August roughly 2 weeks after I took them in) were and are in excellent condition and should live a normal and healthy life provided they are cared for properly.
This made my day happy

 

[jorats]

Same here, I've had a few rats with white teeth all their lives and they were not sickly. I wouldn't worry until you see other symptoms.

 

[lilspaz68]

I don't worry if they have white teeth all their life but when a normally yellow/orange toothed rat becomes white, that's when I get concerned.

Mia who ended up home with mamarat was such a girl

Her sister Zoey had recurring malignant tumours on her neck (the 2nd one was wrapped around everything and she was pts at a very early age (16 months).

How old was Mia when she passed Mamarat?

 

[mamarat]

Mia was 19 months, so young. Vet said the root of her tooth had snapped and she hemorrhaged and had to be put to sleep.

 

[smmmiley]

Awesome replies... great info.! Thank you, everyone!

Otherwise, she is a little spitfire! She is the fastest girl we've had since one of our very first. She zooms around the room and shows no signs of slowing down.

She did have an ear infection/head tilt. We got her steroids/antibiotics for a month, and now just antibiotics for another month... just to make sure we got it all. She has improved immensely, with just a small tilt remaining. Which, I realize she will probably always have.

I weighed her too... and, she's actually not underweight at 313g. I thought she was because she looks so small next to our resident 'fatty' who weighs 100g more.
Still working on getting some pics. up.