# How to make fat rats lose weight?



## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

My two younger boys are pretty fat. I can see their chubby little fat rolls under their arms and stomach. I feel bad because I know it's from Mouse and Charlie's special diet that is giving them the extra fatty calories. Charlie is one of the fat boys though so I'm not sure what I can do to help him lose weight since I can't change his diet much. I will try to seperate Mouse and Charlie more from the rest of the group so the rest will get their normal diet of just Oxbow kibbles, but they're much happier being with everyone else.

Are there any other suggestions anyone can give me for helping my boys lose weight? Any good activities I can "make" them do to get exercise? They already have a wodent wheel in their cage that they will sometimes use for a few seconds. Any additions to their diet that might help? They get lettuce frequently and seem to love it, but I don't think it's really doing anything to help.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

In terms of exercise a more challenging cage layout works, so get rid of ramps or tubes, spread levels and hammocks out more, reducing them if needed amd then fill the space withropes and branches that are ideally steep to climb,, it makes a big difference. I also like getting them to run up and down the stair a, I do it just before feeding so after a few times they realise the faster they do it the faster they get fed. Reducing the overall amount of food is also important, the diet can stay the same and that make a big difference in itself


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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

Those are great ideas! I'm not sure if I can do that safely though.. one of their sisters loves to climb upside down on top of the cage a lot of the time, so I have a big hammock that acts like a safetynet/level.

I can try adding branches to the cage and take out the ramps. What types of wood would be safe for rats? I don't want anything that would be toxic if they chew on it of course. Would applewood be safe for them to chew if I bake it first? I also can get pear, elm, oak, mulberry.. a few others but I'm not sure what type.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

As Isamurat said, it's all in the cage layout.

I bought bird perches and took wood from outdoors (make sure not softwood, no bugs and no rot). Iris is blind and deaf so I skipped the exercise in futility that teaching her the wheel would've been. I don't keep ramps in my cage or I make them steep. I position hammocks so that they have to be jumped or climbed into. I recently redid the layout of the rat room to promote climbing and jumping and even my fat boys (may have seen my big bottom rat post) are jumping about. My favorite part was TV trays, I places a branch across the legs (since they fold, when open look like an x ) and they have been balancing and running around that. I also raised the platforms (DCN) so they have to jump higher or climb. 


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

As stated above, diet and exercise are key. Rats don't need ramps and any opportunities to jump and climb are great to burn off extra calories. Food restriction is important as well. No more topping off the bowl!


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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

I have some manzanita perches from a cockatiel I had in the past. Is manzanita safe for rats if they chew it? I know there are other woods that are mistaken for manzanita, would those be safe too?

As for food restrictions.. how safe is that? Don't most rats need to eat frequently because of their high metabolism? How long should food breaks last that I would remove their bowl? In my CN there are the 2 neutered boys (the chubby ones that need to lose weight) and 3 girls. 1 girl in particular seems to be always on the thin side. I'm worried if I take away food access that she will lose weight. There is also the MC diet that is probably the cause of the chubbiness, but is needed for one boy and one girl. How should I deal with the different food needs of 5 rats?


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

Wooden perches are fine.

Food restriction isn't as scary as it sounds at first. Rats have high metabolisms, but not so much so that they must eat constantly. I feed as much as the boys will consume in about 20 hours. For four of their most active hours in the evening, they are without food. Very beneficial for the metabolism.

I would feed the thin girl separately while the others are fasting. Take her out and give her some yummy special foods like baby food with some Nutrical mixed in if she's truly thin.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

In terms of wood a good rule of thumb is anything you and rats can eat the fruit/seeds of are pretty safe. I tend to aim for hard woods and fruit tree branches as a good starting place. Mine have flowing current, birch and cherry in there. Some people are dubious about cherry, however the issues with these are in the leaves in the main. Make sure any branches you use are leaf free, and let the wood season, so if it is fresh and still green leave it until it is well and truelly dead (like you would fire wood) and this minimises the chances of any issues. It can take a while, we took down a small cherry tree in our back garden a couple winters ago (the top half of which is my main branch) and it flowered whilst drying in my shed the following spring. By summer though it had given up and was properly dry wood and fine to use. Most branches i get are already fallen when i'm out for a walk so are faster to put in the cage. 

Limiting feeding is actually proven to be good for rats, theres has been a couple of studies i've read in journals that show an increase in average lifespan when the rats have periods of time with no food. One study only fed every other day, though on that day the rats had unlimited food and found they were slimmer and lived longer. I couldnt do that to my rats and think its important theres balance there as our rats clearly love there food, so i limit the amount they get in a day. My starting point was the 20 hours like cagedbirdsinging, however with my boys being so efficient at finding and using there dinner i have had to cut it further. They get about 15g each per day (this is very dependant on the diet) and they eat the vast majority of it in about an hour, with a few bits that they acn continue to find through the day. I feed dry in the morning, and there veg every other day in the evening, which means that every other day they have half a day with very little food at all, its my "starve period", though to be fair theres not much left between the two feeds. This works well for me, though others feed both in the evening after free range. 

You can change it around a bit too thoguh, like right now i have a fatty, my kazoo has become less active and more into food since his neuter and so put on weight, not helped by my other 3 being less interested in food so they eat the easy to find tasty stuff then have a break and graze later on the rest, now Kazoo stays there and eats more than the others. So now i give half there daily dry in the morning as normal, then take the other 3 into a feeding cage when i get back from work and give them a top up on aout 25% of whats left (i could just take kazoo out but the 3 others tend to be more interested in me and doing things than food so a bare cage makes sure they eat), then they get the rest of there dry later on with there wet food. Its a bit of a trial period to make sure that everyone gets a fair go at the food but its working. I also sometimes swap around their dry into evening and vice versa, mainly i do dry in the mornning now because i have more time in the evenings to make interesting veg mixes or wet meals.

Dont worry too much about having a catch hammock near the ceiling, most of my hammocks are near the celing anyway, as thats where they like to sleep, and it also maximises distance from where i feed most of there dinner so encourages them to use the whole cage. If your worried have a go at a set up and post a photo on here. Theres also quite a lot of info about setting up a cage on my website, if you jsut go to the habitat tab on there you can get a list of behaviours, tick off as many as possible in each set up and you get a cage that helps encourage activity, not jsut sleeping. If you fill a cage with hammocks and easy stuff your rats will use it for sleeping rather than doing.


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