# Elderly rat, very underweight



## Lesti (Jun 25, 2013)

I have an adult/senior male that weights 10 7/8 oz (308 grams). He has a chronic uri and a lot of porphyrin. Antibiotics have not helped. He gets ensure once a day, along with raw honey. He also gets some pb2 powder (powdered peanut butter and chocolate) mixed with a mashed banana or with his ensure. Is there any way I can make him gain weight? He is at his lowest weight ever since I've gotten him. I am very worried about him, and he needs a bath very badly but I don't want to put him through that... Somebody please answer! It seems like no one answers my questions. He is a single rat right now (cagemate was attacking him). He also does not eat avocado, or if he does it is one or two bites. THANK YOU and please help me!


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## Rat-1- (Jul 22, 2012)

Maybe try some baby foods. I know that my rats love that. It's a shame that he doesn't eat avocado because that would help. What is his diet and how much does he eat?


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## Lesti (Jun 25, 2013)

He's eating Reggie rat right now (I know, not the best) but I'm picking up oxbow for him tomorrow. I've tried baby food, he doesn't eat too much of it...what kind do your rats like? Oh, and I just fill up the bowl when it looks a little low. When we switch to Oxbow the bowl will just always be full, because he can't selective feed on it.


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## Tesumph (Aug 12, 2014)

When Cave dropped to 320g, I gave him half regular food, and half of a mixture of nuts and high protein (dry) cat food. On the side he got avocado, beans... Basically anything high in protein and fat, but not too sugary.


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## littlepaws (Sep 23, 2014)

Personally, my main concern would be getting the URI cleared. That's obviously a huge cause for the severe weight loss. What antibiotics has he been put on? What other treatment has he received for it?

Once you treat that putting weight on him will get easier. With rescues I like to give them a big bowl of Ensure mixed with baby oatmeal. As well as eggs in various forms (scrambled and hard boiled, mostly). When they are extremely thin I feed them anything they will eat, just to get that weight on them. Lots of protein and healthy, high fat content, items.


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## Rat-1- (Jul 22, 2012)

Lesti said:


> He's eating Reggie rat right now (I know, not the best) but I'm picking up oxbow for him tomorrow. I've tried baby food, he doesn't eat too much of it...what kind do your rats like? Oh, and I just fill up the bowl when it looks a little low. When we switch to Oxbow the bowl will just always be full, because he can't selective feed on it.


My rats really like chicken baby food lol!


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Try cooking some rice, pasta or noodles to add to the baby food, or cooked rice, with egg microwaved through and coconut milk/cream is my staple bulking up food. Add herbs and veg to add interest and its pretty balanced too (i find about 200g cooked rice to 1 egg works)


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## Lesti (Jun 25, 2013)

Okay thank you! We've tried chicken baby food, but then I read that too much protein is bad for senior rats, especially males...though I think bulking him up and clearing up that uri should be the main concern right now. He has been on and off a baytril/doxy combo throughout his whole life. He just recently finished a 4 week treatment of those 2, but it didn't help a bit. My get isn't very experienced with rats, so this is all she will give him :/ is there anything else I should try? I will start giving him some eggs tonight.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Can you get his urinetested for protien levels he may well have kidney issues. If so i can help with a diet to support that


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## Lesti (Jun 25, 2013)

Maybe, do you just use the human urine sticks? My mom is a nurse so we could probably get some of those.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Yep as long as they read for protien content. You want to test him twice to get a confirmed result. Make sure it's not immediately after he's eaten something and put him on a clean du surface abd hope he pees. i swear they cross there legs when you want then to pee. its usually a yellow coloured square which stays yellow if it's clear but turns dark green if theres a lot of protien in there. pretty much any level of green means he's got some degree of kidney degeneration. 

If you can get a dip stick that does blood as well (I've got ones that do 10 different tests on one stick though those are the 2 most useful) then that could be handy too. Sometimes a rat who is looking rough and losing weight with no other symptoms (other than maybe piston and hunching) had a uti. These can be quite painful and show up as blood traces in the urine so it's very handy to have on hand. These definitely need antibiotics (ideally septrin) to fix. kidneys benefit from frusomide but a good kidney friendly diet and some phosphate binders can make a real difference too.


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## Lesti (Jun 25, 2013)

Okay, thank you. I will ask my mom to bring home some testers. He doesn't have a uti, no blood and he's peeing fine...


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## Destiny (Aug 17, 2014)

http://www.ratforum.com/showthread.php?219226-Rat-Weight-Gain-formula.
Try this.


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## 2ratshack (Sep 13, 2014)

Get Oxbow baby rat food. (Higher in Protein) Maybe alternate giving him boiled egg and boiled chicken (Both very high in protein). That may help. But I would work on getting the URI cleared as someone else mentioned.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

rats can have trace elements of blood in there urine without it being visible to the human eye. It's often an early sign or an indication something else is up with them. i wouldn't assume there's no blood in the urine purely from sight. I've caught a few issues early with my guys from this and keep dip sticks in


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## Lesti (Jun 25, 2013)

Okay thanks everyone. I'm thinking of putting him to sleep... But I'm not sure if he's suffering or not...  so that'll be an option. I'd like to keep him until after Christmas, but if I need to i will pts him before February  i will try to get the testers and see if he improves, and I'll continue to try to put weight on him. Unfortunately, URI wise, I'm not sure what to try next. He's been on many different rounds of antibiotics and they do not affect him any more. The honey doesn't seem to help either. He is also eating less than ever. He eats in a week what my other rat could eat in one day. I just don't know what to do about that...


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## Lesti (Jun 25, 2013)

Destiny I messaged you about your formula.


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