# How can you tell if a rat is overweight?



## kjgannon09 (Oct 16, 2013)

I've been concerned about my boys, especially Comet. I know he's a big rat in general, but lately he's been noticeably heavier. For the sake of his health, I want to make sure he's not fat. He doesn't seem pudgy, just big. Is there an ideal weight for an adult male?

I also heard that alpha males are the biggest of their pack and they continue to grow as long as they're the alpha. Has anyone heard of this and could that be what's going on with Comet?


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

The upper limit should be around a pound, weight-wise. 

Boys are squishy in general, mine are no exception. An easy one size-fit all answer is that rats should generally have a tube shape, with no bulge or loose skin. A problem I had was my boys had very large bottoms. Setting up the cage differently, I was able to force them to use their arms more to climb and it's balanced all but my laziest rat who, in the face of a challenge, seems to have decided to forego using that part of the cage now. 


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

You've got a few tools which help you judge a rats weight and wether its right or not, you get better with experience but heres some starting points;

Top down view - look at them as they are running on the floor, as nanashi said they should look tumbular, not bulge out anywhere and also not be bum heavy (something boys can tend to do). This means there shoulders and bum should be roughly even and the middle should either dip in a bit (more so in youngsters under say 9 months) or be even, no podge.

Sitting top down view - get them settled somewhere sitting or lieing down and look at them from above, bear in mind this is never a bucks best angle lol. They ideally shouldnt spread out much in this position (a sign of good muscle tone), however if they bulge out a lot, or worse look any wheer near an oval / pizza then you have a very overweight rat. A small amount may be an indication they are a bit chubby or just have poor muscle tone and baggy skin.

Feel - hold your rats shoulders and stroke down their body, so there hanging a bit like a ferret. This gives you a good feel for there overall shape too, again no middle spread is good, some indicates they are a bit chubby. Also if there body tone generally is soft and squishy they may well be carrying too much excess weight, saying that them being firm is no gaurnetee as some rats carry there fat layer underneath the muscle layer, this is actually worse as its around the organs then. After a while you get a good feel for this but its not something i can really explain via text. Its also worth saying that on a healthy lean rat you sould be able to slightly feel all there bones but none shoudl be prominant. A buck will have more muscle tone if he's fit and dominant (you should see my none dominant buck, he looks more like a doe lol), but you can still feel the structure and shape of the rat.

The bet thing to do is to try and meet a few rats and experienced owners and get a feel for what they think, it does you good to reset your opinions now and then. I remember one show health checking a girls rats and her telling me worridly that she thought this boy was too skinny and unwell, he was quite obese but slimmer than his brothers, During the course of the show she got a better understanding of what a good rat shape was, without that its very hard.


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## kjgannon09 (Oct 16, 2013)

The girl's have a DFN, but the boys' cage is actually a bird cage, so it doesn't have shelves, just tons of hammocks I've strung up. So really it's a fair amount of climbing. I've also been feeding them on the bottom of the cage since they seem to like hanging out near the top. And they haven't been getting anything except their oxbow and parsley that they love.

But… I looked him up and down like you said and he seems a bit chubby. Maybe the rest is just muscle tone? I will see if I can find other boys in general to compare to though since I'm not for sure. Thank you for the help.

Haha Nanashi the laziest ones always figure out how get around the "exercise." Comet just lately started parachuting to lower level hammocks to avoid climbing. He literally just plops from hammock to hammock. It's hilarious!


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

I had his brother full on throw himself from the roof of the DCN to the floor of the first unit because it would take too long to get down and I was passing out treats. It wasn't a graceful fall and nothing was there to brace it - he literally had to tuck himself slightly under the level and drop at an angle. Gosh. 

Muscle tone shouldn't "feel" plushie. I know, squishies are amazing because they're squishes but they need to be cylindrical squishes (I think some leeway for the bum should be given because they are just massive butts!!). Even though he's your alpha, he probably should FEEL the same as your girls (who is going to say those hyper balls of fur don't have muscles when they scale flat walls??). My alpha, btw, is smaller than his sons. The biggest boy is actually the one who doesn't care for hierarchies just naps and chewing stuff. 


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## kjgannon09 (Oct 16, 2013)

I feel kinda stupid even asking all this, because I've had rats for a long time. This is just my first experience with full-grown boys.

He is almost twice the size of the my girls, but with the exception of his butt he doesn't seem more than just a little chubby. I'll up the exercise level with free range and new climbing toys in the cage for a couple weeks and see how that goes. I don't have a lot of rats in my area to compare now that I think about it, so I'll see if I can get a picture up tomorrow for you guys to see.


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