# Are my rats runts?



## Rat lover (Dec 28, 2011)

Hello rat forum. I have had my first two rats for about 3 or 4 months now. I got them from a rat owner I know and trust in my area. I feed my rats every single morning and night. But they are very small. I went over to my friends house with my rats so ours could play. ( all girls don't worry) but we got ours from the same breeder and the same litter and her rats are easily twice the size of mine. I took mine back to the breeder and she looked them over and said they looked plump and healthy but they were 2 of the three smaller ones in the litter. Is this normal that they can be this small? They have gotten much bigger since I got them but they still look like mice instead of rats. There is a picture of them in my avatar photo.


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## aurag2 (Dec 12, 2010)

It's kind of hard to judge them from the tiny photo. You should try posting a full photo of something that's about the same size worldwide, like a plastic water bottle or a ruler


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## Rat lover (Dec 28, 2011)

Sorry if I put this in the wrong forum. I was just wondering if it was normal for my rats to be that small


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## HelloClarice (Feb 1, 2012)

It can be slow some days, don't worry i'm sure someone will tell ya =] I have no clue but if they are healthy sometimes they can just be a little small. At least with my friends who are twins one is super skinny [and male] and the other is.....not so skinny [and female] so I wouldn't be too worried, again as long as they are healthy!


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## PipRat (Jan 24, 2012)

Did you take pictures of your rats with your friend's rats? I don't know much about the size variations within rat litters. Could yours be dwarves?


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## Rat lover (Dec 28, 2011)

I'll try to go over to her house tomorrow. It is a very odd size difference. Thank you for the reply!


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Rat lover said:


> I'll try to go over to her house tomorrow. It is a very odd size difference. Thank you for the reply!


How much do your girls weigh? That is important.


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## Rat lover (Dec 28, 2011)

lilspaz68 said:


> How much do your girls weigh? That is important.


 I am so sorry and feel stupid for asking this question but.... How do you weigh your rat. I feel bad because I know you should weigh your rats but I never learned how.


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## gypsy (Feb 4, 2012)

I use a regular scale. Mine goes use to 14 pounds and you find it in the kitchen gadget department of a store. It also converts to lbs, ounces, and grams. Rats are generally weighed by grams.


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## TobyRat (May 24, 2011)

Do you have a picture of them showing their entire body? 

To weigh them I would recommend getting a scale that measures in grams. I got mine from an office supply store and it works great for my rats.


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## riotfox (Apr 16, 2010)

perhaps your friends rats are just giants .but seriously, they may just be overweight or quite large and it makes yours look extra small. but agreed with everyone else, weigh them and see. my girl dolly is about 200g and little miss fast is 250g, and they are fairly normal adults if that helps .


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Postal scale for me as well. You can use different things to put your rats in, I now use gift boxes with a hammock in the bottom, offer them a treat to sit still and eat with.


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## Rat lover (Dec 28, 2011)

Yes I will load a picture of their whole body. Right now on the computer it is not even letting me click on the reply box to post pics or even reply. I am doing this on my iPad which cannot load pics from it. Oh and thank you for the whole weighing thing. I will get a grams scale soon!


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## shawnalaufer (Aug 21, 2011)

I use a digital food scale. I just set a Tupperware bowl on top before turning it on, plop the rat in the bowl...and voila!


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