Change in behaviour

Question
QUESTION: Hi,
I am currently caring for my first pet rats and am a little concerned about one of them.  Both rats are male.  One of my rats is very active, he enjoys coming out of the cage to play but can be a bit of a bully to the other rat.  The bullying does not seem to go too far as I have not noticed any injuries on either rat.  The other rat used to be just as playful if not more so but now he won't willingly leave his cage.  He has become quite overweight and very lazy.  I'm not sure if this is a reult of illness, his diet or the bullying from the other rat but it would be good to know if I can do anything to help him.  I feed them a complete rat food everyday,  every 2 days they get some fresh vegetables and they get occasional treats designed for rats - the other rat shows no sign of being overweight but has access to the same food.  If you have any insight as to why his behaviour may have changed I would really appreciate any advice you can give.  I just can't understand why an active rat who used to give me the run-around trying to climb to the top of the bookshelf has changed so much.

ANSWER: Hi Scarlett

Congrats on being a new rat owner.

First, I wanted to ask how old the boys are.

Also, what kind of rat food do you give them?  You said its a complete diet so I am going to assume its not the typical seed mix pet stores sell (the stuff that is too high in fats and protein and mainly fit to feed birds since rats need more than just seed mix and kibble) and I assume they are eating a nutritious rodent block/pellet without corn as its first ingredient and also low in fat and protein (no more than 15 percent) or something along those lines.  

Also, males are usually a bit laid back than females but if the other little guy has not showed any changes, this is something to look into for sure, as you are doing.

You said he is also a bit on the fluffy side compared to his cagemate. Do you happen to know is weight, or a good estimate is fine too and also the weight of the other rat.

Rats have a fast metabolic rate but if the fluffier rat eats more than the other more lean rat does, this could explain his expanding waist line.  Again, it also depends on his diet and what he is eating daily.

Excess weight can slow a rat down but it can also lead to heart disease as well as kidney disease and even fatty deposits on the liver.  Some rat owners think that being a lazy squishy male rat is adorable and I was one of them until I watched my favorite rat have a heart attack right in front of me over 4 years ago.  He is the rat featured with me in my profile.  He was by far my most favorite rat ever, but he also tipped the scales closer to 2 3/4 lbs! He was just the biggest smooshiest rat ever (if smooshiest is a word, which I doubt, so forgive my choice of words and the fact I could be a bit more articulate with them right about now ;)

As for the bullying, males usually do scrap, some more than others. I have had more males than females over the years and I have had a few pairs of males that never went head to head combat and others were so aggressive and stubborn about who reigned as the alpha male that I had to have two males neutered (that solved it all for sure!) and I have had a few rats really bite into each other over who had more yogis than the other, but nothing major or out of the norm other than the two aggressive males I just bought last year.

Also, if you want to check out my website about rats and their care, here is the URL:

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/

Anyhow, let me know again about his diet and his age.  If I had to guess I would say they are either close to 8 months or a bit older.
Once I hear back from you I will have a better understanding about what could be happening and I will be more than happy to help.

thanks for writing and talk soon

Sandy

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Sandy,

Thanks for responding to my question so soon.  It is really hard to get advise when you have a new pet especially as most vets seem quite unfamiliar with caring for rats.  Earl and Randy are approximately 7 months old (we've had them for 5 and a half months and I presume they are about 6 weeks old when they are sold).

The food they eat is pets at home (a UK pet store chain) own brand rat nuggets.  The main ingredient is wheat and they are 16% protein.  After reading your website I might try and mix something up for them myself as I did not realise they might get bored of this!

Randy (the energetic rat) weighs 0.9 lbs and Earl (the chubby one) weighs 1.2 lbs.  This doesn't sounds like much difference but they are very noticeably different sizes.  I think this is because Randy is a lot more muscular than Earl and likes a lot of play involving running/exercise.

I don't know if this is significant but Earl had a slight respiratory infection in December.  He was on a course of antibiotics (I can't remember which kind) for 10 days and appeared to make a full recovery. He has not made any of the rattling noises that he was making since then.

Thanks again for your advice.
Scarlett

ANSWER: Hi Scarlett

Sounds like your doing everything right (diet sounds perfect) That is awesome the main ingredient is wheat and they sell that at the pet store. You cant buy those here on store shelves. They sell total junk with the first ingredient being corn.  Yuck! :)  Rats can get a bit bored with their diet but if they are eating it well for you, I wouldnt let them have a massive varitey of things or they may decide they dont want

I had a feeling about their age ( I said around 8 months, being off by 1 month) from the clues you gave me. Typical puberty. The bullying is mainly due to the boys deciding the pecking order of their small colony. Even though there are just two rats, sometimes testosterone levels really get them going and it can cause some scraping, but usually its nothing major at all and they outgrow it.  Not knowing what type of body frame Earl has, his weight really is not that high. This, in fact, is within normal healthy ranges for males. The normal low weight for bucks is between 500 and 650 grams and high ranges from 650 to over 800 grams, so he is within the normal range since he is around a pound, which is, if my math is right, around 458 grams, give or take a few grams here or there.

Is Earl eating ok and taking treats? Does he still show interest in coming out to play?  


I do have one concern, and that is about the respiratory illness he had in December. I am hoping it was a secondary infection and NOT mycoplasmosis because myco needs treated anywhere from 21 to 30 days. The reason is, its a stubborn organism because it hangs on and if its not totally destroyed (its an organism with no cell wall, which means the antibiotic must be able to fight bacteria with no cell wall or it wont work and only a handful of antibiotics can do this) What happens is that they relapse if they werent on the meds long enough and the second attack is worse than the first and so on and so on...and the rat develops chronic lung problems. I hate myco because of this. It can cause scarring of the lungs, blisters of the lungs, even illnesses such as emphysema !  The problem is, the rat seems fine after a few days on the meds and may be ok for a few months and all of a sudden they relapse.  Hopefully since it is now April and he has been healthy since December, it was a secondary infection and NOT myco.
Anyhow, does he breathe heavy? Fast or slow? Check his feet for color....let me know what you see. Does he doing anything out of the ordinary lately such as lay in weird places or hang his head over a threshold or balcony of the shelves or does he lay in weird places he never did before?

Let me know those few things...but I am thinking its puberty...they are the prime age.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Sandy,

You are right about body shape, Earl is very rounded and when you pick him up he kind of flows into your hands!  He eats fine (it's his favorite hobby) and he take treats although he has started snatching them lately.  My biggest worry is that he no longer willingly comes out of his cage and generally I have to lift him out. Once he's out he plays just fine (although most of his play involves trying to steal treats from the box where I store them).  Their cage is in a room which is rat-proofed (no wires, valuables, sharp things ect)and I try to include various card board boxes and toys for them.  When they are let out they are supervised at all times and enjoy coming to us for play and cuddles.

Earl's breathing seems to be fine although he sneezes occasionally.  The bottom of his feet are pink.

Answer
Our rats are spoiled rotten, arent they? When my daughter moved out I was sad in a way, but happy I had a room finally to dedicate to my rats, or at least part of the room anyhow. I have hermit crabs too so the area where their tanks are is off limits due to the wires from the heating elements on the crabs tanks. I also have a bunny but his cage sits up high so the rats dont even see him, just hear him move around.
Did you see my website yet?  I have a small write up about the dangers of free roaming (not a rat proofed room but the entire house) and have a picture of a good friend of mines precious rat, who had an accident and was electorcuted, but thankfully she made it through. I have a photo of her when she was all swollen in the face and after she recovered. This is geared toward rat owners that allow their rat to run free. Even though this rat was in a rat proofed area but he forgot to get just one cord up and.....ZAP!

As for old lazy bones not wanting out and you having to take him out....what time of day do you usually take them out for play? Is there a set time or is it just random?   You "could" be finding him during his nocturnal sleep time. Even if they are awake, they still feel sluggish during the day, especially after they hit puberty, which they are right at the beginning stages of it now. Even though they are awake, they are still kind of blah.  Imagine if we go to bed around, say, midnight...and someeone comes to our house at 2 or 3am and wants to go to the 24 hr. Walmart  LOL (what a scenerio) You may go, but you still feel like a zombie.... thats kind of how it is when we disrupt the rats natural nocturnal sleep pattern.  Eventually if you continue to disturb them at the same time every day, you can actually break that nocturnal instinct, or so they say, so they are up more during the day and sleep more at night, but they never totally get out of that habit. Like humans that start to work the graveyard shift. They may learn to sleep during the day and stay up all night at work, but its usually pretty easy to adjust right back to the normal pattern of sleeping during at night and staying up all day.
This may not be the case and I am blabbin for nothing, since I dont know what time you take him out for play time, but this is really just something for other readers too, one of those "learn something new every day" type of info.   LOL

Anyhow, here is my website if you want to take a look.I am working on a few articles now about rat teeth and am about to post an article about head swaying since alot of people are confused as to what it really means, so I am always updating it. I think the health care page is just to long so I may consolidate it and make links to the articles instead of having it all on one page....but I would like your opinion on it if you dont mind.
Here is the URL:
http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/allaboutratcare.htm

Thanks:)

Sandy