Expert: Sandra Todd - 7/3/2009

Question
QUESTION: we have 11 rats, my sister and I, we have three cages and we keep our two oldest rats, KIITY  and BABY in a cage together, (they are both girls and BABY is the mother of our other baby rats) then we have the 3 six week old baby girl rats in another cage and we also have a very large cage with 6 boy rats in it, 3 six week olds and 3 older ones.we have been noticing in the younger boy rats that their bellies have become quite hardened. we dont know if this is a problem or not, since we have never raised young rats before. the girl six week olds do not have this hard belly and we are not sure if it will affect them. is it a problem?

ANSWER: Hi Hunter

are the boy rats going to the bathroom ok? IS the stool normal or hard?

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

QUESTION: we cured the problem, sorry i never got the chance to read your reply. we were simply just feeding them way too much for their small size, we were feeding them too much because we also have the 3 larger boys in the cage. now we feed them seperate amounts. thanks so much.

Answer
Rats do not over eat.  Baby rats usually have fatter round bellies as this is just a part of baby hood.  Rats should always have food available to them. This does not make them fat. What makes them fat is feeding foods high in fats and proteins which not only create obesity but can cause fatty liver and also damage kidneys.

What are you feeding them?