[Rattenstein]

So I took my ratties to the vet today for mild respiratory issues. I think I need to dilute the Baytril, the vet didn't say I did, but its 100mg per 1mL (I think, it says baytril 100), if I need to dilute it, how much? The dose is .05mL every 12 hours.

She also said my boys are fat, how much should I feed them per day? I'm free feeding right now. I can do a couple feedings a day if needed, I feed them oxbow regal rat. One is 485 grams and the other is 448 grams.
I took the ramps out of the cage already a few days ago because I thought they could use more exercise lol. What else can I do to get them more exercise? I'm willing to buy a wheel but I'm not sure they would actually use it, which is why I never got them one.

 

[MeinTora]

The 0.5 every twelve hours sounds right, I do 0.5 of medicine and 0.5 of something yummy to get them to take it (watered down strawberry jam, baby food, raw honey) are a few that work really well.

 

[Mball77]

My vet gives it predulded. For fattness, I started cutting back on the oxbow and started feeding more veggies, like green pepers and cucumbers. I left a little oxbow when I went to work and to sleep, and veggies when I was home so if they didn't eat them it wouldn't make a mess. I too got rid of ramps, and while extending free range time to whenever I was home and could keep a half eye on them (after months of getting to trust them to not get lost or wreck the place) the one boy was still lazy, and he didn't understand playing.We had to get creative, like getting him to chace lettus. Also what do you use for training treats?

 

[Rattenstein]

The 0.5 every twelve hours sounds right, I do 0.5 of medicine and 0.5 of something yummy to get them to take it (watered down strawberry jam, baby food, raw honey) are a few that work really well.

No .05, not .5. It's like a drop?

My vet gives it predulded. For fattness, I started cutting back on the oxbow and started feeding more veggies, like green pepers and cucumbers. I left a little oxbow when I went to work and to sleep, and veggies when I was home so if they didn't eat them it wouldn't make a mess. I too got rid of ramps, and while extending free range time to whenever I was home and could keep a half eye on them (after months of getting to trust them to not get lost or wreck the place) the one boy was still lazy, and he didn't understand playing.We had to get creative, like getting him to chace lettus. Also what do you use for training treats?

Okay. I just use bits of puffed rice cereal for training treats, and they don't get those every day either (hard to train rats with a 5 year old stomping around lol)
I was looking for more of a specific amount of oxbow they should get each day, like a couple tablespoons or something? With fruits and veggies of course, my vet said to give them carrots, yellow/orange fleshed squash, and roasted sweet potato. I usually give bell pepper, broccoli, peas, dark greens, apple, or banana depending on what I have.

The vet also wants me to give them children's benadryl, can I just mix that with the Baytril in the syringe? It's cherry flavor and they seem to like it.

Sorry if I'm being annoying.

 

[Mball77]

You're not being annoying, you can research forever and rats will still confound you. Ok, I was never able to section off my rat's dry food intake because one did eat way more then the other and I didn't want to starve the non chubby one out. But I did start feeding them in smaller batches to avoid stashing. On the weekend I would observe how much they ate at a sitting (?) and adjust to leave enough for a meal or two while I was away at work (5hrs out, rest of my work at the time was from home). While fruit is good, to much can be fattening, especially bananas. I've seen lots of different ideas for rat nutrition, and wildly different ways to deal with it, from timed meal times to natural mixes.