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Orphan rats not weaning

2K views 24 replies 5 participants last post by  Rat Lover For Life! 
#1 ·
For the past four, almost five weeks, I've been taking care of nine orphan rats. Seven of them have been weaning perfectly. Its almost week five and seven of them are eating solid foods gaining great weight and I can finish weaning them. But two of them have been refusing to eat solid foods. And they're not eating a lot of baby mush either. I can't get them to switch out of milk, and they're only eating milk once a day because they're at that age. Should I give them more milk through the day and give them extra time? Or should I continue to try and force them out of drinking milk and more solid foods?
 
#2 ·
How you getting on?
I'm sorry you didnt get any replies to this, unfortunately I am not familiar with weening rats so I dont know :(
Did Dr Google help?
 
#3 ·
How you getting on?
I'm sorry you didnt get any replies to this, unfortunately I am not familiar with weening rats so I dont know :(
Did Dr Google help?
No, but maybe I'm just not looking in the right places. At this point I've gotten them to eat egg yolk. They love it, but they'll only eat egg yolk, dried kiwi, and apple. I've had to trim their teeth down because they began to grow over their lips. They weren't happy with me. I guess they're just going to be a lot smaller than their siblings and take a longer time to switch to a variety of food.
 
#6 ·
What if you give them a hard boiled egg that's cracked only slightly so they can sense what's inside but they would still need to use their teeth to open it, just to get them to learn to use their teeth? I'm just throwing ideas out at this point, 5 weeks is a long time to not be weaned, they should be weaned by 4 weeks.
 
#9 ·
Eggs, carrots, bell peppers, dried papaya, dried pineapple, dried apple, fresh apple, wet and dry adult rat food(oxbow), wet and dry young rat and mouse food(also oxbow), deshelled sunflower seeds(don't have any with shells), peanuts both in and out of the shell, deshelled walnuts, cat food, dried banana, dried peaches, dried pears(I actually tried these a moment ago and they licked it, but didn't eat it), cucumbers, and kale. I think that's everything I've tried feeding them. I'm in the middle of trying to feed them broccoli heads and it seems promising.
Edit: I almost forgot to list off the baby foods I've also given them. Meat sauce, carrot sauce, pear sauce, and applesauce.
 
#10 ·
I'm sure this is frustrating for you.
Try the baby food cereals. They're less messy than other baby foods (you can vary the consistency as they wean).
Also, try scrambled eggs.
When mine was around one month old, I was surprised by the things she wouldn't eat.
Now, she'll eat just about anything I hand her. (except things like baby foods and applesauce - total disinterest)

Also, try hand feeding them until they get the idea/hang of eating foods .... if they eat from your hand, you can use that to lead them to their dish.
And you might even try not using a dish at all (if you are). If they let you lead them to the food, simply put a small amount down on the cage floor and let them try it out.
 
#11 ·
I'm sure this is frustrating for you.
Try the baby food cereals. They're less messy than other baby foods (you can vary the consistency as they wean).
Also, try scrambled eggs.
When mine was around one month old, I was surprised by the things she wouldn't eat.
Now, she'll eat just about anything I hand her. (except things like baby foods and applesauce - total disinterest)

Also, try hand feeding them until they get the idea/hang of eating foods .... if they eat from your hand, you can use that to lead them to their dish.
And you might even try not using a dish at all (if you are). If they let you lead them to the food, simply put a small amount down on the cage floor and let them try it out.
I separate the two babies during the day and have them in a separate cage and a variety of food is played out on the floor for them. I only put egg yolk in a bowl because the crumbs get stuck in the fabrics. I also try to hand feed them all of the foods at random times throughout the day with little to no success. They really only seem to be highly interested in eggs.
 
#15 ·
Absolutely not. Their siblings who were born on the same day are twice their size. One of the babies just started to eat sunflower seeds like 2 minutes ago. The other one I thought was going to join, but he just sat next to him and began grooming his face.

Here's a picture of one of boys not eating next to their other male litter mate

It's really frustrating and I'm so scared that they're not going to make it to adulthood. I also currently have wet pellet food in with the two
 

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