[fallinstar]

im really worryed about my lil cody hes not ill or any thing he is just half the size of my other two he is from the same litter as one and he never seems 2 eat he wont take treats or eat anything unless (it seems weird) i lick it and no matter how much i loce him im not licking his rat food i dont no what to do at the mo i have cody on the sofa with me and i have his food next to me he isnt eating it and the other two are in their cages. cody shares a cage with toby and yes toby is a bit greedy but he never ever pushes cody away from the food as they have a bowl each can any one help?? cody isnt under weight hes just small is this normal? can 2 rats from the same litter be totally different sizes?? advice plz some one?

 

[DonnaK]

The only things I can think of to try are to put Cody in a cage or place of his own for a while around the time you normally feed them and see if he eats then. Also, if you are giving him scraps or anything else other than his normal food, ease up on that for a bit and see if that encourages him to eat his regular food. Our rats get rather too fond of the fruit and veggies we give them on top of their food. Occasionally, I notice that their regular food isn't getting eaten so quickly and have to ease off the extras a bit.

 

[twitch]

it isn't unusual for rats of the same litter to be different sizes. there was a runt in one of the litters i raised here and she always stayed smaller then the others but she's still a very happy little girl and doesn't miss a beat. and though the males seemed to be of similar size they were still different sizes with quite the noticable difference from deuter and percy though both were big fat guys. when compared they looked quite different. i wouldn't be too concerned so long as he isn't losing weight. if he can maintain his weight then he IS eating just not while you're watching.

 

[nativemic]

it is also possible that there was a dwarf rat in his geneology. dwarfs will be anywhere from 40% to 75% smaller then normal and they can be from the same litter as normal size rats.
how big ( or small ) is he?