[nanashi7]

So, Athena just went to the vet and they were concerned with her size and weight. However, she isn't exactly underweight compared to my others! She was 274g. They kept calling her a "baby" until they checked their chart and asked me to verify her age...

Almost 2 years ago, their mother Caius had a HW litter of 14, but one passed leaving 13. She nursed all without additional help from me, only plenty of calories and protein. As they grew up, I provided more-than-necessary protein every few months for a bit to boost growth to no avail.

They grew up in a roomy bin cage (big enough for 4 adults), was moved to a cage at 2.5 weeks (again big enough for 4 adults) then was graduated to a huge cage to grow up in at 4.5wks (big enough for 12 adults (minus three girls and two boys! so only 10 lived in it). So I don't think their space was limited enough to cause tiny growth.

Here's a pic of her in relation to a hand and daffodil for size reference: http://imgur.com/KywTDtb
Here's a pic of her sister for a body-shot: http://i.imgur.com/YuqkG4L.jpg
And another pic of a different sister for reference: http://i.imgur.com/xHLwAsy.jpg

To me, they look fine weight, thoughts? They are small for full grown adults IMO, they stopped growing around 6mo, but I was never concerned about it...should I be? Are they really that tiny? They are now two days from the 1.5yr mark.

 

[mimsy]

I wouldn't worry unless they were under weight..as in skinny from malnutrition. My Mama rat Goose and one of her girls, Bispotti are super small compared to the rest the girls in the cage. Goose had 12 babies, fed them all on her own, was a perfect Mom and all but Bispottie have outgrown her by a lot. Goose we think was born beginning of april of last year, so she's about 10 months old and is healthy. She hasn't had so much as a sneeze since we've had her.

Your girls are a year and half! How can you do something about their size? You can't do anything but make them fat, which isn't healthy, so I wouldn't worry about them..they are just petite. The first two pics are lil blurry as far as I can tell they don't look thin, but the 3rd is very clear and the cutie in the pic definitely does not look underweight.

It reminds me of when my pediatrician worried about my now oldest daughter being under the height norm back when she was like 6 months. (she is now 26 years) I'm not even 5' tall. I asked them what they thought I should do, put her on a stretcher, leg implants? She's now 5'4, and healthy. No, my daughters and I will never make the basketball team..but we are healthy...just short lol.

 

[kksrats]

They all look to be a healthy weight which is really what matters as far as size is concerned. None of my girls are the same size, but as long as they have the same healthy body shape I'd consider them healthy. As mimsy said, there's nothing unhealthy about having a small stature as long as they're not overweight for their size.

 

[nanashi7]

Thanks guys; the vet tech was just overly pushy about her being "under sized" -- not weighing as much as an adult female rat should (in the 300-400g range). But, if she weighed 200g more she'd be a pudgeball! I always knew mine were tiny (they are dwarfed by an unrelated female who's barely 6mo :/), but just assumed they would grow with age and they never did (I assumed the same thing with me and I'm stuck at 5'5''). After that, I just shrugged it off until the vet tech kept coming back to it and then I started wondering if it was a concern. The entire litter is tiny, even the males; the mother and father never grew that big either (380g for Remus). They've otherwise been healthy so haven't been to the vet before now for an exam of any kind.