Pet rat help please!!

[ChristieB]

Hi there. This is Louie,

he's about 1 year old and just this week we ended up going to the vet with some serious teeth issues, he had injured himself somewhere (I think inside his mouth), and I had my 5 year old running in saying he had blood on him! Anywho his teeth were trimmed but are severely misaligned. That day was the first time I noticed this problem, he was a pet store purchase at roughly 12 weeks of age, I checked him over thoroughly and noticed no problems at that time. He has been losing weight over the past few months, pretty much since the rest of our rats (breeders for my ex husbands snakes) were rehomed, so I put it down to pining, my son plays with him the most so I admit I didn't pay much attention to him except to feed water and clean his cage
anyway long winded intro to my questions.


First, any ideas why after a good while of no teeth issues did they suddenly become so bad?
Second, will they correct themselves?

I've been giving him soft foods to help him gain back weight, kicking myself for not realising sooner, he particularly loves the baby purées of course but wondering what else I can give him? I soaked some dog biscuits tonight for a treat, (gave him hard ones too which he took straight to his nest)
but I need a regular food that is easy to eat or easily softened

Any advice greatly appreciated

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Hi there!

Louie is a cute little guy and I'm glad you were able to catch the tooth problem!

Sometimes the teeth just become misaligned after a while as the animals mature. It could be anything from anold injury, to a minor deformity of the skull. Unfortunately, at this point, there is not much that can be done to correct the tooth issue and he may need regular trimmings for the rest of his life since they cannot wear down properly on their own. However, the good news is, now that you know he has this issue, it can be a very manageable thing!

The soft food is a great idea and there is a type of food made out there that works great for small animals with tooth issues. It is called Critical Care and you mix it up with water and feed it via a large syringe. The animals generals learn how to eat it fairly quick and it's very easy to feed. If you buy a few syringes, you can even mix up a few days worth of food at one time. As a rat, he shouldn't need much, but the feeding instructions should be on the bag or the website. It might be a bit more costly than regular food, but again, it should last you a while.

With properly trimmed teeth, he may be able to eat his regular food. The goal is to trim to allow the mouth to close and as long as the vet didn't see a problem with the back teeth, you may be able to introduce harder foods again. It may be a trial and error thing but it's may be worth trying! The critical care is not a bad idea until he gains more weight though.

Good luck with him!