Home Remedies for a Sick Pet Rat

Rats are often viewed by most as a pest or nuisance that needs to be removed from the home. This is true for wild rats, however, there are many people who have rats as pets and love them because they are loyal, affectionate, intelligent, and highly interactive. Similar to other pets, they sometimes become ill with various ailments. Fortunately, there are a few home remedies to try before bringing them to the veterinarian.

  1. Protein Itch

    • This condition does not affect all rats, but is common enough that it warrants some information about it. The symptoms manifest through scratching around the neck and shoulders, with numerous small red scabs throughout the fur. The scabbing is the result of the rat scratching in discomfort. This is most often because the rat is consuming too much protein in its diet. To treat this, put the rat on a special diet of fresh vegetables, cooked brown rice, and plain biscuits. After the scratching goes away, put your pet rat back on its normal feed, but remove nuts from the diet. Rat diets should have a protein content no more than 15 percent to maintain their health, states Fancy Pet Rats.

    Lethargic, Listless and Unintersted in Food

    • These are all symptoms of a rat that has a depressed immune system and need something to jump-start it. Most often, the culprit is that your rat is no getting enough exercise. Exercise is a key component to maintaining the immune system and overall health of your pet rat. Rats will become depressed and lethargic when they are not constantly stimulated through activities. The easiest way to treat this at home is to remove your pet rat from the cage and place it in a sealed off room. Let the rat run around for 20 minutes to an hour each day. Stimulate its senses with toys.

    Digestion Problems

    • Sometimes rats have diarrhea problems, meaning something they are eating is not being processed by their bodies. If you see that your pet rat has watery feces, then it is probably because it has too many vegetables in its diet. A rat's digestive tract is highly sensitive and needs to be balanced. The best remedy for this is to remove vegetables from the diet completely for a few days, until the droppings become solid again. After this, you can introduce vegetables back into the diet gradually.