Hello all. My husband and I have a little boy Rat "Marco." He is 2 years old. My question is he lays around a lot during the day being an inside dog and spends lots of time with mom until Dad gets home. I take him out 2-3 times a day to the backyard for bathroom breaks and for him to hunt around, sniff grass and so forth. When Dad comes home they go outside and really play hard....fetch, hide and seek etc. I have a sedentary life style. Is it normal for a Rat of his age to want to lay around a lot during the day and sleep some to? I see no changes in urine or bowels and he sees the vet once a month for nail trimmings. He has had all of his shots and yearly updates.  He will go bark at his parakeets and get all excited when Dad comes in from work and runs around. Thanks.......concerned mom.  Ps. he gets Beneful.

Hi--I think Ratties sort of "adapt" to whatever their owner's lifestyle is for the most part.  If you have a very active day, they can go all day long, but if you're pretty laid back, they adapt to that, also.  One more reason that Ratties fit so well in most families.

Welcome! He sounds perfectly normal. Ratties adjust to their owner's lifestyle as the other members have mentioned.

You might want to consider feeding him something else though - JMO - but Beneful is one of the worst foods out there...main ingredient is corn!  They have a great advertising campaign going and it sounds great until you really research dog food (like most of us on here have done - and switched to higher quality foods.)  Corn is just a low-cost filler for companies to use - it should never be the main ingredient in a food.  Corn, corn gluten, wheat and chicken by-product meal are the first 4 ingredients - and chicken by-product meal is just ground up chicken feet, feathers, whatever from the slaughterhouse.  

http://www.beneful.com/Dog-Food/Original/Default.aspx#shown

INGREDIENTS
Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), rice flour, beef, soy flour, sugar, sorbitol, tricalcium phosphate, water, salt, phosphoric acid, animal digest, potassium chloride, dicalcium phosphate, sorbic acid (a preservative), L-Lysine monohydrochloride, dried peas, dried carrots, calcium carbonate, calcium propionate (a preservative), choline chloride, added color (Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 2), DL-Methionine, Vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, Vitamin A supplement, manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin B-12 supplement, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, copper sulfate, biotin, garlic oil, thiamine hydrochloride, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), calcium iodate, sodium selenite.

There are high quality foods out there like Canidae, Innova, EVO, Solid Gold, Natural Balance, Merrick, etc.  This is a good site to research foods at: http://www.dogfoodproject.com/  And since a high quality food will fill your dog up with needed nutrition quicker they really don't cost any more.

Thank you all so much for your input. We love our baby so much. I will look into changing his food and I can't wait to get to know all of you and share stories. I'm including two photos of our baby.


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Thank  you all for the warm welcome and helpful info. I'm a little shy but I'll jump on in here. It's been raining so our PC's have been turned off for a good while.

Welcome.   My Lucky is 3 years old and weighs 20 or 21 pounds.  He gets about a half cup of dry food and a mix of green beans and a spoonful or two of canned food.  3/4 cup could be fine, it depends on what kind of food it is.  The food I feed has no corn, wheat, rice, or any kind of by-products so I can feed less.  If you're feeding dog food then I'd take it easy on the people food.  If you feed people food instead of dog food then you have to be careful to include everything he needs, including a multivitamin and a calcium supplement.  I feed apples sometimes, just make sure not to feed the seeds, they can be poisonous.  Any cooked bone is dangerous,  they can splinter and cause choking or get stuck or puncture the digestive tract.  The raw steak bone would be a treat for him, and will help keep his teeth clean.  Just make sure to keep an eye on him while he chews it.  Finally, I wouldn't give too many Milk Bone chewy treats. They contain ingredients that can cause everything from allergies (soy) to cancer(BHA). I also see that they contain sugar, which is bad for the teeth and can make them want treats instead of good food.

Maybe a mod can move this to its own topic. 

Ski thank you for your advice. Lucky seems a happy camper. He seems to have afriend. Is that yours too?

How do I ask the moderator?

What kind of treats do you give Lucky?

He gets 1/4 cup of Eaukenuba or breakfast -7am.,  1/4 at lunch 2pm  and night gets 1/8 cup mixed w/ 1/2 rice carrots peas. In between, treats are graham cracker (light), yogurt apples. Ii is difficult for me not to feed him but since I read overfeeding might make him die young I am trying to get a handle.  

What do you get for him to gnaw on in the house. The shelter gave rawhide --but color came off. They also gave beef jerky. Dont know how much to give. 

He goes for his 2 nd distemper shot on the 8th.   

Need to get some outside toys for him.

So many qustions?  Thanks SOOO much for your helpful suggestions.

Welcome Leosmama!  I agree, the steakbone is dangerous, I don't give my dogs any bones.  For chewing I give them Nylabone chews and Nutrident dental chews.  Also, these little dogs can develop pancreatis if you give them too much fatty foods or sugar (the Graham crackers!!!).  There is a post on foods toxic to dogs pinned at the top of the Health Forum - you might want to check it out - grapes and raisins for example are toxic to them.

JMO but Eukanuba is a low quality food, full of corn and fillers.  I know they make it sound wonderful on their advertisements but it is NOT a good food.  You can research for yourself how to tell if a food is high or low quality from this website:  www.dogfoodproject.com .

 Although chicken is listed as the first ingredient the second is chicken by-product meal which can be feathers, heads, anything!  And the third ingredient is corn which is a cheap filler.  Here are the ingredients from the Eukanuba site for small dog adult food:

http://us.iams.com/eukanuba/en_US/jsp/Euk_Page.jsp?pageID=PRDD&PID=03&TAB=IN

Ingredients
Chicken, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Brewers Rice, Chicken Fat (Preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Fish Meal, Ground Whole Grain Barley, Natural Chicken Flavor, Dried Beet Pulp (Sugar Removed), Dried Egg Product, Fish Oil (Preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Brewers Dried Yeast, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Vitamins [Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Beta-Carotene, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (Source of Vitamin B1), Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement (Source of Vitamin B2), Inositol, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Source of Vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid], Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Flax Meal, Calcium Carbonate, Choline Chloride, Minerals [Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate], DL-Methionine, Rosemary Extract.

First to Gajen.

Your babies are adorable. I also want you to know that I used this topic started by you because it said "need advice". I apologize if you thought I was using your thread. I am a total nube when it comes to chatting online or posting.

I will start another thread for Leo as soon as I know how. Thank you meanwhile for sharing.

Mitzy's Mom your kids got STYLE and BOW BOW. 

Thank you for your input. I just cooked a little rice in the beef broth from the steak bones with a little grean beans, potato, sweet potato carrot celery and peas. Mixed with his dry dog food that I will change. 

What brand do you use? I gave him the light graham cracker. Only one the whole day. But I will stop. So much to learn including this forum. Thank you for your help.