Sad Squirrels

[senashenta]

Mm. Bedrock is very skinny right now. He's not sick or anything, he's just lost a lot of weight. I think Granite is hogging the food or something, since he's a chubby little rodent, despite Bedrock's skinny-ness. *pokes degu* Bad squirrel.

Anyway, I took Bedrock out and put him into another cage, where I intend to leave him for about a week or so (maybe two), and see if that helps at all. If having him with no one to pick on him over food is all it takes to get him gaining a bit of weight back, then I guess it's just Granite. In which case I really have no idea what I'm going to do... ^^;;

They're not happy about the whole situation, though; the cages are about a food apart, and the two of them are right up at the sides of them most of the time, scratching at the bars or just squeaking and looking sad and lonely.

Makes me feel bad, even though it's for their own good... ;__;

Comments

[etcetera-cat.livejournal.com]

Have you checked to see if his teeth are maloccluded? That's one of the common reasons for rodents losing weight, as they can't eat as much food as they normally would, and take longer-- which means that any other animals they're housed with can hog the food.

If his incisors are over-grown, then it's a 2-second job for a vet or nurse to burr them whilst he's awake, but if his molars have over-grown spurs on them then he'll need sedating to clip and burr them...

< /vet nurse >

[senashenta.livejournal.com]

Considering how much the two of them chew on their cage and whatnot, he shouldn't have problems with overgrown teeth... but I'll check anyway, just to make sure. ^^

Assuming I can get my hands on him, considering how not happy with me he is right now... ^_^;;