Rat
Rescue :: What
are the best foods for giving antibiotics to my rattie?
What are the best foods for giving antibiotics to my rattie?
If you have a rat who needs to have medicine, it can be a nightmare
trying to get them to eat the crushed up tablet disguised in
food or if it is a liquid medication, to syringe it down them.
Here are some tried and tested tips from members of the Fancy
Rats forum at:
www.fancy-rats.co.uk
with some or our own added too..
If you have any tried and tested foods that you hide your rats
medications in, please email jason@cavyrescue.co.uk
I've bought some soya milk and choc pudding to try and bribe
him as I read its best not to put it in a bottle. I thought
I might put it on small piece of wholemeal bread as it soaks
it up?
Mine don't like it soaked onto bread or anything like that
as they can still taste it. Stirred into 1/2 teaspoon of the
choc pudding works well, you need to keep cage mates away of
course.
My failsafe method is put the baytril onto the teaspoon, add
a few biscuit crumbs, cake or scone crumbs to it and mush it
in with the handle of another teaspoon until it makes a little
dough ball and then hand that to your patient who will take
it from you and munch on it happily
I always use a blob of EMP
the trick I've found is to vary it - a bit of cookie one day,
blob of jam the next and so on otherwise they get suspicious.
I make ratty jam sandwiches. A blob of jam on the baytril
soaked bread has always worked. Peanut butter works even better,
they go mad for it!
I used to put it on bread and then dunk the bread in chocolate
powder
When Jess was very ill we ended up melting a few chocolate
or yogurt drops over a boiling kettle in a teaspoon adding medicine
and then freezing it.
Babyfood was foolproof for Ping and her concoction of meds.
Hot chocolate powder (sprinkle a pinch over the meds, add a
drop of water if necessary) 99.9% effectily. Half a malteser
worked well but not in big groups. Kiwi, banana mush, porridge
were other successes with Ping when she fancied a change. Ribena
worked with some, but was foiled quite quickly.
Gravy Bones, with one end snapped off and the meds (watered
down a bit to make the biscuit soak it up better) syringed inside
(though no good for stashers)
Peachy porridge baby food works time after time and rat after
rat for me - to have a rat jumping up and down desperate to
take his meds is a relief
My two never fail to take their baytril on a small piece of
digestive biscuit, it's so successful that Ive never tried
anything else.
melted mint choc chip ice cream they cant resist it
I use biscuits. Mocha refuses anything 'on a spoon', despite
usually being so greedy. In fact, he was so 'flippin fussy that
I *attempted* syringing it, but he spat it out.
I've had ratties do that before, so no more syringing for
me (or the rats, lol!). Biscuits work best for me, though have
to give the other rattie unbaytrilled bits of biscuit to stop
fights.....
Soya yoghurt with crumbled digestive and a blob of jam on
top. Add the drugs and you have a ratty cheesecake!
Smooth apple sauce on a teaspoon with the meds mixed in really
well works for me. Or chocolate soya milk in a little bowl if
they are caged alone whilst ill, that way they can have a little
at a time over a few hours.
If appetite is really too poor to eat, maybe mix with a sweet
liquid such a blackcurrent first before syringing? You'll need
to get the syringe in the back of the mouth and quickly squirt
to avoid side dribble. Trouble is, no matter how ill they are
they always have enough energy to wriggle, so maybe someone
else can do the rat holding whilst you syringe?
Foods to buy and try:
Digestive biscuits
Soya yogurt
Baby food
Farleys rusk (break up into a bowl, pour hot water over the
top and mash until it makes a mush). Add complan to the mix
for sick ratties
Porridge
Swiss roll or any other spongey / absorbent cake
