Special Care for the Elderly Elderly rats, like with elderly humans, need special care. Their bones become very delicate and fragile, and they will no longer have that solid feeling when being picked up. Your elderly rat will instead start to feel frail. The appearance of an elderly rat will become more and more haggard. Their fur will lose it's luster and not lay as smoothly anymore. Their fur can also start to thin out. We even had a rat that developed age spots. Elderly rats are much more effected by the temperature, light, and loud noises around them. It is important to keep your older rat in a comfortable, stable environment. Their immune systems become much less effective as they age and sudden changes of the environment can bring on an illness due to stress. It is important that you handle your aging rats at least twice a day to look for any changes in health. Problems can come up quick and need to be dealt with ASAP if there is any hope for recovery. Follow you gut, if they look, feel, or act even slightly off then normal, get them to a vet. Elderly rats will sometimes have problems washing themselves properly. You may need to start spot washing their private areas with a warm wet wash cloth or cotton balls each day to keep those areas clean and prevent things like urine burn. Male elderly rats may not be able to clean their penis very effectively any more and can develop something called a penis plug. This is a plug of waxy build up that clogs the sheath (the skin that covers the penis). You will be able to check if there is a plug by feeling the sheath (which you should do at least twice a week). If you feel a hard lump in there it's plugged. To pop this plug out simply push down on the skin around the sheath and kind of squeeze in on the sheath like you were trying to pop a zit and the plug should pop out. Once popped you may need to clean the plug out with a warm wet cotton ball or tissue. Some ageing rats will start gaining weight as their activity level decreases. Now, more than ever, good nutrition and exercise are important. On the other hand, some ageing rats may start loosing body mass, so you might need to add some high calorie nutrition to their regular diet. (This is a good time to start spoiling these rats with yogies.) I recommend several good products for increasing calories, such as Furo-Vite and Nutra-cal, in the "Reviews" section of this site. Another excellent choice is to use powdered baby soy (must be soy) formula, which is also high calorie and very nutritionally balanced for rats. Be certain that your elderly rats can still reach their food and water. Water bottles often need to be lowered for them. Monitor your elderly rats to make sure that they are still eating and drinking everyday. Some elderly rats do not have the strength to eat their hard lab blocks or even use their water bottle anymore. In this situation, you need to start hand feeding them everyday. Using a spoon or needleless syringe, provide soft food and water for this rat at least three times a day if not more. Let them eat and drink as much as they want. Some elderly rats will stop eating/drinking all together. If this is the case, they are sick and are in need of medication. In any case you need to start force feeding them everyday. Using a needleless syringe, force soft food and water into your rat at least three times a day if not more. Force as much food and water as they are willing take. How to force syringe food into your rat. Be gentle about it! To make their food soft, you can crush their lab blocks into a powder and make it into a paste by adding a little water to it. Another excellent choice is to use powdered baby soy (must be soy) formula, which is also very nutritionally balanced for rats. Use baby foods to add fruits and veggies to the mix. You need to keep an elderly rat in a safer home environment by removing anything that involves high climbing. An elderly rat will often have trouble gripping things, resulting in a harmful fall from these objects. They will also have trouble with ramps. A one level cage is best for elderly rats. Don't throw an elderly rat on your shoulder. They will not have the strength to hold on. A common health problem with elderly rats is spinal nerve degeneration. To learn more about this and other health problems, go to the "General Health Concerns" page within this Guidebook.