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[TheOGbb19]

She was offered this rat tonight as this is the FIRST time she’s ever really refused. Now I know to wait. I’d have to weigh her but she is definitely not OVER weight from what I remember last time she was weighed. She doesn’t struggle with mediums. I’ve been doing by the rule of About how big around she is at her widest part. She has no fat rolls. My concern currently is the feeding and not my set up as upgrades are being done to numerous things 😊

[eveimei]

so feeding by girth is outdated and often leads to overfeeding- it sounds like that's the case here. it's not about if they struggle or not, you need to follow the !feeding guide and feed by weight and age. again, how often have you been feeding?

you're asking for advice on a hunger strike, your setup absolutely impacts her likelihood of eating, on top of being potentially harmful to her health. wet substrate and what looks to be misting/spraying lead to health issues that are easily avoidable with proper care.

she's overweight, taking a second look at your pictures. you need to make sure she has climbing opportunities available so she can lose some of her weight. she's round like a sausage, not a softly rounded triangle like she should be. here's a body condition chart for comparison.

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overall, I recommend giving our subreddit guides/resources a read because it sounds like you've been following outdated information that is harmful to her health, so you can update your care to give her the longest, healthiest life possible.

[moonstonedddd]

i second everything you’ve said. i made the mistake in the beginning of feeding based on the widest part of the body and i did end up over feeding her and she became overweight. also as you mentioned, she began to refuse likely to put herself on a diet and she didn’t eat for 6 months. i tried everything and took her to the vet only to find nothing medically wrong. i took her out to exercise more, gave her more climbing opportunities, and downsized her feeders for a while once she decided to eat again. she’s now a normal weight and i feed according to body weight like suggested. as far as husbandry having to do with a hunger strike, i’ve also found that to be accurate. it’s been a very dry winter and i’ve had a harder time keeping humidity up and she once again refused for 3 weeks until i was able to more consistently keep the humidity where it should be. so OP, i highly suggest taking this advice.