Can I trim my rats teeth? Overgrown teeth problem, rat can't eat.?

I've heard that you can learn how to properly trim a rat's teeth, but you should have a vet show you how it's done. Personally I'd be too nervous to attempt this, for fear of hurting our little guys, so the few times it's been an issue we let the vet take care of it. This is quick & doesn't cost much.

The vet could also determine why your rat's teeth became overgrown to begin with. Normally, as you probably know, they keep their teeth in shape by bruxing and/or gnawing on things. Sometimes there's a problem with the teeth not lining up just right, sometimes a rat doesn't brux or gnaw because of an undiagnosed illness & I've noticed that older rats seem to have overgrown teeth more often than young rats do. Depending on why your rat's teeth are so long, she may need periodic trimming from now on.

From what I read, also from the Rat Lady (I think she updated her info), is that it is a fallacy that chewing on hard things will wear the teeth down. Normally they wear down because the upper and lower teeth are aligned, and they grind against each other. But if the rat has misaligned teeth, they do not grind against each other and they continue to grow. Giving them wood, etc. to chew on will NOT fix the problem. You have to take them to a vet to have their teeth trimmed every 1 - 3 weeks. I recently adopted a rat that has this problem, and she has a lot of hard things to chew on. But I can tell you first hand that her teeth are still growing too long. I took her to the vet for the first time to have them trimmed. I made a second appointment a month later, but at about 2 weeks later, I can see they need to be done again. She isn't closing her mouth and I can see the bottom teeth are growing past the top teeth, which they are not supposed to do.

You could do it with clippers, but a vet would know right where to cut them so they would not bleed, and in case of an accident it will not take long for a rat to bleed to death. They also use a dremmel type sanding tool to smooth the sharp edge left by the clipper if needed.

It really shouldn't cost that much if you call around the price will vary. Vets who do this often should not charge a lot. It can be done without anesthesia.

Unfortunately, this condition could return and you may have a very expensive rat.

Rats naturally trim their teeth by bruxing, where they grind their teeth, so you don't really need wood chews. Your ratty may have malocclusion, in which case you will need to see a vet to get some IV in her and ask them to show you how to properly trim teeth, don't go about it blindly so as to not harm your ratty.

Go to a vet and if you haven't been giving her things to chew and gnaw on, now's a good time to start.

i thought they naturally get trimmed by what they gnaw on. the thought of cutting teeth makes me cringe, i hope no one gets bitten.

no go to the vet first

Give him some wood to chew on, he'll take care of it himself.

go to the vet so he does not suffer

you need to give her things like wood to trim them. until she can chew, get them trimmed, but let her chew on hard things to keep them shorter