Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a progressive and lethal disease, characterized by loss of lung elasticity and alveolar surface area, secondary to alveolar epithelial cell injury, reactive inflammation, proliferation of fibroblasts and deposition of extracellular matrix. The effects of oropharyngeal aspiration of bleomycin in Sprague Dawley rats and C57BL/6 mice, as well as of intra-tracheal administration of ovalbumin to actively sensitized Brown Norway rats on total lung volume as assessed non-invasively by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were investigated here. Lung injury and volume were quantified using non-gated or respiratory-gated MRI acquisitions (ultrashort echo time, UTE, or gradient-echo techniques). Lung function of bleomycin-challenged rats was examined additionally using a flexyVent® system. Post-mortem analyses included histology of collagen and hydroxyproline assays. Bleomycin induced an increase of MRI-assessed total lung volume, lung dry and wet weights, hydroxyproline content as well as collagen amount. In bleomycin-treated rats, gated-MRI showed an increased volume of the lung in the inspiratory and expiratory phases of the respiratory cycle, and a temporary decrease of tidal volume. Decreased dynamic lung compliance was found in bleomycin-challenged rats. Bleomycin-induced increase of MRI-detected lung volume was consistent with tissue deposition during fibrotic processes resulting in decreased lung elasticity, while influences by edema or emphysema could be excluded. In ovalbumin-challenged rats, total lung volume quantified by MRI remained unchanged. The somatostatin analogue, SOM230, was shown to have therapeutic effects on established bleomycin-induced fibrosis in rats. This work suggests MRI-detected total lung volume as readout for tissue-deposition in small rodent bleomycin models of pulmonary fibrosis.