Homemade Mixes.

[Jfaye92]

Wow, it seems like it has been so long sence i have posted on the forum. I've just been so so so busy lately, with work and everything else. So I'm posting for some suggestions about a home made food mix for the ratties. I own ofcourse the 2 boys and the one hairless girl. Thier food mix has been >> http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...ductId=4255544 << sence i've owned yeri and banksy. I've been thinking of switching thier mix up and createing my own to suit thier needs for quite a while. It seems that the food they've been on is just not as nutricious as it should be ( not to mention the price just keeps going up and they go through one bag in a only a few weeks) Any suggestions? Should i keep them on this food? What do a few of your homemade mixes consist of? Wheres a good list that i can go by? All is appericated.

[LightningWolf]

Mine is mainly fresh fruits and vegetables, which is hard for some people to do. (Please don't kill me if I mess up the user name) ILoveRats has a really good mixture.

But here are some things to keep in mind.

Vitamin K - #1 thing you need to worry about. Rats need 3 to even 4 times more then humans. this is mainly found in Herbs like Parsley and Cilantro along with green vegetables like broccoli.

Vitamin B12 - rats can not live on a Vegan diet, but can not digest meat fats. The best source of this in my opinion would be Eggs, some cooked fish, and if you have access to it maybe some cooked chicken liver. Lack of Vitamin B12 can mimic a lot of different issues so watch out for anything unusual

Protein - this goes along with B12. if your focusing on that this shouldn't be an issue.

Fat - Everyone forgets this. Without fat rats can have a number of health issues. best sources of this are nuts, seeds, and yogurt

That is really all you need to Super worry about. Here is a list of vitamins and what can happen if not enough or too much - http://blackwolfrattery.com/rat_nutrient_def-tox.pdf

[cagedbirdsinging]

The list of above concerns is neither correct nor complete.

As far as the B12 goes, it does comes from sources like egg, liver, and oysters, which I feed sparingly throughout the week. Any meats are fine for rats in moderation. Even with vegetarian rat diets, though, B12 deficiencies are very rare. Much of the B12 that rats need is produced inside of their intestines and, if more is needed, is recovered through coprophagy. This is the practice of eating their own feces to recover excess vitamins and nutrients. It's perfectly natural, even though a bit icky.

Vitamin K is, indeed, very important and is provided with dark, leafy greens. Lots of these are needed.

Calcium, copper, and vitamin D are huge concerns for homemade diets. You must be absolutely sure that there are several specific sources for these.

Keep in mind that a homemade mix is only half of a homemade diet. Since it isn't sprayed and infused with artificial vitamins, they need to come from fresh foods daily. I feed to my boys and recommend to everyone the Rat Salad recipe on my site. Along with some oysters and liver two or three times per week, the salad makes up the rest of the diet to complete it. My boys get as much as they can eat from night to morning, which ends up being about 1/2 cup each. This amount needs to be increased slowly, though, to prevent loose stools.

A good thread on dry mixes is here: http://www.ratforum.com/showthread.p...home+made+diet