Yes rats can eat bones. It doesn't hurt them in the least. My only advice would be to make sure they don't get the bones of something fried as that might be a little too fatty for them.

 

My boys were very happy to get the remains of a few BBQ ribs not an all the time thing, but once in a while its ok

 

My rats LOVE chicken bones. They wont left a bit. I don´t have to worry about their weight, because they are still a little bit thin.

 

my rat love bones. they don't get them as often as they used to but come christmas i'm stocking up. the only thing to worry about is if you give them too much they may develop a protein reaction which makes them itch. its curred by giving them less protein if that does happen though it takes a while for the itch to go away. they can be fattening too if you give too much all the time

 

My boys love bones. Unfortunately we live in a vegan household so it's a rare treat for them.

 

hey sweet thanks for all the answers!

 

aw great thread my rats had some chicken left over from my last sunday roast but I made sure I took it all off the bones cause I was worried about them choking, Il give them some nice big bones next time....They do love chewing on pedigree denta sticks though

 

My mother laughed at me when I kept the Thanksgiving carcass for the boys... :lol:

 

Wow, never mind a single bone. Get the whole carcass in the cage

 

My mother laughed at me when I kept the Thanksgiving carcass for the boys... :lol:

That must have been so much fun!

 

They had a BLAST. I did break it up into small sections though, since their was still some meat on it and it was WAY too much for only six boys.

 

my girls love chicken bones, i always take the fat and knee caps or whatever off first

 

what about pork chop bones?

 

though this makes me shudder a bit, I'm sad that I'll never have bones for my ratties (ya know being a vegetarian and all) but I think I can take some home from Christmas......I think my family will think I'm either

a. falling off the veggie wagon

or

b. completely bonkers

 

pork chop bones would be just fine to offer them. i don't much like pig meats so we don't have it in the house, otherwise i would give them that too.

 

We had a work luncheon and I brought home lots of rib bones. My rats love them. I froze half for a later time

 

You should NEVER give your rats chicken or poultry bones as they can splinter very easily and can severely damage either their throat or digestive tract.

Pork and beef bones are supposed to be ok as they have a tighter grain, but DEFINATELY not poultry

Just thought id better mention it as it was in one of my rat care books and it seems alot of you are giving chicken bones to your rats.
Even if none of you have had problems so far I dont think itd be worth the risk just incase !

 

the rat care book was wrong then. the way rats chew is different then a dog's. for a dog, it is true the poultry bones are dangerous. dogs crunch them and that can cause splintering. rats don't crunch though, then gnaw at it and grind it down. splinters are not a problem this way. poultry bones are fine for rats.

 

I've given my girls chicken bones, they had a great time, and I never noticed any splintering or splinters, just gnawing like Twitch said.

 

Yeah I guess your right , had a quick google and it confirms what Twitch says.So sorry for providing mis-information.You would think you could trust species specific books but obviously not.

 

Yeah I guess your right , had a quick google and it confirms what Twitch says.So sorry for providing mis-information.You would think you could trust species specific books but obviously not.

Most of the time definitely not! I just looked through my old rat book that I bought when I first got rats about 14 years ago, and a lot of the information is just not right! They actually suggest aquariums (though I don't know how prevalent powder coating was at the time, since all they talked about was galvanized zinc for wire cages), say that pine and cedar are okay, and suggest getting food out of the bulk bin without a warning about corn and the like. There's also a chapter on breeding, which is a little scary to me now.

 

Just gave my rats some chicken leg bones from the rotisserie chicken I had for dinner. I always monitor this very closely, because they will fight over the bones even though I give them all their own individual one. After about ten minutes, or however long it takes for the first rat to grow bored with their bone, I take them all away and collect any splinters. Reason being that I discovered just how dry, hard and sharp the fragments become if left out to dry.

Don't want any accidents, and it's not like they need the extra protein, so they get taken and thrown away.