[rightin2]

Hello all,
at my local petsmart, i picked up a rather good book covering all sorts of topics. one of the chapters was dedicated to a healthy diet for your rats. on the list of foods to feed them, was "canned oysters". i would assume this means giving them little bits of raw canned oysters, right? or do they need to be cooked? anyone know? thank you in advance.

 

[BlueSkyy]

www.ratfanclub.org/diet.html

that site has a diet that uses oysters - i think she explains how to prepare them

 

[Forensic]

Oh gosh, that's one I won't try. Oysters. Icky!

 

[dreadhead]

I am very curious, I eat oysters all the time (I like 'em raw... little tabasco and a cracker....mmmmm!) I will have to steam some for them next time.

Just be careful with your boys, oysters are an aphrodisiac.

 

[Night]

I've always wanted to try oysters with my rats, but I don't know the first thing about preparing them or even where to buy them! 8O

 

[rightin2]

i went and bought the canned oysters - i think the brand was 'geisha' - and just cut each one into 3 pieces(i have 3 girls). they LOVED them. i recommend feeding oysters to your rats, its an excellent source of animal protein, just be careful with anything raw as far as spoiling. there were so many oysters in even the smallest can i could find, and i ended up throwing most of them away because after a wk in the fridge they had gone bad.

 

[cjshrader]

I don't think I would recommend feeding oysters to rats. Actually, I don't think I'd even eat oysters myself that I prepared. Oysters can be dangerous if they are not kept at a certain temperature or prepared in a certain way, and I wouldn't want to take the risk.

On the flip side, canned, pre-cooked oysters might be ok.

 

[glindella]

CJ:
I think I have the book that mentioned oysters, and it does say canned

 

[rightin2]

yep, i have the same book glindella. is it the one by debbie? the feeding suggestions are excellent in that book!

 

[mopydream44]

you can buy smoked oysters in a can as well.

 

[cjshrader]

Oh yes, after I said that I actually then looked at the recipe that Debbie Ducommun recommends and it says canned as well. I should have updated my post

I imagine that book being mentioned was also written by her.

 

[glindella]

Its actually a good book. 192 pages on rattie care, unfortunately it does have a chapter on breeding (I am against all breeding of animals except by professionals) but I guess it would be helpful on unplanned litters. Its called Rats: Practical, Accurate Advice from the Expert by Debbie Ducommun. I got it at Pet Supplies Plus (chain store in the NE) but its part of the newest 'set' of animals care books being pushed by all the stores