Brad said:
I happen to have 4 adult females, 4 baby girls and five baby boys. None of them can stand the alfalfa pellets. They clean out everything else. The rat mix from Feeder supply, the oats, the dog food, the extra dried corn. Not to say I blame them that stuff tastes awful, ha ha.
I'm with Glindella on this one. It sounds like your rats are picky because they're not being fed the right diet.
Have you tried Suebee's mix? It's all I feed my girls, aside from a few additions of my own to it, which are basically the same ingredients in different shapes for more fun.
Their bodies can do nothing with
alfalfa. They aren't able to digest it, so generally they won't eat it.
The dried corn can contain a type of mold which is harmful and/or deadly to rats.
If I remember correctly, the dog food should have a crude protein count of 16% or lower.
Why not try Suebee's? It's cheap and awesome. I've yet to have a rat turn it down, and I can get enough to feed them for several months for about $20.00. Now that's a deal!
My girls will eat pretty much anything they're given. I haven't had Peep and Parsnip for a long time so I don't know what their tastes are, but Pig is not picky.
Doris turns up her nose at
garlicky foods, and she is not a fan of
carrot or
green pepper, but she will eat it if it's left with her for a while. I think she resents green pepper because when I was really poor...it's just about all I could afford to feed her sometimes.
We were both living on rice and green peppers. She's a trooper though, and now she gets to enjoy a balanced diet, even if I can't afford to eat the same way. :lol:
The younger girls are shy about
mushy food because they can't run away with it. They don't like eating out of a dish, so they dart forward, take a mouthful, and run away.
They all eat whatever is in their mix, which is:
Low protein dog food
Organic dog biscuits
Roasted, unsalted soy nuts
Dry vegetable pasta
Muesli
Puffed wheat
Puffed rice
Wheat squares (kind of like weetabix?)
Bran flakes
Bran sticks
Roasted unsalted Hazelnuts
Roasted unsalted peanuts (very few)
Large unsalted sunflower seeds
Raisins
Sultanas
Whole oats
They don't seem to really favour any one part of the mix. I watch them eat from time to time and they sort of just pick out whatever they're in the mood for, I guess. Every now and again they get some human food, a bit of whatever we happen to be eating.
Ah! Doris LOVES
lettuce. She likes
romaine and
Boston Green leaf lettuce, those are her favorites as far as I can gather. I would have assumed she would prefer more substantial veg, but she really, really loves lettuce. Probably because she doesn't get it a lot.
Cucumber is something I won't feed. I used to feed it to Doris and it gave her liquidy poos, so I stopped.
They all love
whole meal bread and toast, especially with
margarine on. They all also love
olive oil.
(I've put food in bold for ease of reading, in case you don't want to read all of this and you're just skimming)
