[erinsweeney]

So when I first came to this site, my rat's diet was good but not perfect--someone pointed out that it lacked whole grains, copper, and B12. Well I did my research and it doesn't lack copper, actually it may have had too much. So here's my new and improved ratty diet. Please note: while my rat eats a vegan diet, this is by no means a conviction--I'm a vegan, my cats and snake are not. My rat's vegan diet is largely just coincidence.

Whole grains - oats, barley, cooked brown rice
fruits - apples and bananas, pineapple, grapes, cranberries, some dried fruit, pumpkin, avocados (sparingly--but it's a good fat source for healthy fats)
veggies - peas, carrots, spinach, celery, sweet potato (cooked), pretty much any veggie we eat we'll give her a taste.
protein - unsalted pumpkin seeds, beans, lentils, occasionally things like tofu or seitan, sometimes a bit of soymilk as a treat * all vegan protein sources are high in copper, many vegans get too much copper but luckily rats don't need a ton of protein
nooch - deactivated nutritional yeast is fortified with vitamin B12 and it tastes like Parmesan cheese! The rat loves oats cooked with nooch. There are no animal sources of B12 either, most humans are actually deficient in this vitamin. The only real natural source of B12 is dirt but most soy/almond milks are fortified with it.
treats - (sparingly) dark chocolate, corn chips, bread, dry or cooked pasta (she LOVES dry pasta to crunch on)


here's a question--my husband is a baker and they have a seeded bread. He brought home some of the raw seed mix for our cockatiel. Is it safe to give sparingly to the rats too? It contains pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, flax, sesame, and ground corn meal. I'm assuming she won't touch the poppy or corn meal as they're quite small.

I'm planning on investing in lab blocks sometime in the future, just so I have less to worry about in terms of complete nutrition.

 

[Isamurat]

The baking mix looks good. The ingredients of your overt all mix look good to but i can't say if it's balanced without rough amounts. Also i would add in some vitamin d drops about twice a week. They get some vit d from vegetable sources but it comes in 2 type and they need both to use it. The second type is primarily found in animal products so a pig to get on a vegan diet.

 

[erinsweeney]

Thanks for the reply just bought some of those Vitamin D drops so they should be here soon. As for rough amounts, I tried to list the ingredients in descending orders of amounts. I have fed them using measuring cups so I know that it's usually about 1/3 cup total food between the two of them, excluding treats.
Today I cut open one of those little decorative squashes and let them go nuts... they loved it. The versatility of their diets is something I love about them, but I'm definitely not trying to force my beliefs on nonconsenting animals.