[Kojin.Samurai]

What kinds of things do you feed your rats? I am just looking to expand my girl's foods. Mine get seed, pellets made for rats and mice and and veggies and fruit.

 

[moonkissed]

I feed them oxbow as their base diet. If u r in the US, it is suggested to feed them a good quality lab block either oxbow, native earth or mazuri.

Mine get an assortment of fresh veggies daily. Fruit sometimes not that often. For snacks they get cheerios, some yogurt, baby gerber puffs. Sometimes very rarely will they get a nibble of some other food.

I try to keep their diet as healthy as possible. Low in fat, not too many treats.

 

[artgecko]

I use native earth lab blocks as a staple. Mine also get a grain mix daily that includes brown rice, oats, barley, millet, and whatever other grains I can find. They also get fresh veggies every couple days.. usually carrots, kale, squash, etc. They will also occasionally get boiled eggs (especially pups). Sunflower seeds and dried pasta are also popular treats.. Gerber puffs are great too.

 

[lovethoseratties]

I feed my group oxbow, I love being able to buy giant bags from drsfostersmith.com, and I also mix in some of my dogs high quality food. They also get veggies almost daily, and fruit and cheerios and other snacks every so often. I really want to start using a grain mix, but haven't so far (my mom pays for their food, so I don't want to ask too much of her). My girls also REALLY like the dried veggie pasta spirals, so I give those whenever I have them on hand.

 

[461537]

Hmmm... I have a garden full of fresh veggies, they go mental over broccoli, podded peas and cauliflower. Sweet potato goes down a treat, as does trail mix (no peanuts or chocolate) and dried or fresh fruit (especially strawberries). I also use low protein dog biscuits - the ultra hard variety for grinding their teeth down a bit, wet cat food (they love the ridiculously expensive one with tuna and crab meat, cooked deli meats (not salami or processed kinds), cooked chestnuts, small amounts of toasted English muffins, a spoon of lite icecream on hot days, dried and cooked veggie pasta, cooked rice, baked beans and tinned spaghetti, cold minestrone soup, dried soup mix as long as theres no corn, dried banana chips, and the odd carrot. The problem is cleaning up each week - my girls sleep in a bit of a warren in the cage that I made from old hats and sheepskin, and they store away the yummy stuff until it starts to go rotten, so I take extra care dismantling the warren each week, cleaning out all the stored food, and then putting it back together. You should see the dirty looks I get when I put them back in their cage and they realise that the stored food is gone - this is usually then followed by a rat chain back and forth to the food tray again, carrying a whole new supply back into the warren again.

 

[Nieve5552]

My rats get lab blocks as staples, and veges for dinner (mainly peas, sometimes with carrots, lettuce, kale, broccoli) every night. Sometimes they get a rat seed mix (coconut, shredded wheat, rice puffs, wheat puffs, vege pasta spirals, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dog kibble, dried cranberries etc) that I buy from the rat rescue here. I also give them cooked pasta, little pieces of wholemeal and grain bread drizzled with olive oil, banana etc. For treats during play time or draining they get pine nuts, oats, sunflower seeds, more veges (they'll actually do do tricks for lettuce and kale!) and the Trixie vitamin drops

 

[RattieFosters]

My guys get an Oxbow mix that I make. Basically it's mostly Oxbow with some wheat puffs, rice krispies, puffed millet, dry noodles, pumpkin seeds, some kind of pet store rat treat, and Vector cereal. I find it just helps make the bag of Oxbow last longer, and the boys seem to like it. xP Other than that, they get veggies (peas, carrots, broccoli, cucumber, tomato, corn etc) and fruits (apple, banana, strawberries, raspberries, grapes, blueberries etc) and other treats (granola, yogurt, baby food, popcorn, Gerber puffs, freeze-dried treats, nuts etc). I try to vary their diet, but to feed them real foods, and not too many junk food treats.

 

[crow]

Mine get mainly Oxbow too, along with a mix I made of oats, brown rice, cereals, and a small amount of seeds. Fresh veggies like dark greens or bright bell peppers and carrots most days. They don't get fruit anymore as I heard cutting down sugar slows mammary tumor growth, and I recently found an armpit bump on one of my girls.

 

[cirice]

My girls are currently experimenting with me. They used to have a mix made by a local pet store, but when they closed down, I had to hunt for other foods. Right now they're on Foragers Feast, but they only eat the "good" parts, which unfortunately makes up around 20% of the mix, so there's money going down the drain there. Other than that they get kale and different types of lettuce and cabbage, shoved in a treat ball so they have to work for it. They also get apples, carrots, grapes, and strawberries.

 

[Isamurat]

Mine get a nicely varied home made mix as there main diet, veg and occasionally fruit fairly regularly and healthy wet meals with added supplements. I also give them occasional treats but these tend to be for a purpose, like upping the amount of protein kittens get or adding in copper to there diets and so on.

There's a lot more detailed info on mine (including photos) on this page http://www.isamurats.co.uk/rat-care-at-isamu.html

I've only once had an issue with selective feeding in mine and I've fed a varied home made mix for a good 10 years now. That was recently when one of my girls decided she didn't like the taste of fish kibble so was a bit down on protein (easy to spot), all sorted now I've added in some chicken kibble to the mix as well). The trick is to only feed them a limited amount, so they run out. They quickly learn to eat what they find, especially when you combine with scatter feeding