What do you feed your rats?

[I Love Brian, Forever <3]

I'd like to give my rats MORE to eat and something different.
Can all of you rat owners please tell me what is safe to feed them and what to stay clear of? Thanks.

[luckies4me]

Do you have pictures of your rats? I would love to see them!


I feed pretty much everything. Cooked pasta like Pasta Roni, scrambled eggs, bagels with cream cheese, avocado (great now I am carving them!), cottage cheese, Innova Senior Dog food, Nutro light dog biscutes, apples, grapes (they LOVE grapes), carrots, leftovers like pizza, stir fry, french fries etc. They pretty much eat whatever I eat.

I just went out yesterday and bought bulk (ten bucks and it made 50 pounds) and added a few new things. They had mocha almond crunch granola and that's a big hit with the ratties, plus I had some this morning for breakfast, hehe. One thing I found that I had never seen before was puffed millet! I never even knew they had puffed millet! If your anywhere near an organic food store ( I am really into eating healthy, for the most part anyway lol) the bag is called Natures Path Organic Millet Puffs cereal. They also love puffed wheat and rice as well, cheerios. I also give them sesame snaps, which are a bunch of sesame seeds stuck together with sugar, sooo yummy! I know it probably sounds grose to most people lol.

I also add flax seed to their mix, as well as cracked wheat, and split pees. I buy all this in bulk and it saves so much money.

They really like things like Tuna helper, Top Ramen and Mac n Cheese. Here is a link to my feeding articles.........which need to be totally rewritten, but it shows that is NOT safe for rats, and what is.

http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/feeding.html

[wolfsoul]

I probably feed the same things that you do now...but I'll list them anyways.

Their dinner mix contains: oatmeal, granola, shredded wheat, puffed rice, puffed wheat, cheerios, shreddies, dog kibble, dry pasta and a few other things.

Every second day I'll give them Just For Me dog biscuits. I really like the ingredients. They get a special homemade biscuit everyday (I call them nummies lol ). They get eggs all the time because I love to cook and eat eggs lol. They get frozen fruit treats every 3-4 days. [Just take a blender, blend the fruit (I usually use strawberries, banana, peaches, grapes, and pear, that's the mix they like best) add anything else ok to eat pretty much lol (I always add some unflavoured yogurt and a raw egg, the freezing will kill any bacteria in the egg).] I also give them meat all the time. Usually smoked turkey, because that's what I usually have lol. And on special occasions they can have low-protien wet cat food. I also give whatever leftovers we have, like Luckies does . If I can't find any veggies, I'll pick the mushrooms and peppers of the leftover pizza and there ya go lol. They also really like pizza pops but I try not to give them too much...There's too much sodium in things like that..Every couple weeks I'll give them a yogie.

[Desert Arabian]

My rats eat Mazuri lab blocks, a seed mix, starfruit, mango, bananas, peaches, pears, kiwi, grapes, oranges (females only), walnuts, almonds, pistachios, oatmeal, Gerber Banana Cereal Snackin' Squares, Gerber baby food, yougurt, graham crackers, strawberries, blueberries, Eukanuba and Innova dog food (dry and wet), cooked and uncooked pasta, canteloupe, watermelon, carrots, cucumbers, pumpkin (when in season), mealworms, waxworms, nightcrawlers, chicken, liver, beef, duck, venison, scrambled eggs, steak, turkey, cornbread, cheerios, nutra puffs, yogies, yougurt drops, chew biscuits, and I know there is more, but I can't remember all of it....this is when you know your rats are too spoiled.

[Desert Arabian]

They also get waffles too.

[Desert Arabian]

Originally posted by wolfsoul
(I always add some unflavoured yogurt and a raw egg, the freezing will kill any bacteria in the egg

No, no, no, no, no, no. Not true at all. Freezing just freezes the bacteria (depending on the bacteria, they might not react to the freezing at all), cooking it kills the bacteria. You should NEVER give your rat a raw egg, they can get really sick and get salmonella.

[CathyBogart]

Mine eat a base of Harlan Teklad lab blocks, and every evening they get a dish of fresh fruit/veggies and other stuff. Some of the stuff that is included:

Soybeans, carrot sticks, cranberries, frozen peas, hard-boiled eggs, fresh walnuts still in the shell, puffed rice cereal, Nutro dog food, cheerios, dried fruits, mealworms (They LOVE those!), steamed chicken, steamed turkey breast, catfish, etc...

I know blue cheese is a forbidden food, I'll try to find the complete list later. Also, the forum at www.goosemoose.com/rfc is an all-ratty forum that I also frequent, you might like it!

[I Love Brian, Forever <3]

Ok thank you all for responding. I have questions, though.
(Thank you luckies4me and WolfChan for the two websites. Much appreciated. )

Alrighty then... the questions.
When feeding them canned dog food, can it be Pedigree?

They can have crickets?! Canned or alive? lol.

Just hand them a meal worm? I have plenty of those, for my Tokay Gecko and PacMan Frog... never knew rats could have them?

Can they have timothy hay cubes?

I GTG ILL BE BACK WITH THE Q'S LATER. THANKS.

[Desert Arabian]

Timothy hay cubes: They won't eat em. Trust me.

Dog Food: Pedigree is fine. Does your pet store sell Innova? That is the best to get. Nutro is pretty good too.

Crickets: Yes, they can have them. Canned or alive. My rat Nugget used to eat them alive.

Mealworms: Yep, just hand them to the rats. They will gobble them down. I have never met a rat that hated mealworms. Mine are little piggies when it comes to mealworms.

[wolfsoul]

I just checked their mix and I forgot to add bran and rice.

[luckies4me]

Originally posted by YellowLabLover
No, no, no, no, no, no. Not true at all. Freezing just freezes the bacteria (depending on the bacteria, they might not react to the freezing at all), cooking it kills the bacteria. You should NEVER give your rat a raw egg, they can get really sick and get salmonella.

My rats always get raw egg, the shell with a little bit of the goodies leftover in it, when I make scrambled eggs. I have been doing this for years and no problems thus far.

Alrighty then... the questions.
When feeding them canned dog food, can it be Pedigree?

They can have crickets?! Canned or alive? lol.

Just hand them a meal worm? I have plenty of those, for my Tokay Gecko and PacMan Frog... never knew rats could have them?

Can they have timothy hay cubes?

Pedigree is ok, but other dog food is recommended, such as Innova Senior and Nutro. Although my rats seem to like the canned cat food better. As long as it is in small amounts it should be fine.

As far as crickets and mealworms, I have a never ending suply of those for my gecko and hedgies, and my rats just love them. Although if you do want to feed live crickets I would suggest feeding them in an aquarium.

My rats absolutely LOVE Timothy Hay, as fresh as possible. They don't touch alfalfa, which is hard to digest anyway, but they love timothy hay. Just as a treat though.......

Another dog food that I have found my rats like is Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul. The ingredients are fair and the food is tasty. This also goes in my mix and they all seem to enjoy it.

Do you feed lab blocks? I use Harlan Teklad, which could be ordered off the internet. Have you tried shrimp, or oysters/clams? My rats get oysters/clams three times a week as part of their diet, as well as chicken, pork, salmon steaks, tuna, etc. They absolutely love chicken and pork bones.

I could go on forever but it would take me all day.

[CathyBogart]

Oooh, I just gave my ratties some shrimp, and it went over very well!

I haven't tried crickets, I'll have to do that soon.

I LOVE giving my rats a whole hard-boiled egg, and watching them trying to open it. Last time they pushed it off of the highess shelf and broke it open after a few minutes!

Have you heard of pea fishing? If you have really food-motivated ratties it can be REALLY FUN!

[Kater]

Originally posted by WolfChan
Have you heard of pea fishing? If you have really food-motivated ratties it can be REALLY FUN!

Oooh, tell us -- What is pea fishing???

[CathyBogart]

Take a heavy shallow dish and fill with about 1/2 inch of water. Add frozen peas and hungry rats!

I'm told most girls won't get their faces wet to get the peas, but most boys LOVE IT!

My rats haven't shown much interest, but here's a picture I found on the 'net...

[Kater]

Ahhh, like bobbing for apples! Cute!