What do you feed your rodent?

[wolfsoul]

I'm looking for more interesting things to feed the rat boys. I'd like to hear what people feed their rodents just to get some ideas on what might be good for them, or what they might enjoy I didn't just ask what you feed your rat because I know that aklot of people here don't have rats

[CathyBogart]

I feed the girls just about everything! baby carrots, soybeans, dried cranberries, sun dried tomatoes....any fruit/veggie we have around. They also get pretzels, dry cereal, chocolate pudding (once in a GREAT while), and a bit of orange flavored cod liver oil to help with their coats. (Mostly Chloe, since her coat is kind of "ratty" looking. ^_^)

[luckies4me]

Originally posted by WolfChan
I feed the girls just about everything! baby carrots, soybeans, dried cranberries, sun dried tomatoes....any fruit/veggie we have around. They also get pretzels, dry cereal, chocolate pudding (once in a GREAT while), and a bit of orange flavored cod liver oil to help with their coats. (Mostly Chloe, since her coat is kind of "ratty" looking. ^_^)

You sound like me lol. I give flaxseed in their mix, and also fish oil to help with their coat. Meeko is starting to look like a rat too lol. :P

I also give dried cranberries, but most of the time I find myself eating them before I can put them into their mix lol. They are just SO good! Baby carrots are a regular weekly accurance. It's the fastest way to get a veggie in them lol. Like when I need to leave for work I just pop a few in the cage.


Hrmm what else. God they get so much I don't know what to put down that you might not already use?

What about cottage cheese? My girls go crazy for that. They love toast with creme cheese, bread soaked in warm soy milk, Cheerios, leftover fast food like chicken quesadillas etc. They are BIG fan of chicken and beef stirfry though and they always get our leftovers. They really like the cooked mushrooms in the stirfry. Pasta pasta pasta, they LOVE it. They get dried pasta in their mix but they really like the tomatoe and basil, as well as the zuchinni pasta too. Of course fruits and veggies. Strawberries are a hit now that summer is almost here. I like to freeze them and put them in a bowl of water for them to "fish" them out, sort of like the frozen pee thing.


Watermelon, squash, cucumber, green leaf lettuce, bananas. Of course they are still trying to finish all of Dylans leftover baby cereals as well, lol.

[RockyRoad]

Well, I know you're needing food recepies for rats, but I'm bored, so I'm posting anyways.

The hammies get Kaytee Forti-Diet, or something like that. They also love bread soaked in milk, honey sticks, and these treats called Krunch-A-Rounds (A peanut in the center, with sesame seed coating).
Floppsy eats LM Premium Rabbit Food, which is pellets. She loves them. She also eats tons of other things; baby/big carrots, celery, bananas, parsley, clovers, and plenty of others that slipped my mind.

[CathyBogart]

luckies: i'd never thought of cottage cheese! I'll have to give it a shot, but it's WAY too fattening for them to eat regularly. Hmm...Chloe could stand to put on some weight....

[Desert Arabian]

For seed mix my rats get Kaytee Fiesta: Mouse & Rat. They also get baby food mixes, yogurt, bananas, canteloupe, apples, pears, carrots, strawberries, grapes, cucumber, green beans, squash, cooked meat, cooked eggs, bread, little bits of pre-cooked hot dogs, Pedigree dentabones, Alpo chew-eez, pecans, almonds, other hard nuts, cereals, Innova dog food, IAMS wet dog food, and a lot of other stuff.

They have also tried honeydew and starfruit. They loved it, but it is so expensive, so it is an extremely rare treat. I gave them cranberries once ...and they HATED them! Once and a while the girls get some oranges too.


Yep...they're well fed, that is why Oscar weighs 1 pound!! (He's on a diet for a while, hehe)

[tikeyas_mom]

I feed my hamsters and my gerbils a mix of

sunflower seed, pumpkin seens, millet sprey, crackers, cones, fruits, veggies, breads, dog treats, cats food *dry*, dog food *dry*, oat meals, cream of weats, Timothy hay, yogurt drops, and dandi lions!

[wolfsoul]

Thanks for the ideas everyone

I'm going to have to give cottage cheese a try, and Jynnelle, I'll try the cream of wheat

This is what I give them now (any opinions on these foods would be great, I always like to make sure my ratties enjoy what's good for them )

for dinner every night: shredded wheat, bran, uncooked pasta noodle, oatmeal, ceareal (like a shreddie or cheerios), whole wheat brown bread, rice, seed mix, canola oil, half a baby carrot, brocolli, some meat (usually smoked turkey), one piece dog kibble (they have free smaples at the store, so I'm partying ), rice cake, wet tuna catfood, and a few other things that I can't remember lol

For every so often: fatty acid supplement (just for the coat ) and echinechhia, three times a week they get a nummy frozen treat made of strawberries, honey dew, peaches, canteloupe, apples, banana, and milk ..they get chocolate every now and then as well, ecspecially if they are a little bit sniffly

during the day: cereal soaked in milk

Does that sound alright to everyone? I'd like to check and just make sure...if anything sounds fishy, please feel free to tell me without attacking me.. I always like to take pride on how healthy my babies are, and I'll take anything yucky out of their diet

[wolfsoul]

I forgot dog buiscuits..lol....

[AngelZoo]

They got a lot of things when I had them, fresh fruits and veggies, even the occasional lick from a popcicle. Uncooked and cooked spagetti. A mostly seed diet (back then I was younger, and didn't really read up on the care and nutrition of animals, including rodents.)

I've been told including thus above, a few seeds and some high grade rodent pellets are best.

[luckies4me]

Originally posted by WolfChan
I feed the girls just about everything! baby carrots, soybeans, dried cranberries, sun dried tomatoes....any fruit/veggie we have around. They also get pretzels, dry cereal, chocolate pudding (once in a GREAT while), and a bit of orange flavored cod liver oil to help with their coats. (Mostly Chloe, since her coat is kind of "ratty" looking. ^_^)

Yep it's fattening, which is why I use it. My pregnant girls get it all the time, and I like to keep it handy for rescues who need to gain weight.

Oh hey I have blazes in my new litter too!!!!!!!! Well one for sure so far and I think he's a blue!

[Desert Arabian]

Originally posted by AngelZoo
They got a lot of things when I had them, fresh fruits and veggies, even the occasional lick from a popcicle. Uncooked and cooked spagetti. A mostly seed diet (back then I was younger, and didn't really read up on the care and nutrition of animals, including rodents.)

I've been told including thus above, a few seeds and some high grade rodent pellets are best.

Who/what kind of animal are you talking about???? Rat, gerbil, hamster, squirrel, degu, prairie dog, chipmunk????

[AngelZoo]

Yellow: Speaking in reference to rat/mice & hamsters.

[wolfsoul]

Yellow: Speaking in reference to rat/mice & hamsters.

no offence intended, really, but the diet for a rat is much more than what you are using now If you read my post, you will see what I feed my rats, and I'm sure that luckies and YLL will chip in a bit in explaining

[AngelZoo]

lol, I'm not saying those are the only things, that's just what I can recall off the top of my head.

I don't have any rodents currently, I still can't bring myself to adopt another rat after the petco incident, and if I do, it will be from a breeder or rescue.

I still have a lot to learn about rodent nutrition, I didn't even know there was such a thing as what are they.. rat pellets, rodent food blocks? *sigh, I can't remember*. But I've been told they should be part of their diet. I also know some people who include a little bit of dry dog food in their diet.

I think I'm doing a lot better now, then feeding them just some seeded hamster mix from a local petstore like when I was a child, haha.
With my last 2 ratties, I basically fed them anythign they liked, anything you could think of, as long as it wasn't posionous, however at that time I didn't know about the food blocks, so I gave them a handfull of that generic petstore seed food every day in addition to anything else.