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.