RatPalace.com - Pet Rat Care and Discussion

Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:54 am

Females rats can eat oranges and OJ fine, but with males it's a different story. There is d-limonene in the peel, which studies have shown increases the risk of cancer in male rats. So, no OJ and only give them pieces if you wash them very well beforehand, though I'm still cautious.

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Tue Jan 10, 2006 6:20 am

Aye - and the D-limonene is also found in other citrus fruit, so it's worth considering that when dealing with lemons, grapefruit etc.

Re: the rabbit food - alone, it's probably highly unsuitable, whether they like it or not. Rabbits are herbivores, for a start, while rats are omnivores. Although they can live on a balanced vegetarian diet, they're not designed to do so, and you have to ensure that they get all the relevant proteins. Rabbits, on the other hand, are designed to live on vegetable matter with no animal protein. It's not simply a case of the base figures either, but vitamins, minerals, the quality of the components and food sources and so on.

There are a few rabbit foods in the UK that can be used as part of a home-mixed diet, but certainly they're highly unlikely to provide proper nutrition without balancing that with other items, even if it is tasty. It would be like living on french fries and burgers.

If you still want to give them a mixed diet, then you can go for a staple block product (the good ones are balanced for rat nutritional needs and contain good food sources) and provide a mix of other grains and pasta, for example, to give some variety. Try to provide them with some fresh foods each day (be that cooked noodles, cooked chicken bones, a little meat or fish, bread, veg etc) for both variety and health.

There are a number of diets out there (including Debbie D's, the Shunamite diet, and a whole host of others listed on Ratguide.com) but the most popular diet seems to be one based around Suebee's - dog kibble/lab blocks + grain/pasta mix fed freely with fresh foods making up around 20% of the diet.

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Andy & The Rats

~ Darwin ~ Maisie ~ Ella ~ Zak ~

~ Finn ~ Malachi ~ Azrael ~ Newton ~ Charlie ~

Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:03 am

I live in Canada so maybe I could recommend some food that is easy to find that I feed my rats

-LivingWorld Premium Nutriblocks..this is the main part of their diet..it comes in a small blue bag..PetValue carries it..most petstores do
-Puppy food..I ust Natural Choice Lamb Meal & Rice..but I don't give them too much..maybe 10 pieces
-Unsalted soybeans..I found these in the bulk section at Safeway..the rats love them..but again I only give them a few each
-Raisins..I give them 3 each
-Vitakraft Carrot Slims...they are fairly big so each rat gets only 1
-Vitakraft Yogurt Drops (the ones that say for hamsters) my rats like the strawberry ones but these are only treats..1 a day is enough..but sometimes they get more

*LivingWorld also makes these
-LivingWorld Triangles...i found these at Zellers for a reasonable price..they get 2 each..kinda similar to nutriblocks but not as much nutrients..but the rats love chewing them
-Seed mix...you can find this anywhere it has sunflower seeds,corn and some other seeds BUT you have to make sure to remove the corn..unless you can find a mix without it..dry corn is not good for rats because it can contain mold...I mix in some oats and Grape-Nuts cereal with the seed mix..but don't give them lots of the mix..I just give them a small handful

Also a nice piece of fresh fruit each day makes the rats happy..mine love bananas and apples

Wed Jan 18, 2006 2:27 am

Well I got a new food called Fiesta by KAYTEE and it is awsome ,here is some stuff about it!
Protein-15%
Fat-7%
Fiber-12%
It has pumpkin,sunflower seeds and some corn. de-hydrated soybean,banna,apple,papaya,sweet potatoes, caroots,oats,green split peas.
It is really awsome.
SO is this good or not? I don't really wnt to MAKE mixed food i just want to buy one and then maybe mix it with another good rattie food.

Wed Jan 18, 2006 2:30 am

Oh yeah this rat food also hase raisins.

Wed Jan 18, 2006 3:50 am

Well, as I'm sure many people will agree, Kaytee is crap(are we allowed to say that here?) There are lots of icky preservatives and it's totally non-nutritous. Unfortunetly, there aren't that many good store-bought mixes. If you really want a store-bought food, try Mazuri lab blocks with fresh veggies every day. Mr. Green

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Last edited by amazing_rat on Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:14 am; edited 1 time in total

Wed Jan 18, 2006 3:54 am

Ditto what Sara said, as I said in the PM it may look tasty and everything but it is much too sweet, and its very unhealthy.

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EMILY-------------------------------------------------

Rest in peace, Violet and Isadora. <3

Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:27 pm

I'm just wondering what treats everyone gives their rats, and what seems to be their rat's favorites?

I went and bought some Yogies, and two of my rats like them (they grab them and run and hide in their house to eat them) but my other one is pretty indifferent...he'll take a couple bites and then get bored and drop it. But when I'm eating cereal and he's on my shoulder I have to watch out, because theres been a few times where he actually jumps onto the rim of my bowl (I'm waiting for the day where he actually falls in) trying to get a corn flake. (I hope its okay that I've given him cereal..I generally just eat cornflakes or honey bunches of oats, nothing sugery and I only give him a little flake or two).

I gave all three of them little peices of banana, and they sat there in an almost comatose state eating them. Then when one finished before the other, a fight ensued, so I'm going to assume thats one favorite.

What about everyone else?

Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:47 pm

Have a read back through this thread, there are tons of great treat ideas here.

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Kate & the M.O.U.S.
If you saw a man drowning and you could either save him or photograph the event ... what kind of film would you use?
~ Anonymous

Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:04 pm

Oh, I've started reading through this thread already...I wasnt really looking for ideas, just curious about different rats and their preferences...more of a rat personality question than looking for treat ideas. But thanks anyway, I'll keep reading through.

Thu Jan 19, 2006 12:42 am

My rats LOVE banana, tofu, yogies, and chicken noodle soup!! They also like cereal, especially Wheaties. So yeah, cereal is fine for them.

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EMILY-------------------------------------------------

Rest in peace, Violet and Isadora. <3

Sun Jan 22, 2006 11:08 pm

ok so the fiesta thingy u got its ok. We ran out of the Sue Bees mix one time rite before we went on vacation and we got that cause that was the most healthy thing we could find. But i noticed that all they ate was the little vegtable chips and the fruit but they didn't eat the seeds. So i just ignored it for a little while thinking they'll get used to it. Then my little Midnight started getting scabs on her shoulders form all the protein in the seeds. So i went cold turkey on that mix and now i'm feeding them Kaytee blocks ( i kno no betta than the other food but the scabs have gone away, well almost). So i would not reccemd the Fiesta mix.

Sun Jan 22, 2006 11:15 pm

I would not feed anything made by Kaytee. All of there foods are unbalanced, and full of icky preservatives. One of them, Ethoxyquin has been shown to increase the chance of getting tumors, and its use is regulated for human food. If you don't want to mix your own food, I reccomend ordering Harlan Teklad lab blocks from Kims Ark (http://kimsarkrescue.org/ under "Ark Store").

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Rosie

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I miss you Tut, Goldy, and Raoul Angel rat

Thu Jan 26, 2006 9:57 pm

I'm *only* on page 9 of this thread, so I apologize if this has been asked/answered already... but concerning the Harlan Teklad: how much should I provide my two female 6-week old rats? Just fill the bowl when it's empty, or just give them a few blocks per day? We also give them fresh fruits/veggies daily, and will be providing some Suebee's soon. Will rats 'overeat' like dogs, meaning we have to meter out the food? They have been stashing and hiding the blocks thus far, so it's hard to tell what they've eaten and how much.

Thu Jan 26, 2006 11:13 pm

Welcome to RP.

Generally, yes - free feed the lab blocks so they're always available. After a little while, you will have figured out how much they eat in a day, and you can provide that much so that you are ensuring they get fresh blocks every day.

Rats generally will regulate themselves pretty well. If you provide a lot of high fat or sugary foods, then they will get fat, but on the whole, limiting their food isn't the best way of keeping them slim - just make sure they're getting healthy foods and - if you're using the Harlan blocks you can go for the 14% protein ones which are also lower in calories (I believe). However, most rats keep a decent weight if you free feed them.

There isn't a whole lot you can do to prevent them stashing - mine used to do that as well (they seem to have stopped for now Crossed Fingers

but generally if I go in and find that their bowl is empty, I check their stashing areas. As long as there is food there (and I check regularly so I know how long things have been stashed for) I can move it back to the bowl (which lets me also check it hasn't been peed all over!). I make sure that, whatever happens, they get fresh food in their bowl every day and anything stashed gets thrown out. But generally there's very little, if anything, left over now.

Hope that helps.

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Andy & The Rats

~ Darwin ~ Maisie ~ Ella ~ Zak ~

~ Finn ~ Malachi ~ Azrael ~ Newton ~ Charlie ~

Mon Feb 13, 2006 1:20 pm

Regal Rat I use and LM animal farms classic for food.
For treats they get Baby carrots or Strawberries and watermelon(season wise) and some cereal.

Question:Are flavoured cereal(Neopets Islandberry Crunch) ok? I gave mine some and they seems to adore it but not sure on health wise

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Mon Feb 13, 2006 3:53 pm

Unlikely to be a problem as a one off or a treat - I don't know that particular brand but you want to try and keep down fat, sugar, additives, artificial sweeteners/flavours etc, and reconstituted stuff (so puffed whole grains of rice are better than "rice pops" made out of reconstituted rice flour, salt, sugar etc). Just remember that sugar, salt, fat and artificial stuff do the same to rats as they do to humans - make them porky, rot your teeth, hurt your heart and blood vessels and generally aren't as healthy.

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Andy & The Rats

~ Darwin ~ Maisie ~ Ella ~ Zak ~

~ Finn ~ Malachi ~ Azrael ~ Newton ~ Charlie ~