Good diet for rats?

[Ciddian]

Hiyas all :)

I was wondering what you guys do in order to plump up your feeders and pet rats?

I have two males that are getting on the skinny side, but are also over two or so in age. Anything i can add to thier feeding schedual to help them gain some weight?

Is meat a good idea? I am feeding seeds, fruits and some cat dry cat food (i feed the cat food only when i fall short of seeds)

Once and a while they'll get crix or mealies when i have the spare cash. I also treat with a feeder fish or two.

Lemmie know and thanks heaps ^^

[Auskan]

Rats need protein as a regular part of their diet. They are omnivores, eating meat as well as fruit and veg. The cat food is okay, but is probably too high in certain things for regular feeding. If I were you, I would feed a diet that contains 50% dog food and 50% grains - eg a mix of rolled oats, cheerios, rice chex, puffed rice, puffed wheat etc, and go easy on the seed. A little seed is okay, but I would just give it for a treat - not a regular part of their diet. The crix, mealies, feeder fish etc on an occasional basis is also a good idea as a treat.

[mykee]

Mazuri 6F, it's actually RAT food.

[sapphire_moon]

Yes mykee we know this. :) put it in your sig and you won't have to repeat yourself :D

You could also feed crickets, which insects actually have more protine than meat (I think? i could be wrong, either way it is a good treat).

and just to be different. when I fed mazuri, my rats got skinny, sickly, low birth litters, high canabalisim, and very unhappy rats (happy rats give birth to bigger litters :) lol)



I already emailed you what I feed my rats, which INCLUDES dog food. :P
Sometimes rats don't do good on some foods.

[mykee]

Of the rat breeders I know of (who cumulatively produce over 10000 rats/month) feed Mazuri 6F and have nothing but good things to say about it.
Sapphire, no offense, but the three rats that you breed (and coincidentally removed from your sig) are hardly enough to provide an accurate "control".

[greenman1867]

I am a big Mazuri fan, I sometime treat with Bananna Chips and peanuts, Carrots and Green Beans. Mazuri is the staple though.

[Ciddian]

Thanks for the input guys!! I'll let you know how it goes :)

[honduranfreekk]

I must say since I have changed to Mazuri 6F I will never feed anything but Mazuri.I find all my rats do MUCH better on it.
They seem to produce more and look MUCH better and much more healthy.

Just mt 2 cents

Kelvin@Brigitte

[Asian Jon]

Hey Shawn, where do you buy your mazuri?? I can't find it anywhere.

[mykee]

Jon, Ren's in Oakville, and there's a little-known feed store up in Ayr...

[Mark]

I use mazuri for all my rats. It work's the best out of what I have tried and as I go threw 200-500lbs a month. I'm the one that gets the mazuri brought in for myself in ayr.

[sapphire_moon]

actually, I did NOT remove them from my sig ( what do you think another name for a rat colony is? lol) , and I do NOT breed them. They are strictly pets, But THOSE are a different story! ;)

The ones I DID breed, when I did breed, I had 2 colonies, one of 1.4 and one of 1.2. When I switched them, they became sickly looking, canabalistic, etc...etc...

Like I said, it is ONLY my opinion. Just getting a different opinon out there, that while it may do so many breeders and millions of breeder rats good, my *few* didn't do well at all on it.

Maybe I got a bad bag, maybe I didn't. Just saying that just because someone elses rats do good on one diet, doesn't mean everyones will. Be it feeder/breeder or pet!

[Asian Jon]

Awesome, thanks a lot mykee. Looks like I will be visiting Ayr soon.

[Mark]

Jon: If you don't want to make the drive for nothing shoot me an E-mail before hand and I'll see what they have as they order it in for me and I buy it all. Worst come to worst you can have one of my bags.

[Asian Jon]

Cool, thanks Mark. I'll definitely let you know when I do. LOL you buy it all :D

[Mark]

you bet I do. :D

[Ciddian]

LOL Make sure to lock him in the car and get a good head start jon hehehe!

[Linds]

Just because it is made for rats doesn't necessarily mean it is the best thing for rats, just like most cat food is unsuitable for cats (nobody can argue it is best to feed a strict carnivore a diet of meat-flavoured cereal).Some of the stuff Mazuri markets towards animals would do nothing but slowly kill them. I mean... the rodent diet, iguana diet, and tortoise diet are very similar... yet these animals have drastically different natural requirements... and all contain harmful preservatives. Now sure the rats aren't living long since they are feeders, but the stuff does go in to the animals eating them. Even if the differences are minimal... maybe you could tax on a few extra years of life, or a few more babies in the litter? I've used Mazuri and had sub-par results in my colonies during that time (a few hundred rats and some mice). The only variable that had changed was the food... housing, substrate, temps, etc. were all the same.

Right now I feed a staple of Masterfeeds 16% horse chunks supplemented with sunflower seeds and chicken scrap (bones, cartilage, meat). They also get the occassional sprinkling of all-natural cat food. My mice do not get fed animal protein. I consistently get litters of 12-22 rats, and females last much longer. My pets get the same diet, but are also supplemented with whole grain pastas, veggies, fruit, nuts, grains, etc.

[Ciddian]

Thank you for the imput Linds! The rats i have are pets to me and will be around for a while hopefully so changing the diet should definatly help me.

All natural cat food is the best for cats? I am just so sick and tired of having to change diets because the next person that comes along says this or that food is crap. Sorry to switch the subject.

I dont mind paying the extra cash for food if its good for my animals. If i did... then i wouldnt keep them. :)

[mykee]

If you had asked which food was better 6 months ago, you would have had half the people on this thread tout the wonderful benefits of the "super low quality" dog food as the next best thing for your rats. I guess it's all just a matter of when the question is asked.
When it comes down to it, it's a personal choice, do your research, play with their diets and you'll find something that suits your needs.

[NadaNaga]

I keep pet rats, and have them on a diet of rat blocks from Hagen. I also feed them fruit, dog kibble, veggies, rice, pasta, babyfood, yoghurt or anything else rat appropriate in my fridge. They seem to be doing fine, but admittedly I don't breed, so maybe that makes a difference. As for other pets (cats and dogs) when choosing a brand of food I suggest ignoring the front of the bag (pure marketing) and concentrating on the AAFCO label and ingredient list. If you want me to be more specific, feel free to PM me. :) This is a reptile forum after all.

[Linds]

Originally posted by Ciddian
All natural cat food is the best for cats? I am just so sick and tired of having to change diets because the next person that comes along says this or that food is crap. Sorry to switch the subject.


Just about all commercial diets suck for cats. I feed my kitty a raw diet alternating meats such as lamb, turkey, chicken, and beef (emphasis on the white meat). Cats are strict carnivores, the only grains, fruits, etc. they eat in the wild is whatever may be in the stomach of the prey they are eating. Some cats tolerate grain-based diets better than others, but a lot of the 'common' problems are a result of this popular diet. Cooking the meat kills off a lot of vital enzymes and nutrients as well. Their bodies are designed to efficiently process raw animal matter, not cooked meats or cereals. It isn't as difficult to acheive either, there are several 'just add meat' supplements if you are not comfortable making the entire diet from scratch. I freeze the meat in daily portion sizes (I feed twice daily) so it is easy to access and kills off any potential parasites.

[sapphire_moon]

yup, while I can't afford to to an all natural meat diet for my kitties, a holistic food for the cat (or dog) is usually better.

[Linds]

It's really not that expensive at all, especially when you look at all the (expensive) problems you will be avoiding in the long run. The supplement is the most expensive part, running me $27 cdn for a container, but it lasts a very long time, so I don't even count that in the monthly bill. It only costs me about $30 cdn a month, which is cheaper than feeding a holistic commercial diet would run me.