Rat Food

[Kelly]

If I'm eating something, my rats will always want some of it, even if they've previously turned it down. I tend to just share a little bit of whatever I'm eating with them as a treat, unless it's terribly unhealthy. And on the plus side, it means i eat a lot healthier because I'm always thinking "will this be good for the rats?" We had some frozen yoghurt on the weekend as a special treat because it was so hot... They went nuts. And they LOVE fishing for peas. I'll often leave a dish with water and peas in their cage during the day, if it's going to be hot. They have a blast.

[jude]

I wonder why they are not into fruit... cut up some mango and put it with soya yogurt the other night and they just ate the yogurt. We have snowpeas growing in the garden and I opened one for them and they did love that. I'll keep offering them fruit and hopefully something will attract them... my granddaughter Claire (3) thinks I should try them on watermelon - so that's my next try.

[Kim]

Some rats can be fussy and if they were never given this typeof food growing up they might not like it to start with..

Some rats have sweeter teeth than others, so some will like stuff like fruit while others will prefer the veggies to fruit.

Try rockmellon, watermelon, banana, blueberry's ..

Most rats love banana..

The only fruit I dont give to my rats is any citrus fruit.

[Kelly]

I froze some blueberries for them, and they loved those. Funny how they don't eat the skins though. I might try frozen grapes at some point too.

Nico likes apple, but the girls aren't fussed. They prefer banana. All of them like watermelon - I save them the rind with a bit of fruit on, and they just chew it down.

Has anyone else given their rats pumpkin soup? Mine (literally) dived right in... I ended up with orange rats.

[Colleen]

heyyy... you could play frozen furit fishing with them, instead of veggie fishing

Yup i gave mine pumpking soup! and they LOVED itt, and yeh it went every where, including on themselves lol. I dont think there is any harm in giving it to them.

[gav]

(Sorry. I'm only replying to bookmark this thread)

Um, I used to use the Mouse and Rat food from the super as a base, but with dog kibble, fresh vegetables, yoghurt drops, as treats.

[ninjamidget]

It's interesting to see what everyone else feeds their furkids

Mine get a homemade grain mix that includes Innova Senior Dry Dog Biscuits (expensive but it doesn't have any nasty additive in it), puffed rice, puffed wheat, dry pasta (veggie stuff usually), some sunflower seeds (only a little though because of the fat content), a bit of natural muesli from the health food aisle, dried fruit (no added sugars etc), and a number of other things.

They also get a cooked dinner every night that consists of a mix of veggies, pasta, brown rice and cooked chickpeas/lentils/beans. Very occasionally (when I remember lol) I will add a bit of olive oil to this mix for their fur - they love it and go nuts for it when they hear the microwave at night haha

They also get fresh fruit and veggies daily, and treats like cheerios and yogie drops, occasionally a bit of whatever we are having for dinner (if its healthy)

[shellanne]

I like to feed mine rat mixture (bought from pet store), cereals such as weetbix, rolled oats, special k etc, as much fresh fruit and vegetables as possible (excluding oranges, which I have read may lead to cancer), wild bird seed mixtured and treats that we are eating, soy milk and/or soy yoghurt, meat bones, multigrain bread, raisin bread, eggs... basically anything we are eating.

I would like to ask though, I have heard that you shouldn't feed your rat dairy or meat. What do other people think of this?