food change

I recently switched my rats from rodentblock and retriever to mainly pellets. I have noticed a large increase in defacation and have needed to clean the cages much more often.. i was wondering what the reason was.. thanks

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Originally Posted by BaLLPAddICT

I recently switched my rats from rodentblock and retriever to mainly pellets. I have noticed a large increase in defacation and have needed to clean the cages much more often.. i was wondering what the reason was.. thanks

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My guess would be that they are not taking in the nutrients like they should be,its just running thru them.In the long run it will show in your rodents in negative ways then(in EXAMPLE smaller litters,skinier breeding stock and such.

I thought that the pellets were one of the best foods for them? Though they are now having trouble digesting it. I guess I'm going to have to switch back. That's kinda funny because I have one guinea pig (a pet) that won't eat anything but the pellets.

Were you using dog food and rabbit/guinea pig pellets?

Retriever dog food is very low quality and contains A LOT of corn and by-products... Similar to Ol' Roy or DinnerTime or whatever generic, crappy food you can think of. Not much nutrients, it makes them full but they're not getting anything out of it, hence the large feces.

Guinea Pig/Rabbit pellets are made of alfalfa or timothy hay, which rats cannot digest. Guinea Pigs/rabbits have a large cecum, much like horses, that can ferment and digest the cellulose. Rats do have a good-sized cecum, but not to the extent that the previously mentioned animals do. Hence the large feces..

Stick with a good quality rat block, such as Harlan or Mazuri, and you will be good. Using a mix, such as my recipe that is stickied above in this section, will also help add additional nutrients(such as flaxseed, omega fatty acids), which help their immune systems and their skin/coat quality. I, myself, use Wellness Senior dog food in moderation, as it has only 17% protien and even my older, male rats can eat it(again, in moderation, as it only makes up about 15-20% of their mix) and not get skin problems from excess protein. 16-18% total protein is all they need and any excess is going to cause problems.

High quality food yields a much higher digestion rate, which equals much smaller amounts of feces. The animal can digest everything and it's not empty calories such as massive amounts of corn, by-products like soybean hulls, wheat middlings, what have you, or other preservatives(such as ethoxyquin, which CAN and WILL cause cancer).

People feeding low quality dog/cat/whatever animal foods to their pets is why animals are now dying of cancer, immune related disorders, etc and not dying of just plain old age.

/steps off soapbox *ehem*

But anyway, feed a higher quality lab block and possibly supplement with a good rat mix recipe(like mine above, not a store bought mess), and you should see good results. Your rats and your snakes will appreciate it.

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

Were you using dog food and rabbit/guinea pig pellets?

Retriever dog food is very low quality and contains A LOT of corn and by-products... Similar to Ol' Roy or DinnerTime or whatever generic, crappy food you can think of. Not much nutrients, it makes them full but they're not getting anything out of it, hence the large feces.

Guinea Pig/Rabbit pellets are made of alfalfa or timothy hay, which rats cannot digest. Guinea Pigs/rabbits have a large cecum, much like horses, that can ferment and digest the cellulose. Rats do have a good-sized cecum, but not to the extent that the previously mentioned animals do. Hence the large feces..

Stick with a good quality rat block, such as Harlan or Mazuri, and you will be good. Using a mix, such as my recipe that is stickied above in this section, will also help add additional nutrients(such as flaxseed, omega fatty acids), which help their immune systems and their skin/coat quality. I, myself, use Wellness Senior dog food in moderation, as it has only 17% protien and even my older, male rats can eat it(again, in moderation, as it only makes up about 15-20% of their mix) and not get skin problems from excess protein. 16-18% total protein is all they need and any excess is going to cause problems.

High quality food yields a much higher digestion rate, which equals much smaller amounts of feces. The animal can digest everything and it's not empty calories such as massive amounts of corn, by-products like soybean hulls, wheat middlings, what have you, or other preservatives(such as ethoxyquin, which CAN and WILL cause cancer).

People feeding low quality dog/cat/whatever animal foods to their pets is why animals are now dying of cancer, immune related disorders, etc and not dying of just plain old age.

/steps off soapbox *ehem*

But anyway, feed a higher quality lab block and possibly supplement with a good rat mix recipe(like mine above, not a store bought mess), and you should see good results. Your rats and your snakes will appreciate it.

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Thanks for your post. At first I was feeding just rodent block then I fed some dog food along with the rodent block. They prefered the dog food but I stopped feeding that because I heard how it wasn't good for them. Also someone I was talking to made it seem like pellets were the way to go "even though they can be expensive" but i luckily at my feed store it was only $11 for 50lbs. I will switch back to just rodent block and have to spend the extra money.

Lab blocks are priceless. I just got a new rat in from a pet store that feeds the typical crappy seed mixture food.. it was in a holding tank for ten minutes, and it crapped about 5x what my rats generally do in that short period of time!