Stashing food

Hey all-

A few more rattie related questions.

I feed a mazuri lab block that if made for rats and mice and found in the pet store. I also feed a rat mix with it to. The rats go for all of the food, but lately I've noticed the stashing all of the lab blocks.

How many lab blocks should I give? Do I need to have a bowl of them sitting out and then just fill another with the mix? They are nibbling at the blocks, but if I were to keep a bowl of them in the cage at all times and keep filling the mix bowl, they won't getting a balance of lab block and mix. They'll be getting more mix than lab blocks. When shouldn't it be more lab blocks than mix?

I hope that made sense.

Mine hide their lab block too Layna. I think it's just typical "putting aside a bit in case food runs out" behaviour all rodents do. I usually just don't give them more until they eat their lab block or I flick it back in the bowl for them. If they get too snooty about eating it, then that's all they get for a few days. The other thing I've done to get them to eat a bit more lab block is to smash it up a bit in a bag and then just mix it right back in. Then they can't as easily sneak off and stash it.

Ooooo good idea with the smash and mix. I'll have to try that!

Hehe...they're like kids--hiding the brussels sprouts so they can get more of the "good" stuff ;)

Yep pretty much Kim. :rofl:

Glad it's not just mine, picky little suckers.