live food for rats?

I remembered reading somewhere that rats like both fish, and crickets, live. I have heard of people feeding these as treats. Has anyone ever done this? I am thinking my rats would love fish, as I fed them some leftover salmon once, and they went nuts.

My ASF rats LOVE mealworms...so its not that out there...I'm convinced normal rats will eat almost anything

Rats will take live food. Crickets, mealies, tiny feeder goldfish. Remember they will make a gawd awful mess though and you've got to make sure that any "moving" prey gets hunted and eaten so it's not hidding in the loose bedding.

When I bred mealies, I would feed the rats handfuls a couple times a week. They love em and its so cute to watch them suck it down like a noodle.

Sounds interesting :) I might try this with crickets. I figure that it will stimulate their little rattie minds a little. I was thinking of putting in a rubbermaid tub, into the tank. Letting the rat get used-to it, and placing some rat food mix in there to pique its interest. Then, putting in the fish, or crickets, or mealies and seeing what happens. I am glad that you mentioned, averting possible lost live food, Jo. I don't want rogue crickets everywhere!

Oh yes they love wriggling crawling squirmy things. I always limited the numbers I gave at any one time as even rats, with a drastic change in diet, will have softer and smellier excrement from richer food. Doesn't last long and isn't nearly as bad as a mammals reaction to fast drastic diet change(like dogs, diarrhea) but just a warning. I gave my rats crickets and mealworms about once a week in moderation, they loved it.

there is a chance that they will be scared of the live food! I am going to try it once they get to breeding size in about a week, just to give some extra protien. As well as once they have birthed a litter!:D

Mine all loved crickets, and would pounce on mealworms and superworms.

Sounds cool :) I am thinking of treating my preggo females a little extra. Maybe not so much when they're nursing; I would not want to pull them away from the babies.

I wouldn't put crickets in with a rat with a young nursing litter. You don't want the crickets hopping all over those pinky rats....yewwww. A nice treat if you want extra protein for a newly birthed female rat is a bit of lightly boiled chicken liver or heart chopped up with a bit of hard boiled egg. They love this treat and it's not at all expensive to feed them.