Feeding Mice and Rats human food? Bad? OK?

Ok so here is the question that I have. I have brought home a couple mice and a rat today for my BPs. One wasnt hungry and the other started shed so I need to keep them in a separate tank. My girlfriend started feeding the mice and rat Cheez-Its and Pops Chocolate Peanut Butter cereal. Will that in any way affect my snakes when they ingest the rat and mice? Should I not feed them to my snakes or am I still good to go and they wont get harmed by what they ate?

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Originally Posted by ballaholyk84

Ok so here is the question that I have. I have brought home a couple mice and a rat today for my BPs. One wasnt hungry and the other started shed so I need to keep them in a separate tank. My girlfriend started feeding the mice and rat Cheez-Its and Pops Chocolate Peanut Butter cereal. Will that in any way affect my snakes when they ingest the rat and mice? Should I not feed them to my snakes or am I still good to go and they wont get harmed by what they ate?

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I was told chocolate is NEVER good for rodents.

but peanut butter is ok because peanutbutter is used to get rodents into mice traps when they are infesting houses and so on.

Pure chocolate isn't something to feed your rats or mice. It does have caffeine in small amounts and loads of sugar. Not horribly terrible, just not something you'd want to practice.


Rats and mice love cereal like cheerios and bran like things. Just be sure its not loaded with sugar and you can feed it along with their regular lab blocks.

My rats pretty much get what ever scraps we have left over, avoiding things on the "do not feed list." I have also never understood why to not give rats city treated water. I do it.


http://www.petratscanada.com/forbidden_foods.htm
http://www.ratfanclub.org/diet.html

A little bit of dark chocolate is very beneficial if a rat is having breathing problems(not major ones, allergies or minor congestion).

A little bit of sweet cereal or treats are good for well, treats. An every-once-in-awhile thing. Get a box of Kashi, they will love you.

Oh and I give my rats city water too. Always have, always will. I drink it and I'm definitely not suffering for it.

My rodents have always just had the same tap water my family drinks. I mean if it's okay for my kids, I'm pretty darn sure the rats will do fine on it LOL.

My rats get the occasional bag of M & M's passed out as treats. A tiny bit of that doesn't hurt them anymore than you or me. Moderation is the key. If all they eat is junk, you'll produce junky, fatty rats. If they eat a decent diet, with the occasional treat or health table scraps, you'll produce a healthy, well fleshed feeder rat. Just common sense really.

chocolate is good in small quantities for all rats and ONLY female mice. For some weird reason male mice cannot eact chocolate (found that out the hard way... thanks mom...) Anyway, human foods are fine for them in small quanitites, but resist from feeding them things like burger king and mcdonalds. Don't feed them spinach because it can cause some vitamin binding, especially in pregnant females, and nuts and berries is always a great choice. Just like a dog, you cannot feed them too much of a good thing, it can cause fatty liver damage, resperatory issues, and lower their immune system. But, that's for those extremist rodent lovers who want to be on 'America's Fattest Rat!' And no, Al Capone doesn't count.
Tap water is fiiiiine. I lived in NJ and i gave my rats tap water... It took a while to get used to the third eye but i got used to it eventually.

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Originally Posted by Ballpython2

I was told chocolate is NEVER good for rodents.

but peanut butter is ok because peanutbutter is used to get rodents into mice traps when they are infesting houses and so on.

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Wrong.

Dark chocolate is actually used to help remedy rats when they're having breathing problems. Steam from a shower and a dark chocolate chip usually holds them until they can make it to the vet the next day for antibiotics. It helps open them up.

Peanut butter can choke your rat, so should not be fed. Peanut butter flavored crackers, cereal, etc are all fine, because they're not sticky. However, peanuts generally aren't the healthiest of nuts, so should be kept on the lower end of the treat list.

Some things that you can't/shouldn't feed rats:
Orange (oils in the skin are supposed to cause cancer in male rats)
Iceburg Lettuce (really isn't recommended for any animals that I know of)
Green potatoes (don't remember why exactly)

I'm sure there're others, but can't think of them off the top of my head. A quick google search would probably bring something up. Other treats should be fed in moderation. :)

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extremist rodent lovers who want to be on 'America's Fattest Rat!' And no, Al Capone doesn't count.

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Yuck, I remember seeing rats that could hardly walk because they were so fat. I think the biggest one that I remember was around 4lbs, all fat. :/