rat food

I have read a few threads on here about food...

I am not in a farm area. I am in the city... Can't exactly go to the corner farm store for supplies.

What is a good, quick trip to the grocery store (or walmart) for ingredients recepie?

Right now I am using the store bought rat food. I can see by what I have been reading it is not the best idea... Please give me some nice easy, inexpensive, healthy ideas

thanks for your time and help,

Mike

I've been using Becky's mix and my rats are loving it.

Here's a link to the sticky...

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=28391

woops, just saw becky;s recipe on sticky...

A good diet consists of:
-puffed wheat and rice
-cereals such as any of the Kashi brand
-cheerios
-tri-colored pasta
-old-fashioned oatmeal(rolled oats)
-dried split peas and lentils
-dried fruit and nut mix from Walmart


Please forgive me, may sound retarded here but:

what is puffed wheat and rice?

What is kashi brand?

Should it be equal amounts of all ingredients listed?

I keep seeing this mentioned... what exactly is a lab block?

thank you for all of your help!

Ok, puffed wheat and rice IS Kashi brand cereal. Kashi is the brand name and puffed wheat and rice is the type. It's at WalMart for like $2 a box.

Here: http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...=285150#285150
She gives a basic amount run down. Use your own discretion from there. I use separate cereal pouring containers for the dog food and lab block so I can add as much or as little as I want to the dishes.

Lab block is a basic, all inclusive rodent food that is in cylindrical block form. The best brand right now would be Mazuri...found here:http://www.mazuri.com/Home.asp?Products=2 It can also be found at Petsmart and probably other pet stores for about the same amount, but only in the 2lb bags.

Hope that helps :)

thanks for the help everyone! i did the recipe exactly as it said in Beckys link. It made A WHOLE LOT of rat food for about 22 bucks. and i still have lots of left over ingredients for the next batch.

I use Becky's mix with regal rat food.

Yea, I've been feeding a mix of "Ainmal Planet Rat and Mouse Food" and some cerial and rice.. And she's preggers and seems to be lovin it all :)

Lab blocks, as well as the occasional excpencive scoop of dog food, with tri-colored pasta, they get some Katee crap(leftover from when i couldnt get to the feed store.... some treats here and there... they seem to love it!:D Im sure you can find a feedstore, somewhere I live in a city too, and there are several.

i have used kent feeds rat food for awhile now and have never had any proplems with it and my rats all do good.. now the store near me has to order it for me but they get it fast. here's a link to see if you have a store near you and for a 50lb bag i only pay 12.00.
http://www.kentfeeds.com/Dealer-Locator.aspx

I follow Becky's dry mix but do change it up. Basically it's always equal parts of lab block and a good quality dog kibble as the base. To this I add whatever other dry things I find on sale or are the odds and ends of my own pantry. So one week I might add in dry pasta, nuts, bran cereal, puffed wheat, large flake oatmeal...another week it might be raisins or some left over chocolate chips or whatever. As long as it's dry and healthy, they pretty much love it.

I also keep a covered old plastic icecream container in the fridge. Into that goes all sorts of dinner leftovers and the rats get a few scoops of that twice a week. It's an awful mess to look at but boy the rats eat it up! Saves on wasting food...rats are the ultimate recyclers. They also love wing night around here. Bones are a huge favorite in the colony. The leftover cheesy potato/ham casserole was a bit hit the other night. LOL

Here's a handy link for "human" foods for rats...

http://www.ratnutrition.com/suppleme...forbiddenfoods

Thanks for the link! Lots of useful info there!.

I am in a city area too but I can find rat food at out local feed stores but then again I can also find about any kind of food you can imagine because of the Henry Doorly Zoo locally. Call any type of feed store in your area, you may be suprised how many local people are breeding rats and need food. If not, they may be able to order it for you at a purina distributor.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

The leftover cheesy potato/ham casserole was a bit hit the other night. LOL

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Sounds good! Send me some of that!

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Originally Posted by stangs13

Sounds good! Send me some of that!

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Awww sorry dear, the ratties beat you to it! :P

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Awww sorry dear, the ratties beat you to it! :P

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Well if I visit one day, you know what I want!:D As well as some rats and snakes on the side!

Man, you guys were right. after 2 days that care fresh was NASTY. It obsorbed the liquid incredibly well, but there was absolutley nothing to fight the stink. Returned the big bag I bought, and spent half as much on a huge bag of aspen. Its official.... even though I can't stand the smell of aspen, it is what I will use from now on.

thanks everyone.

Mike

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Originally Posted by dalvers63

I've been using Becky's mix and my rats are loving it.

Here's a link to the sticky...

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=28391

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I'm curious how everyone feeds their rats food mixes that are smaller is size than lab blocks. It seems these feeds will fall through the metal feeding grate. Do you present the feed mixes in crock dishes? Do the rats throw it all over and spoil it?

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I'm curious how everyone feeds their rats food mixes that are smaller is size than lab blocks. It seems these feeds will fall through the metal feeding grate. Do you present the feed mixes in crock dishes? Do the rats throw it all over and spoil it?

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You do need to use a crock or feeding dish of some kind which is the reason I don't use those mixes very much myself. Just one more thing to clean. But if you don't use the crock they'll usually just bury it and a lot will go to waste.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

You do need to use a crock or feeding dish of some kind which is the reason I don't use those mixes very much myself. Just one more thing to clean. But if you don't use the crock they'll usually just bury it and a lot will go to waste.

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I'm curious doesn't a lot of mix food go to waste even with the use of a crock dish? I have a visual of a rat digging in the dish and throwing food everywhere. :)

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Originally Posted by Desert

I'm curious doesn't a lot of mix food go to waste even with the use of a crock dish? I have a visual of a rat digging in the dish and throwing food everywhere. :)

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Yep they do toss it around and bury a bit but they will go dig it up later. That's just how rats are. Eventually you figure out how much that particular enclosure of rats is eating without a lot of waste and that's how much you give them every day or every other day (so they go find their hidden stores).

I just watch on my weekly rat cleaning day. If I'm seeing a lot of dry mix in the old bedding, I adjust either the amount of food or the frequency offered.

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I'm curious doesn't a lot of mix food go to waste even with the use of a crock dish? I have a visual of a rat digging in the dish and throwing food everywhere.

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Yes they do, but it doesn't seem to waste as much if you use a crock.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

I also keep a covered old plastic icecream container in the fridge. Into that goes all sorts of dinner leftovers and the rats get a few scoops of that twice a week. It's an awful mess to look at but boy the rats eat it up! Saves on wasting food...rats are the ultimate recyclers. They also love wing night around here. Bones are a huge favorite in the colony. The leftover cheesy potato/ham casserole was a bit hit the other night. LOL

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This sounds like a very good idea. My only question is: would the sugar, salt, seasoning, etc... affect the health of the rats and mice?

If not, could save some money on the rodent foods...:rolleye2: My wife is complaining they eat better than myself already. lol

It can affect their health but not much, rats have been eating out of dumpsters and human food piles for hundreds of years. I always fed and always will feed my rats lab block - I love the Mazuri brand. I also feed some table scraps along with dry dog and cat food and a bulk gerbil mix. The lab block cuts down on waste and adding the occassional mix and table scrap adds variety where they just dig right in instead of stuffing and then stashing. I bred fancy rats (dumbos, primarily blues, blondes and blacks) and lab block was great for price, storage, nutrition, and reduced the need for chew blocks/chew sticks for their teeth.

To edit: Otherwise, aside from packaged foods I second the recipes listed as long as you have a chew stick for them.

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Originally Posted by amon

This sounds like a very good idea. My only question is: would the sugar, salt, seasoning, etc... affect the health of the rats and mice?

If not, could save some money on the rodent foods...:rolleye2: My wife is complaining they eat better than myself already. lol

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Here's a great link for what "human" foods are okay for rats and what aren't.

http://www.ratnutrition.com/suppleme...forbiddenfoods

These kitchen scraps I feed the rats are usually offered only twice a week. It makes up more of a supplimentary or "treat" type food for them and saves me tossing perfectly good scraps into my garbage can.

Today for instance the rats are going to get leftover pork chops bones from dinner the other night, some leftover pasta, some ends of of a bread loaf, etc. They also get their standard dry mix of course.

When I'm feeding rats I aim for a well fleshed animal, not fat, just solid and carrying a healthy body weight. Especially with pet rats you can easily overdo the treats and human foods and end up with a really fat rat. Fat rats aren't healthy and don't make good feeders/breeders for snakes either. They tend to die younger than they need to die and especially if it's a pet rat, you want your furry buddy around as long as possible.