Eva's Rat FAQ

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Obtaining and caring for Rats

QUESTION: What and how much do they have to eat?

ANSWER: Do not give dog food or cat food. Human baby food is a much better idea! Do not give rodent food from the pet store either, since it is usually old and lacks a lot of vitamins, instead buy everything in your ordinary grocery store.

I divide all food stuffs into four categories: dry food, messy or cooked food, vegetables and fruit, and treats.

• Dry food should always be available, 24 hours of the day. Examples are healthy cereals like: oats, wheat, barley, unsweetened musli, dry bread. The best food to feed rats are high quality human food, as opposed to pet shop food that is almost always old and contains whatever crap possible. Health store food for humans are usually of much better quality than pet shop food. Any kind of seeds, fed in variety, is good. Just avoid giving much of the fat seeds like sunflower seeds and bird seeds. Oats, wheat, rye and barley are very good and should be fed plentiful on a daily basis. These seeds are hard to chew, and should be fed crushed or rolled, not whole. Any kind of other seeds can be added for variety and extra nutrients.

  Here in Sweden the base of the diet may consist of porridge oats, which is oats that is prepared especially to make porridge from. Up to half of the dry part of diet consist of this kind of palatable oats. The rest may be different kinds small seeds bought in the health food department mixed with a little sunflower seeds or bird seeds and raisins.

  Here is a special recipe for mice and rats that I got from a wellknown Swedish mouse and rat breeder:
  3 parts oats, rolled or crushed
  3 parts wheat, rolled or crushed
  3 parts rye, rolled or crushed
  3 parts barley, rolled or crushed
  1 part millet
  1 part flax seeds
  1 part sunflower seeds
  1 part sesame seeds
  1 part dry dog food, cat food, unsweetened bisquits or hard dried bread

  Here is an updated version of the recipe:
  3 parts oats, rolled or crushed
  3 parts wheat, rolled or crushed
  3 parts rye, rolled or crushed
  3 parts barley, rolled or crushed
  1 part millet
  1 part buckwheat
  1 part Eukanua (dry dog food)
  1/2 part flax seeds
  1/2 part sunflower seeds
  1/2 part sesame seeds
  1/8 part alfaalfa seeds
  1/8 part quinoa seeds

  The above recipee is what I give all my rats, mice and spiny mice, and they all love it!

• Messy or cooked food should be given at least once a day. I often give this twice a day. Examples: porridge, bread, pancakes, potatoes, rice, legymes, vegetables, meat, spaghetti, chicken, raw fish, left overs of your own food, meat, and so on, just about anything healthy in human food. I usually mix cooked rice, cooked pasta, a little meat, some gruel, and fresh green peas & corn. Any left over can be added. All my rats just love this! Feed these things in the way people would eat it, for example give cooked potato not raw, and so on.
  This should of course be home cooked!

• Vegetables and fruit. My rats prefer apples and iceberg lettuce, but you can try just about any vegetable and fruit. I try to give at least a little vegetables or fruit daily, so that all rats each get a piece. In the summer you can pick a few dandelion leaves of some clover or other healthy herbs outside if you have a place where they grew away from pesticides, roads and dog pee. There's one thing they love best, and that is when I take some green peas and some corn from the freezer, and thaw it in a little hot water, and then serve it warm...

• Treats. Icecream, youghurt and digestive biscuits is what my rats love to get as treats.

  Feed only healthy food of all kinds, no pizza, no sweets or any kind of junk food. Avoid sugar, salt and spices added to the food.

Food especially made for human babies is good to give rats. This can be bought in different forms, but if it is made for small babies you know it must be healthy. I often buy food for very young babies, like 3 months old or younger, and give to my pets. Then I know there is lots of vitamins and other healthy stuff in the food...

I also give this if I have any rat that is not really in best of health. To a sick rat I'd give baby food plus the kind of food you give humans that undernourished (you can buy stuff like that in a pharmacy).

Remember that a sick rat also needs to see a vet!

Copyright Eva Johansson.
Last update: 3rd of December 2007.