Basic rat feeding habits:
Dry food for rats can contain any kind of seeds, but mainly oats, wheat, barley and rye, preferrably whole or crushed grains. It can also contain small amounts of nuts and sunflower seeds plus unsweetened musli.
Moist food should usually be well cooked to make sure the rats can use all the nourishments, bits of vegetables and fruits should be added after it has cooled down.
You can use oats, wheat, rye, barley, potatoes, pasta, corn, rice, any kind of beans, peas, leguminous plants, root vegetables, noodles and wheat germs. Cook it well, don't buy anything pre-made! You can add small amounts of red meat, eggs, or fish. You can even add pieces of whole grain bread, and other healthy stuff.
It is better to combine several different foodstuffs than to use only one or two when you cook food for your rats.
Rats prefer that you mix new combinations of food every day, it has to be well cooked and served as a stew or porridge. The rats will like it if you add some corn meal or gruel mix for small children, those are usually healthy.
You can also use dairy products, but not too much, since some rats will get diarrhea from too much dairy products. If your rats tolerate it well, it is a good source of nutrients. All my rats have tolerated dairy products wery well.
Buy all food for your rats in the store where you buy your own food.
Don't give your rats food with added sugar, salt, or spices. Don't give them commercial "rat food", "rat mix", or commercial food for other animals like dog food, cat food, cavy food, hamster food and so on. Don't give them food with very little nutriuents in it. Don't give them sweets, crisps, bisquits or anything unhealthy. The only things in the "unhealthy" category you can give rats withouth problems are icecream and youghurt (unsweetened, with vanilla or berries).
Lab blocks are made for mice. Rats are not mice... Lab blocks are not that bad, but they contain more protein than the rat need. The lab blocks come in two version - for breeding and maintenace. The latter is cheaper. If you are a big breeder and want to give your rats lab blocks, try to find the breeding version, it may be found at a laboratory... Lab blocks are nutritious as long as they are fresh. Check the stamp on the bag!
The kind of lab blocks that can be bought in pet shops is usually the maintenance kind, since it is cheaper.
Today you can buy many new kinds of special little bags of treats for your pets, no-one of them is good for your pets. You can find much healthier and cheaper treats where you buy your own food - vegetables, fruit, unsweetened youghurt, unsweetened icecream, nuts, geen peas, and so on. Special-made food for small children are often fine to use. Check the label for added sugar!
In an emergency you can feed your rats only seeds for a while, the best seed for this is oats.
Always bring something for your to eat while it is sitting in a transport cage - cucumber, apples, and carrot are good as they provide fluids. Some dry food, for example whole grain bread is good too.
Rats have a need to gnaw. This has in reality nothing to do with teeth growing too long. Rats have these big teeth to use them. They examine things by nibbling on it. Since they are made to gnaw it is a good idea to let them gnaw. You can give your rats some nuts to gnaw on, but first check that nut seems healthy. Rats and you alike can be poisoned by nuts that have gone bad. Some people give dry bread an uncooked pasta, to make sure the rats have something to gnaw on. Usually they do that since they believe the rat will have too long teeth otherwise, which is untrue.
Rats have a special way of grinding their teeth, that makes sure the teeth don't overgrow. When they grind their teeth like that, the upper teeth meet the lower teeth. Both upper and lower teeth are sharpened and that way the rat can grind their teeth to be perfect.
I have met at least one rat with overgrown teeth, the reason for this was an abnormality in the mouth, so the upper teeth did not meet the lower teeth, and thus the poor rat could not grind it's teeth. When this happens you have to cut the teeth to normal length every week or so. It is very uncommon in rats, but more common in rabbits, since rabbits more often get abcesses in the mouth, and the abcess can grow so big that it moves a tooth so the poor rabbit can not grind it down. The only cure for that is to let the vet remove the abcess.
Originally written by Eva Johansson in 1994 - 1995. Rewritten in December 2004.
Copyright Eva Johansson.
Last update: 11th of August 2006.