Knowing what to feed your rats to give them the best diet possible is very important. It can allow them to live longer, be healthier and also possibly prevent health issues down the line. It’s not just knowing what dry mix to give them for the best either, rats love a variety of different things like wet food, fruit and vegetables and the all important treats.
In this section I’ll take you through some great guides from some of the best in the rat community who will teach you all the different parts of what to feed your rats.
Dry Food (Mixes)
Rats are not fussy animals at all. It’s one reason why they survive so well in the wild, they will literally eat almost anything. But that doesn’t mean they should. So for a brief breakdown of a good diet for rats the best place to start is the Diet guide by Lurelin Rats. Here we can read a brief breakdown on main diet, including the different options for mixes. There are explanations on giving extra supplements, feeding kittens and how much mix your rats should be getting. A perfect place to start and a helpful chart is provided on making your own mix which we will go into more detail later.
So now we can go into a bit more detail on each category of diet starting with dry mixes. A dry mix is a term referring to their main food. This is the one you feed once or twice a day and will be their main source of food. There are many different types of things classed as dry mix. The Isamu Rats guide on Options for Dry Mixes will take you through all these options and tell you what is good and bad about them and help you decide what is best for you and your rats. Most people start out badly on this one and buy bland pellets that don’t provide much nutritional value for the rats, then learn later on what is better for them. If you can learn the better options straight away your rats will appreciate it a lot more.
The 2 best options for dry mixes are 1) feeding a good ready made mix bought online and 2) making your own complete mix. We will look into both options and you can decide what is best
Firstly the ready made mix bought online. The best way to get these mixes is from Rat Rations. A large number of people in the rat community use Rat Rations mixes because they are easy to get and full of everything your rat will need in its diet. The only downside to a new owner is there are a lot of different mixes on offer and it may be a little overwhelming trying to work out which one is right for your rats. Well don’t worry Azuline Rattery has looked into this and put together the “I Want to Buy a Mix from Rat Rations but There’s so Many to Choose From, I Don’t Know Where to Start!” guide. It does everything it says in the title, it will take you through the basics of what the mixes are made up with and why they put them in there. It will then guide you through each specific ready made mix and let you know what they are designed for. Some are better for older rats, some for pregnant does or kittens and of course just your basic general mixes. A handy cheat sheet at the end will quickly help you pick the right mix you’ll need.
Rat Rations is not just the only option for dry mixes though. There are other options too as seen in the graphic below. All of these stores can be found in the Shops and Vendors section.
As mentioned another good option is to make your own mix. Making your own mix allows you not only to save a lot of money as the basic ingredients can be very cheap to put together but you can also change ingredients as many times as you like. It’s fully customisable allowing you to experiment with different things and can add and remove things whenever you want to. The homemade mixes are based on the Shunamite diet and can be broken down into sections easily allowing you to see what different types of ingredients you will need to make your mix.
So to go through making your own mix I would like to show you The Rat wiki guide to Making your own Basic Rat Mix. This is an easy to follow guide on how to follow the Shunamite style diet and cover all the bases of DIY rat mixes. You can start off basic with one or 2 ingredients from each section and build up to adding more things later. I’ll aim to provide as many different examples as possible for each section so people have more options to customise their mix as they please. It’s very fun trying your rats with different options and mixing things up every now and then so they don’t get bored. Plus the bigger the batches of mix you make up the cheaper it should work out for you in the long run.
One thing that can be quite worrying is if you accidentally run out of rat mix without realising it. This can happen quite easily if you think you have more than you actually do or possibly your funds are running a bit low and you can’t quite afford to get your rat rations order through in time. Don’t panic, Azuline Rattery has shared a guide on behalf of Zephyr Rat Stud called Kitchen Cupboard Emergency Rat Mix which will help you out in this worrying situation. This guide will make sure your rats will still get a delicious meal for a few days until your properly balanced long term mix arrives. It shows you how to go through your kitchen cupboards and use everyday items like processed grains, seeds, protein sources and vegetables to make up a temporary mix to keep you going until the delivery arrives. Even if you don’t think this will ever happen to you it is well worth reading just in case. The last thing you want is your rats going hungry so knowing this is a big help.
Fresh and Wet Food
That pretty much wraps things up for the basic mix guides. But it isn’t just a good dry mix that is recommended to give as part of a balanced and varied diet. We will now look at other things you can give your rats too to not only offer them a bit of variety but also cover other essential aspects of their diets. The following are all guides put together by Isamu Rats.
Firstly we will look at fruits and vegetables. You can give these to your rats quite often as another source of food they will enjoy. Either in their cage or while out in free roam is a good idea and will be a nice treat for them. There are so many different fruits and vegetables out there all providing different nutrients and benefits. Some however are either not so good in certain situations or should only be fed occasionally as they are high in sugar etc. There are also different categories fruits and vegetables are classed in and you should give a certain amount of each to your rats to keep them nice and healthy. This can be a lot to take in. Luckily the Isamu Rats guide on Feeding Fruits and Vegetables will not only tell you how much of each to give but also lists every one of the available ones provided in stores and goes through the good, the bad and the how often to feed on each. I personally have this as a Tab open on my phone at all times to refer to.
It’s not only fresh fruit and veg you can offer your rats. You can also give them what is called wet meals. This can be anything from eggs to tinned fish. The Isamu Fresh and Wet Meals guide will take you through some good examples of readymade and homemade wet meals and other special foods that can be fed as treats. Just remember that this should be more occasional than regular.
Additional Feeding Guides
On the subject of limiting certain things. There is a general rule that’s always said with what to feed rats and that is if it’s safe for humans it’s probably safe for rats. This is not always the case though. There are a small selection of foods out there that can be toxic to rats, cause digestion issues or just generally not agree with them. Although most of these wont be fatal it’s best to avoid them if you can as you don’t want your rats getting sick or uncomfortable after consuming them. Read the Foods to Avoid or Limit guide carefully and you should be fine in knowing what to avoid. There is also a handy section on common myths too that are passed around the internet which are usually true for causing issues in dogs and cats but are actually fine for rats to eat.
As you may have discovered by now all of the previous guides have been designed to cover all the bases on what nutrition your rats need. The more varied and balanced the diet the healthier and happier they will be. However sometimes there is certain vitamins and minerals that may need to be supplemented if they are not in attendance in either mixes you have made yourself or in readymade mixes. It will therefore be very beneficial to read the Supplements and Treats guide so you can see some of the important ones and understand why they need to either be in your rats diet or supplemented in. It will also teach you how some oils can be very beneficial to your rats as well and suggests some other supplements that can help older rats and rats with mobility issues.
Of course it’s very important to give your rats all these different types of foods, whether wet or dry, vegetables and also treats but can you make eating fun for your rats. Rats are natural scavengers and they are also extremely clever. They are hard wired to go out and work to find their food. So just putting it in a bowl all together for them to access constantly will not only cause them to gain weight but also get very bored and fed up. They want to be entertained even with the basic process of eating their food. So to do this there are a number of techniques out there to challenge them to work for their food. This is covered in the Enrichment Feeding guide. From basic dry mix technique called scatter feeding to hanging and wrapping treats up for them to discover. And also a few examples of the many foraging toys you can acquire to challenge their brains through puzzles and interactive objects. You will not only help keep them engaged and entertained, but also making them work for their food keeps their waistlines nice and trim as well.
If you ever wanted to make your own treats for your rats there are things out there that you can do to not only give them a tasty treat but also make it different to the normal things they are used to. DIY Rat Treat Recipes by Shadow The Rat is a great guide on some fun things to try yourself. They are simple and cheap to make and your rats should love them.
Do you ever wonder if you can give your rats certain foods but are not quite sure if they are totally safe? If you would like to see an all inclusive list of what has been deemed safe foods for rats to eat, not only for peace of mind that they can have them but also just to get some more ideas for variety in general then the What Foods Are Safe For Rats mega list by Shadow the Rat- Rattrixs is a great place to look. Providing a huge list of examples in all categories such as Fruits and Veg, berries, mushrooms, meats, fish and much more. This is a great resource to inspire you to try dishing out your rats something new and tasty for them to enjoy.
Once a year Halloween time comes along and with that comes pumpkins . A question I see all the time on social media is of course can rats have pumpkins to eat. Autumn in general is a time of year where certain natural things like acorns and chestnuts drop on the ground and people always ask if rats can have them. The NERS Autumnal Revelries guide will answer all these questions for you and as an added bonus will tell you how you can roast the pumpkin seeds and feed to your rats too which they will love.
Age Specific Feeding
Following all this advice should result in your rats living enriched lives at nearly any age. There are a couple of instances where you will need to do a little research into changing diets slightly depending on age.
The first one is kittens. You may be thinking kittens will mostly be down to the breeders and they should know all this already. Well yes they should but there are occasions where unsuspected people may acquire already pregnant rats or have been given miss sexed rats which have resulted in what’s commonly called “oops litters”. Once they have come off milk from their mother you need to feed them a different diet from normal adult rats. This is where you need the Isamu Rats Feeding Kittens guide. This will go through everything we have covered above (what to feed, dry mix, wet food, veg, vitamins and supplements, treats. How much to feed etc) but adjust it correctly so it aids the youngsters. This will not only help you increase essential things for growth like giving extra protein but also stop you giving things too much too fast that can cause upset bellies and squishy droppings. Once they are adult age you can easily adjust back to your usual feeding routine.
And finally the other end of the spectrum is knowing how to support and aid your rats when they get older. Having a very old rat is not only nerve racking but is also a huge pleasure as it’s fulfilling to think you’ve done everything right to care for them into old age. Just like the kitten feeding guide Isamu rats have also produced the Feeding for Old Age guide. This will also go through basic diet, fresh food, supplements etc and adjust it solely for the older rat diet. It’s all about feeding for protection which will helpfully keep your old rat going longer and longer.
I often joke that I sometimes spend more time thinking about and preparing food and treats for rats than I do myself and I truly think that’s a great thing. I know there are more out there like me too and I hope one day you reading this will be exactly the same.
The Rat Wiki 