What do fancy rats love to eat?

Question

Mine love brocolli, sweetcorn and carrots on top of their usual rat food mixture but I want to find out what other things they would like!I try and give them plenty of vegetables because they only pick out the bits they like from their read made food. What is good for them and what else would they like as a treat?

Answer 1

I feed mine a mix of spring greens, carrots, brocoli, curly kale and red grapes every day. They used to love blueberries, but one day decided they didnt want them anymore and through them out the cage, they still wont eat them 6 months later! They also refuse to eat strawberries and raspberries. I have a book about rat diets called The Scuttling Gourmet(get it if you can, its the best rat book available) and I try to only give them foods that have a beneficial side to them. Once a week my 10 rats get a tuna pasta bake meal between them. I also give them mashed potato when I have it as I always make too much. They also get frozen peas in the hot weather. I sometimes give them bread soaked in soya milk, that is a very rare treat though. They also get about half an egg each once a month, either scrambled or boiled. I give them canned tuna in spring water every couple of weeks as well. I also give them weetabix in soya milk or porridge made with soya milk. They never have cows milk as rats cant tolerate it. Goats milk or soya milk is best. I cant remember the last time they had "normal" rat treats. At the moment my lot are finishing off some pouches of kitten food that I got for my babies.
I never have a problem with my lot finishing their dry food, the bowl is empty in less than 24 hours. I mix up my own food for them. The link for more info about it below. I use dry pasta, cereals, rat food and dog biscuits as the base for it. Every couple of months I put a small bag of pistachio nuts in the mix for some variety.
I always get organic foods for my rats if its available. I worry about the chemicals in non-organic food. A safe level for humans is unlikely to be safe for rats due to their small size.
Before I started making my own rat mix and giving them organic food I seemed to live at the vets, I always had at least one rat on antibiotics and they never made past 18 months. Since then, I have hardly been to the vets and my rats are living to way past two. I believe its due to the organic food, the chemicals must have been causing respitory problems.

Answer 2

Hi. Rats will eat pretty much any vegetables unless they are very watery - tomatoes and lettuce are NOT popular, and make the cage very stinky too. A fancy rat should not be given more than 1 teaspoon of fresh vegetables in a day as it will upset their stomachs. It is quite important for your rats to be encouraged to eat all the parts of the dry rat food mix to ensure that they are getting all the nutrients from it. You should reduce the amount that they are offered to reduce as much as possible the amount that is left over in the bowl. There will always be some parts of the food that they will refuse, but the less there is the better. Never give a rat nuts or seeds, this causes all sorts of skin problems. The milk or yoghurt drops that you can get at the pet store for rabbits or cats go down very well, and do not seem to cause any problems. These also work really well if you want to train your ratties to do tricks.

Answer 3

Rats will eat pretty much any vegetables unless they are very watery - tomatoes and lettuce are NOT popular, and make the cage very stinky too. A fancy rat should not be given more than 1 teaspoon of fresh vegetables in a day as it will upset their stomachs. It is quite important for your rats to be encouraged to eat all the parts of the dry rat food mix to ensure that they are getting all the nutrients from it. You should reduce the amount that they are offered to reduce as much as possible the amount that is left over in the bowl. There will always be some parts of the food that they will refuse, but the less there is the better. Never give a rat nuts or seeds, this causes all sorts of skin problems. The milk or yoghurt drops that you can get at the pet store for rabbits or cats go down very well, and do not seem to cause any problems. These also work really well if you want to train your ratties to do tricks

Answer 4

Rats can eat pretty much anything we eat. There are some exceptions (see link below). For my rats I like to feed them lab block as the basis of their diet. Then I give them a special treat at dinner time: this usually consists of some fresh veggies/fruits, meat or protein, and sometimes something sweet. I've even given my rats seafood: lobster, fish, scallops, clams, etc. They really enjoy these special treats, because they are not the norm. My rats don't enjoy skins or seeds: ie. grapes - they will eat just the insides, peas - again they will just eat the insides, berries -strawberries, blueberries, raspberries. I just can't get them to eat these items.

Some of my rats favorite foods are: peas, corn, carrots, romaine lettuce, chicken bones (remember they are rats, they will not choke on a bone), bananas, pumpkin pie, cream cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, potato, sweet potato, cooked and uncooked pasta (although, they do not like sauce) and no salad dressing please (mine turn their noses up to it). Just experiment, you will find that each rat has their own individual taste. I have some rats that hate apple and some that love it. Good luck and happy eating!

Answer 5

My little guys love romaine lettuce, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, grapes, bananas.
Some say raw pasta but mine only like cooked plain noodles, pasta or rice.
No meat but maybe an occasional piece of cooked poultry or fish.
Mine get a garlic oil capsule every 2 months, they eat the gel capsule & all.

Answer 6

I make my own home-made mix, which they love: rolled oats, flaked barley, bulgur wheat, flax seed, soy beans, millet, rainbow rotini pasta, Total cereal, raisins and dried cranberries, dried bananas, sunflower seeds; most of this stuff I get from the bulk section of the local health food store. I feed this in addition to the Innova Senior dog food. I supplement their diet with vegetables and fruits, fresh and frozen. They seem to like peas, carrots, broccoli, as well as cooked rice and pasta.

Answer 7

Fancy Dish Rat Poison.

Answer 8

they like any type of greens or most raw veggies. That's all we fed our rat along with the food pellets.

Answer 9

When making cookies, bake half the batch and scoop the remainder into ice-cube trays. When ones sweet tooth kicks in, pop out one and bake it to fulfill your craving without breaking your calorie bank.