What do you feed a rat?

Question

My friend just bought a rat and she doesn't know what to feed it.

Answer 1

Home-made. It is the most nutritional option for a rat.

Try this:
http://petinfopackets.com/rats/ratfeeding.html

Anything you feed should always, always be supplemented with fresh foods - veggies, fruits, meat... those kinds of things. Do not buy Kay-Tee products as they have had a lot of issues and use corn as the main ingrediant (not very healthy). Lab blocks that have healthy ingrediants first (not corn!) are the best option if you cannot provide home made. They are nutritionaly complete and if young enough, rats will take to them fairly easily.

If you want to feed them what you are eating (meaning they have their own food but you want them to have a piece of whatever you are eating) check it out against the forbidden food list.
Forbidden foods:
http://www.petratscanada.com/forbidden_foods.htm

Answer 2

There are several commercial rat foods & we used to give our guys Reggie Rat. A couple years ago I switched to a mixture of grains-- wheat, oats, barley, millet & as many others as I can find-- supplemented with vegetarian dog food, fresh fruits & veggies (peeled unless they're organic), vegetarian dog biscuits (they love the peanut butter flavor), occasional sunflower seeds, nuts in the shell & usually a bit of whatever we're having for dinner unless it's not good for them. When I cook rice I always make a lot of it b/c all our little guys really enjoy it (I combine brown jasmine rice with quinoa). I keep hearing that some rats enjoy uncooked pasta, but our rats insist that it's cooked.
Encourage your friend to get her new rat a friend, too ;-)

Answer 3

They do sell commercial rat pellets that technically the rat can live on. However I feed my rats 2 pellets, a grain (such as cheerios), a seed or nut, and a fruit of vegetable every day.

Answer 4

Almost any kind of grain is okay.
I know a lot of people are going to say the pellets you buy in the store, but I'm not. Otis hatted them!
I'm not sure, but I would think anything natural a rat could get in the wild would be okay. Fruit, small pieces of meat, those things would probably be okay.

Answer 5

Well, most of the time you feed him rat food you feed it (you can find it at a petstore) when the store sells food it will sell treats(for when her new buddy is extremely good). Some good make-it- yourself treats are small banana chunks covered in peanut butter, little cut up peaces of broccili stems, or even small slices of apple.

Answer 6

Rats eat just about anything. Go to your local pet stores though (petsmart, petco) to find out some special things if your friend really cares that much. The place were she got the rat should have told her what to buy to feed it also.

Answer 7

poisin