Question about soy~

Okay so when i went to the vet for my rats check up she told me i really dont need to give them cereal, even though it has minimal sugar, and that it would be better to get them on a Oxbow Regal rat diet. I am okay with this, because both of them are chubby. I am slowly weaning them from the sugary stuff, and replacing it with more fruits and veggies for them. Now, I have a question regarding soy. In the regal rat diet, I read somewhere that the adult formula was better for males, because unspayed females need a diet rich in soy to help prevent mammary tumors. That being said, I bought the adult, because I dont like corn being the #1 ingredient in the young food. To replace this lack of soy, I would like to give my rats soybeans every now and then, or maybe everyday with their food. I found some roasted green soybeans, is that what im aiming for? I know raw soybeans are toxic, so I tried my best to find roasted. Thanks ahead of time~!

The recommended diet for rats
80% good quality lab block (Oxbow Regal Rat, Harlan Tech 2014, or Living World hamster extrusion) available at all times. Low protein levels are important.

20% daily vegs and occasional healthy treats such as a piece of fruit, an organic cheerio type piece of cereal, cooked oatmeal, cooked quinoa, etc
Watch out for sugar and salt. Organic is best.
No GMO corn (so only feed organic)

Didn't know there were two different oxbow rat blocks
I believe the effect of soy on unsprayed girls is small and you will want to only feed non GMO soy (ie organic soy).
My girls are spayed so this is not a concern for me ...

See: http://www.ratshackforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22782

What about edamame? I bet they would love those. Most roasted "nuts" contain quite a bit of salt.

SQ said:

The recommended diet for rats
80% good quality lab block (Oxbow Regal Rat, Harlan Tech 2014, or Living World hamster extrusion) available at all times. Low protein levels are important.

20% daily vegs and occasional healthy treats such as a piece of fruit, an organic cheerio type piece of cereal, cooked oatmeal, cooked quinoa, etc
Watch out for sugar and salt. Organic is best.
No GMO corn (so only feed organic)

Didn't know there were two different oxbow rat blocks
I believe the effect of soy on unsprayed girls is small and you will want to only feed non GMO soy (ie organic soy).
My girls are spayed so this is not a concern for me ...

See: http://www.ratshackforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22782

Click to expand...

Great post, SQ! I think the two different kinds of Oxbow to which she's referring are the Mouse & Young Rat diet and the adult, Regal Rat diet. (Incidentally, the young rat diet is a block and the adult rat diet is a kibble. This seems funny to me since the smaller-sized food is for the larger rats!)

People should keep in mind that corn in a block is not bad, well, gmo is bad but if it's non gmo, corn is a grain and carb and very much needed source of energy for rats.