How to feed my ratties

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Nymeria

New Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2018
Messages
4
Location
Canada
hi

I am anew rat owner so I apologize for all my questions to come.
I have read that you should feed your rats twice a day, morning and night. I keep food in their cage all the time and give them fruits and vegetables during playtime outside the cage.
What is everyone’s thoughts on this?

Thank you
Nymeria
 
A lot of people free feed their rats and give veggies and fruits as a supplement. With my own rats, I preferred controlled feeding.
 
Leaving their food in the cage 24/7 can cause them to become overweight as they will just eat whenever theyre bored. U should only feed once or twice a day,and real food is best to feed.
 
The suggested diet for rats is a good quality low protein rat block (Oxbow or Harlan 2014) always available and a variety of daily vegs, and healthy treats such as berries, a piece of ripe fruit, cooked whole grains, a few cooked dry beans, a few cooked chick peas, organic pumpkin seeds, squash seeds, etc
Rats eat every few hours, which is why they are not fasted before surgery (rats can not vomit so they do not need to be fasted)
I am concerned that only feeding them a couple of times a day will mean they spend a lot of time hungry.
I do not provide as many blocks as I used to (re Jorats concern about becoming fat and thus unhealthy), however they do receive blocks a couple of times a day and can stash some away for later.
My rats also get vegs or cooked whole grains or fruit in the morning,
and a dish of vegs or cooked whole grains in the evening after returning to their cage from free ranging in a large rat safe play area with me.
They also frequently hunt for organic kumut puffs (a treat/cereal that does not contain preservatives or any additives) during their free range play time
 
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The suggested diet for rats is a good quality low protein rat block (Oxbow or Harlan 2014) always available and a variety of daily vegs, and healthy d=treats such as berries, a piece of ripe fruit, cooked whole grains, a few cooked dry beans, a few cooked chick peas, organic pumpkin seeds, squash seeds, etc
Rats eat every few hours, which is why they are not fasted before surgery (rats can not vomit so they do not need to be fasted)
I am concerned that only feeding them a couple of times a day will mean they spend a lot of time hungry.
I do not provide as many blocks as I used to (re Jorats concern about becoming fat and thus unhealthy), however they do receive blocks a couple of times a day and can stash some away for later.
My rats also get vegs or cooked whole grains or fruit in the morning,
and a dish of vegs or cooked whole grains in the evening after returning to their cage from free ranging in a large rat safe play area with me.
They also frequently hunt for organic kumut puffs (a treat/cereal that does not contain preservatives or any additives) during their free range play time
Ive been feeding my rats only once a day for years and ive never had any problems. Of course they get snacks and stuff throughout the day so they arent left hungry,but they only get their main meals once a day,at night.
 
Ive been feeding my rats only once a day for years and ive never had any problems. Of course they get snacks and stuff throughout the day so they arent left hungry,but they only get their main meals once a day,at night.

So basically you control their feeding by giving them a huge meal once a day, and feeding them (hopefully healthy food) multiple times throughout the day. Edit: which is what many others, myself included have written

btw, Welcome to the forum
........ in case you are unaware, this is a rat rescue forum.
This forum does not support the breeding of rats and does not allow breeders to advertise or promote themselves.
You may not have noticed the rules in the Introduction section.
They state "On this rescue forum, there will be no promoting or advertising of any breeder whatsoever. " https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/please-read.29217/
I hope that you will change your name Edit: because the name you are using promotes your rattery
 
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So basically you control their feeding by giving them a huge meal once a day, and feeding them (hopefully healthy food) multiple times throughout the day.

btw, Welcome to the forum
........ in case you are unaware, this is a rat rescue forum.
This forum does not support the breeding of rats and does not allow breeders to advertise or promote themselves.
You may not have noticed the rules in the Introduction section.
They state "On this rescue forum, there will be no promoting or advertising of any breeder whatsoever. " https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/please-read.29217/
I hope that you will change your name.
Yes and that's how it should be,as ive said before, leaving food in the cage 24/7 or feeding them multiple times a day will result in them becoming obese,something that a lot of people apparently think is ok and "cute". And i didnt come on here to advertise anything,i came on here to share info and my experience in owning rats (over 10years) because it seems like a lot of people have no clue what theyre talking about on these forums,or they get offended very easily (like u) which why i normally stay away from sites like this.
Also,from the short time ive been on here ive already seen tons of posts about breeding. And no,i will not be changing my name.
 
I think you may be confused.
This rat rescue forum promotes rescuing rats that are being rehomed or adopting from rat rescues or shelters.
We discourage buying rats or breeding rats.
Sometimes rescued rats are already pregnant, and sometimes people (unfortunately) keep intact rats of both sexes and have 'accidental' litters. If anyone is breeding, then they are smart enough not to share that information.
 
Thanks everyone.

I have dwarf ratties so I scale things down based on their size but they do not like the Oxbow blocks but will eat Oxbow adult food for rats, with fresh veggies is this enough?

Thank you everyone
 
I think we are talking about the same thing .... sorry not to be more clear. The hard pelleted Oxbow rat food is referred to as rat blocks .... likely because years ago people fed rats lab blocks that were rat food formed in a rectangle that were given to laboratory rats. And the word "block" distinguishes it from mixes people sometimes feed - mixes are very unhealthy for rats

So yes the oxbow rat food will meet their nutritional needs
in addition they need as variety of daily vegs - as you mentioned

there are also other good things you can feed them like berries, a piece of ripe fruit, cooked whole grains (like real oatmeal, quinoa, etc), organic pumpkin seeds, etc ....................... See the forbidden foods list, etc as some foods can not be fed and others such as sweet potato can only be fed if it is cooked https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/reference-thread-read-only.35894/
 
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Hi thank you so much. One rat food I got has little logged shaped food. Thank you for clearing that up.
I appreciate all your advice as a I am a newbie,

Thank you again
 
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