Switching foods

Good afternoon,

We just got 3 male baby rats on Saturday. I started to mix their food today. They were on the Kent blocks for rats and I am switching them to Oxbow for mice and young rats. I will give them the adult food at 6 months.

They seem to dislike the Oxbow food and prefer the Kent. Do I keep trying to mix it? I did get some of the Kent from the person I got them from. Do I just stop mixing it? I do not want them to starve...

Thanks for any and all advice!

I would suggest that you switch them to the adult oxbow blocks. It is fine for babies and they will likely prefer it

Oh really? I did not know that. Thank you very much.

Don't switch food too suddenly. Switching foods suddenly can cause upset tummies. Over a few weeks, you'll want to start doing mixtures of the foods.
3 parts original food, 1 part new food at first. And then you'll do 2 parts original, 2 parts new, and then 1 part original, 3 parts new. Eventually you'll widdle it all the way down to all new food. This'll take a few weeks, depending on how sensitive your rats' stomachs are.

My babies love the Oxbow and prefer it over the Kaytee brand I'm switching from. Some rats may just be a stickler for their old food and not want to change.

Ok. I can't get the Kent food in my area so that is why I was wanting to switch. I have also heard Oxbow is very good quality food. Thanks!

It and one other brand (can't remember the name) are the highest recommended rat food for this forum. I don't know about Oxbow's essentials diet, but I believe Oxbow's garden variety is non-GMO as well.

ViciousCurse said:

It and one other brand (can't remember the name) are the highest recommended rat food for this forum. I don't know about Oxbow's essentials diet, but I believe Oxbow's garden variety is non-GMO as well.

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Oxbow sells 3 types of rat blocks. The garden select block is relatively new.
I have heard that their essentials block for young rats is not as good as the essentials block sold for adults
Jorats and others say that the oxbow essentials adult block is fine for young and baby rats

The Garden variety must be the thing that Petco and Oxbow are pushing, because for a while, I couldn't find essentials in stores anywhere. It was just the garden variety, which I'm still going to try and post updates to.

@SQ Is the food you are suggesting the Oxbow Regal Rat? Thanks!

ViciousCurse said:

It and one other brand (can't remember the name) are the highest recommended rat food for this forum. I don't know about Oxbow's essentials diet, but I believe Oxbow's garden variety is non-GMO as well.

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Disclaimer: I'm a new rat owner as well, and fairly new to the forum. But I believe the brand you're talking about is (Harlan) Teklad 2014? I started out on Mazuri as that was that was recommended to me elsewhere, but switched to Oxbow after joining this forum and they seemed to like it just as much. My store ran out though, so I ordered Teklad 2014 from Amazon as it was also recommended on this forum. My boys go nuts over it! It is also highly nutritious (maybe not as much as Oxbow, but I'm not positive), and they acted like it was a treat when I mixed it in with the last of my Oxbow. They'd eat all of the Teklad before moving on to the Oxbow haha. So maybe your boys would like the Teklad if they're being a little picky with the Oxbow?

Good news! They LOVE the adult Oxbow! Now I have to worry about them gorging themselves rather than starving. Thanks for the tip. How do I give them more protein in their diet to make up for being on the adult food? I do know the protein is different in each food. What would you recommend?

Thanks so much!