Babies not used to nuggets/extra proteins?

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karelkees

Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2020
Messages
5
Location
the netherlands
My 2 boys are one science selective nuggets as their main food, with a little bit mixed food for variety,and daily fresh veggies. They already ate the science selective at the breeder.

Today my 2 new 6 weeks old boys arrived. The are used to eat a mixed diet,but i want to switch them to SS.
how can i learn them that this it food? I guess they will learn from my other 2 boys, but they are in their own cage now so they can settle in and grow a bit first.

Also, do you feed young rats anything extra like chicken or egg for extra protein? or a wetfood (cooked rice with veggies and protein maybe?)
If you do this,untill what age? And also, do you seperate the youngsters from the others when feeding extra cooked food/proteins and how do you do this during intro's?
 
Babies are weaned pretty much weaned at 4 weeks and rats can reproduce at about 6 weeks old, this means they are no longer babies even though, they look like babies to us. At 5 weeks, rats no long need extra protein. And you are right, they will learn by seeing their casemates. I wouldn't worry, just switch them over, that's what we all do.
 
Ok thank you. There are lots of different advices about feeding youngsters... i am from the netherlands, a lot of people here prefer to feed a mixed diet: the youngsters are fed a mixed diet with animal protein in it and are also fed fresh meals daily with cooked carbs, veggies and protein. Extra animal protein is fed daily when they are in the fast growing fase. Even if they are fed on a nugget as main food.

They are now housed with my other two boys, and i offer fresh veggies, mixed food and nuggets. I see them try to steal the nuggets from the others when they are eating them, but they don't eat the nuggets themself yet.
Maybe i should only provide the nuggets until they do eat them? But i don't want to starve the little boys....

Also, there are mixed opinions on feeding a soy based diet to growing rats. I have read that it could harm their growth? What are your opinions about it?
And also, is there anybody here who has their rats grown up on a mainly soy nugget diet with only fresh veggies added? How do they do on it?
 
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There are a lot of misinformation out there. People like to rely on anecdotal evidence which we all know is not facts. I did my research using science and studies. If you read the China Study, you will see all the tests they did on rats and protein and fat and you will see that rats' optimum health is with low fat and low protein. Animal protein is not necessary. As for soy, if you have females, soy is good in helping prevent mammary tumours. Soy is also highly nutritious, with a good amount of protein and fat.
 
Ok i will search fo it, thanks.

How can i get the young boys to eat the nuggets?
They don't seem to know that it is food.
When i soak it in warm water for about 30 minutes, it becomes soft and they do eat it that way.

Is it good enough for now to feed a fresh veggies meal first thing in the morning, and after that some soaked nuggets, dry nuggets available during the day, and in the evening soaked nuggets again? Hopefully that way they will start to like the taste and will also try the dry nuggets after a while....

No Additional protein needed when feeding the SS nugget?
 
Haha i saw the little boys eat some of the dry nuggets just now! Hopefully they will continue this.

What is your opinion ons science selective as a base feed for (young)growing boys?
I am still a bit concerned about the soy and limited ingredient list with high vitamins.... I also think the copper is quite low. This is the analyse:

Protein 14%
Fat 5%
Calcium 0,6%
Phosphor 0.4%
Vit a 20.000 ie
Vit d 2000ie
Copper 7,5mg/kg

I don't think there are many other good options available in the netherlands.
Maybe this one?
https://www.versele-laga.com/en-nl/crispy/producten/crispy-pellets---rats-mice

But it has Antioxidants and Preservatives...should i worry about that?
Protein is high, but i feed a lot of fresh so that brings the total protein down.
Copper is higher then in SS and vitamin a is lower. (Still quite high)
 
Well it seems they are eating the SS.
Both had a full round belly this morning.
The first day on SS they both lost some weight (i weigh them daily in the morning) this morning they had gained 8gr and 4gr.

Should i stick to SS, or better try the versele laga crispy ?
What do you think is better and why?
 
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