Do you guys think this would be a complete rat diet?

[Christie]

Melissa, I think that if you stop feeding them Oxbow, then you might want to give them more than 2 blocks a day. Try 4 and if there is still some in the cage, then try 3. Maybe 2 will be enough but just to be sre, give them extra.

 

[Christie]

Forgot, one more question. If I have trouble feeding my girls lab blocks consistantly, then what should I do?

 

[Melissa's ZOO]

Do you mean if you are not home to give them or you run out? If I run out and need something in a pinch I give them some dog food to hold them over till I can get to the store.

 

[user 78]

I personally do not agree with limiting feed like that, and am very pro Free Feeding. My point was that if you're only giving them 2 blocks a day, and free feeding Oxbow, then there's really no need for you to use the HT. Sort of like having Kellogg's cornflakes with your Store Brand cornflakes. So giving one or the other as their staple would suffice, since it's the same stuff.

Rats will only consume 3-4 blocks a day each.

Ratlover - The chances of your rats outright refusing blocks is fairly slim. The cases of it happening are not as frequent as rats who will eat the blocks just fine. I should have stated that better in my previous post. If your rats do refuse to eat the blocks, you can try different blocks, such as Oxbow or the Living World hamster Extrusion block that many Canadians are using.

 

[Melissa's ZOO]

I know that my young girls do not eat their Oxbow, I know I count how many I put in there and they do not touch it. But they love their HT. I am almost out of Oxbow so I am going to try just the HT and see how that goes. Will start out with 4 each a day and see how that goes.

Do you have a web link to Kim's Ark I would like to check out her page and her foods?

 

[jorats]

I always make sure I have either Oxbow or HT on hand. But if you go a couple of days without it it won't hurt them in the least to give dog food.

For me, I feed the 2014, not because it's a personal preference but because scientific facts are now proving that rats do far better on a very low protein diet. In fact, when we were having the "illness", Guelph University specializing in animal health and sciences asked us what protein levels we fed and they found that the 14% to be quite adequate.

I too like to free feed but mostly because I have a huge colony. If I only had 4 rats, I would free feed unless one or more rats became fat.

 

[user 78]

In almost all cereals and Total included, it's more sugar than anything else. In Total, sugar is the second ingredient, corn syrup is either third or fourth ingredient. :shock: That's not something I would feed my rats. Sugar is really bad for any living being.

The amount of sugar per flake is infinitesimally small. In reality, the cereals do not make up the bulk of the mix, and your rats would be getting maybe 2-3 flakes per serving. Also, the Amount Per Serving for Special K is 1 1/4cups, and Total is for 3/4cup. So per serving, there are 2g of Sugar for Special K and 5g of Sugar for Total.

Here is the link to Kim's Ark. They sell alot of other great things for rats on the website.

Jo, did you ever post the links to those articles with that information? I remember the forum talking about this previously, and the articles you've read were mentioned. I can't remember if links were ever posted, though.

 

[lilspaz68]

http://www.kimsarkrescue.org/content/view/23/35/

 

[Christie]

Ok, um....my friend's last rat died and she will not have anymore so she gave me a small (1.45lb) bag of the hamster extrusion which is what she feeds. It was not open when I got it but when I took it home and opened it, it smelled really bad. Why do you think it smells? She only bought it about a week ago at Petsmart. Is it ok to feed it to them or...what should I do?

 

[user 78]

There's no guarantee that the blocks are any good. There's no telling how long they sat in a warehouse before being shipped to Petsmart, and then how long it sat on their shelves. I've never personally used that brand, so I don't know what it should smell like. The HT that I get smells like.. grains, really, like when you first open a box of cornflakes. No other real scent to it. I would assume the Hamster block should smell similarly.

 

[Melissa's ZOO]

If it smells bad I would take it back or throw it away. Every bag of food I get smells like grains just like Java said. Also check for bugs, small holes in the blocks themselves. Before I switched to HT I bought a couple of bags from my local petstore that were infested with bugs. I took them back and got my money back.

 

[Christie]

Ok. The first ingredient is corn, and the HT blocks are not. Could that make a difference or no? If its old then I'll just throw it away.

 

[Melissa's ZOO]

Is there an expiration date on the bag? If it smells bad to you then it will smell 100 times worse to your rats and I personally would not feed anything I would not eat myself to my rats.

 

[Christie]

No there isnt And good point, I feel the same way. I guess I'll just throw them out.

 

[jorats]

I've used the Extrusion before and it doesn't have a bad smell. If yours does, I'd throw it away.

 

[Melissa's ZOO]

That's another reason I like getting the HT from where I get it from there is an expiration date on the bag. But I go through it fast enough that it really does not matter. I also keep my foods in a tupperware in the freezer to prevent bugs.

 

[SQ]

Suebee doesn't give credit to Debbie Ducommon herself, but to diet information available on The Rat Fan Club site.. I obviously don't know how extensively she used that source, but further down the page she only mentions Rat Fan Club for what foods to feed with caution and what foods not to feed..

True, and that is basically what I said,

I also noticed that Suebee gives credit to Debbie D.'s organization in several places.

Debbie's organization being the Rat Fan Club. Suebee is crediting the site where the info is located .... Debbie Ducommon is the author of that site and wrote the material under discussion.

I also didn't say "higher end" but "higher quality," because there is a very real difference. People are becoming more aware of what's in their dog food and what their dog actually needs.

I do realise that there is a real difference between the two. However, while more expensive does not mean higher quality, higher quality usually is more expensive due to the increased cost of the higher quality of materials used.


I too free feed my rats Harlan 2014.
My rats are different ages and have different needs so some need to consume more food then others. Several years ago, I tried rationing the number of blocks they were fed but this did not work out well for my rats.

Harlan 2014, Harlan 2016, and Harlan 2018 are all great diets.
The one(s) people choose to feed their rats seems to depend upon various factors such as their beliefs about protien levels, the ages of their rats, availability of the product, etc.

 

[Christie]

Ok. Another question, I was gonna post another thread but might as well not. Ok, so my female rat has a tumour and its gonna be removed with lazer surgery. So my question: Can she stay with her sister after the surgery or does she need to go in a separate cage? And does she need to be fed anything special, like extra protein in her diet? Once this question is answered then you can go back to the regular conversation. Thanks!!

 

[jorats]

In almost all cereals and Total included, it's more sugar than anything else. In Total, sugar is the second ingredient, corn syrup is either third or fourth ingredient. :shock: That's not something I would feed my rats. Sugar is really bad for any living being.

The amount of sugar per flake is infinitesimally small. In reality, the cereals do not make up the bulk of the mix, and your rats would be getting maybe 2-3 flakes per serving. Also, the Amount Per Serving for Special K is 1 1/4cups, and Total is for 3/4cup. So per serving, there are 2g of Sugar for Special K and 5g of Sugar for Total.

How do you know your rats are only getting 2-3 flakes? What if one guy eats all the flakes and the other rats don't get their share?

Jo, did you ever post the links to those articles with that information? I remember the forum talking about this previously, and the articles you've read were mentioned. I can't remember if links were ever posted, though.

Ya, I put it in the reference section HERE.

 

[jorats]

Ok. Another question, I was gonna post another thread but might as well not. Ok, so my female rat has a tumour and its gonna be removed with lazer surgery. So my question: Can she stay with her sister after the surgery or does she need to go in a separate cage? And does she need to be fed anything special, like extra protein in her diet? Once this question is answered then you can go back to the regular conversation. Thanks!!

If it's only her and her sister in the cage, I probably wouldn't separate. As for feeding, I would concentrate on giving her yummy foods like soymilk, ensure, baby cereal in order to get her eating.