Favorite treats for picky eaters?

[MysticMoon]

So we're trying to train our girls, but for now we're just trying to figure out some treats everyone likes. One likes carrots and pumpkin seeds, one likes peanut butter and grapes, and the other... Well she won't really touch anything except her dry food. We've tried Cheerios, carrots, grapes, pumpkin, peanut butter, mealworms, and banana so far and she's had pretty limited interest in all of it. What else would you guys suggest to try? We're also just trying to get her more comfortable with us because she was a feeder rat and is still nervous (not totally scared but she's usually not all that content to play or cuddle with us and can be pretty flighty at times).

Here's a picture of her (black rat) with one of her nakie sisters.

 

[Luna&Ralph]

Have you tried each of those foods multiple times? Because rat’s can’t vomit, they will only take a small amount of food the first time they try it just in case it’s poisonous.

As a dry treat, you could try those little puffed shapes that they sell for babies, they have a bunch of flavours in those. I’m not sure why, but mine usually like small pieces of kale and lettuce.

 

[MysticMoon]

That's a really good idea. I've offered a few of them multiple times, like the pumpkin seeds and the grapes, but for the most part I had only offered once. None of them seemed terribly interested in most of the treats except for the peanut butter, so I'll definitely try to get them to try it more than once. The only problem is she wouldn't try any of the treats except for the pumpkin seeds (only because her sister was having them and it probably sparked a pang of jealousy I think lol). But since she did actually eat the pumpkin seeds, I think I'll try again with more nuts and seeds (like sunflower).

I'll try those treats too. I'll probably stay away from lettuce, just because it has a super high water content and no actual nutritional value, but romaine, kale, and collared greens are something I'd probably try. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Luna&Ralph]

Oh sorry, by lettuce I meant baby spring mix. I usually have a container for my rabbits so I always give the rats some and they love it.

 

[DanielZielwolf]

Chocolate chip cookies, molten ice-cream. Usually reserve these for when I need to mask medication. I've yet to meet a rat who can resist them.

 

[jorats]

Mine would do anything for unshelled raw sunflower seeds.

 

[SQ]

Healthy foods like organic pumpkin seeds, organic kumut puffs, cooked quinoa, cooked real oatmeal with blueberries on top, a piece of ripe banana, frozen/thawed peas, cooked sweet potato, cooked squash, mixed greens, a small broccoli stalk