Fibre in Rat foods

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sausage4ever

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Joined
Aug 1, 2008
Messages
2,639
Location
KW/Guelph, Ontario
Okay I may have found the perfect food but I was wondering if it is too high in fibre. It has approx. 23%, but 13% protein. Everything else is comparable to Oxbow. Is this percentage too much or is it okay?

P.S. My rats don't get veggies everyday, only occasionally as a treat.
 
Your rats should be getting veggies every day. It doesn't need to be a LOT of veggies.

I don't know about anything being too low/high in fibre. What is this rat food?
 
I dont know anything about fibre either. You're gonna have to wait for Jo to answer this one :p And ya, what brand of food is it? I think we would all like to know.
 
It's actually not a rat food but rather...

http://www.zoomed.com/db/products/Entry ... JGb29kIjt9

Natural Box Turtle Food

Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein (Min) 13.0 %
Crude Fat (Min) 2.0 %
Crude Fiber (Max) 21.0 %
Moisture (Max) 13.0 %
Ash (Max) 10.0 % Calcium (Min) 1.0 %
Calcium (Max) 1.4 %
Phosphorus (Min) 0.4 %
Sodium (Max) 0.3 %


Ingredients:
Soybean Hulls, Suncured Alfalfa Meal, Wheat Middlings, Whole Ground Wheat, Dehulled Soybean Meal, Escarole, Endive, Calcium Carbonate, Fish Meal, Glycerin, Monocalcium Phosphate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Dried Papaya, Yeast Culture, Paprika Extract, Dried Mango, Dried Dandelion Greens, Menhaden Oil, Sodium Bicarbonate, Soy Lecithin, Direct-Fed Microorganisms (Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Enterococcus faecium, and Aspergillus oryzae Fermentation Products), Dried Yeast, Dried Saccharomyces Cervisiae Fermentation Solubles, Hydrated Sodium Calcium Aluminosilicate, Garlic Extract, Anise Extract, Chinese Cassia Bark Extract, Ginger Extract, Horseradish, Juniper Extract, Evaporated Cane Juice, Natural Flavoring, Yucca schidigera, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of stabilized Vitamin C), Zinc Methionine Complex, Selenium Yeast, Vitamin E Supplement, preserved with natural Mixed Tocopherols, Rosemary Extract, Ascorbic Acid, Citric Acid, Choline Chloride, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), d-Calcium Pantothenate (source of Vitamin B5), Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Riboflavin Supplement (source of Vitamin B2), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of Vitamin B6), Biotin, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Zinc Oxide, Manganous Oxide, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Chloride, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite.
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I was trying to look for some rat food comparable to Oxbow or HT, and was looking at ZuPreem bird foods which is great but maybe expensive. I was looking at Harrison bird food which is organic but it's super expensive ($125/25lbs), so I started to look at reptile foods and found this from ZooMed.

Also the reason the boys don't get veggies is everday is we don't have veggies in the house everday. On top of that I don't eat veggies that often in fact I normally forget to buy veggies when I go grocery shopping. I'd prefer not to ba hassled over it but I only mentioned it because they could possibly do well with the extra fibre in their diet.
 
Well, I wouldnt feed a reptile food to a rodent. Unless some really extensive research was done into it. Again, see what Jo says. Her answers are always the best.

And you can buy frozen veggies. Like peas, carrots, brocoli etc. Even some frozen fruits but watch the sugar content.

And one more thing, that food has a lot of alfalfa in it and rats usually dont tend to eat alfalfa and just ignore it.
 
No hassling, but I buy veg baby food to have on hand for days that I don't have veg handy. A little jar is good for a couple of days.
 
It sure sounds ok on paper... but just the thought of feeding reptile food is weird to me. lol
I tried to do a search on fiber. I read a long time ago that rats don't need that much fiber but adding fiber to their diet was not harmful... but I don't know how much that would be.

Also, another thing I read a long time ago... through various studies, some advised to veggies only four to 5 times a week. I do the 5 times a week. But I do give lots, mostly being so I can bring down their protein % per day.
 
Okay then I will try to find this food and start to feed it. I know it may sound bad but I'm using my boys as guinea pigs, but this could help other ratties all over. I won't feed it exclusively though (I can't trust this food 100%) and supplement it with either Extrusion and/or Oxbow.

I will also try feeding more veggies, I often give baby food but never thought of it as veggies. I had given them a bunch of veggies once and they got super nasty poos, but I had fed way too much.

Wish us luck!!
 
Another thing is that I see on the list of ingredients that there are some spices and some horseradish and some bark extract :p I would be skeptical about those things.
 
Horseradish is from the same family as broccoli and cabbage so I wouldn't be to worried about that. The spices to me would be ok... the bark extract is also known as a strong antioxidant.
 
Moon said:
No hassling, but I buy veg baby food to have on hand for days that I don't have veg handy. A little jar is good for a couple of days.


I buy baby food more than i do veggies (although my mum buys more veg than i used to).. the problem i have is that i buy the fruit pots aswell as like a vegetable dinner.... and those fruit pots taste damn good
 
My girls got strained banana baby food the other day (a rejected flavour from my neice) and I wanted to eat it myself, hahaha.
 
my hubby makes himself a blueberry smoothie every morning, and the ratties get to lick the spoon. It is funny to watch them when they hear the blender going :giggle: They are such smart ratties!
 
I'm getting some, it was just that I was doing something wrong when I ordered it but now I should be able to get some. I still want to look for this box turtle food so that other rat people can have options.
 
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