What Food Do You Feed?

[lilangel]

I'm a little confused, unless I missed it somewhere. Rachael, can you give us the recipes for what you feed, or the ingredients? I'm genuinely interested, I like hearing and reading about homemade diets.

I don't make a homemade diet such as Suebee or the Shunamite. My rats get a 'human' diet... a breakfast each morning, and a dinner each night.

So what you do is throw in whatever you have to feed them?

Like you do not plain the day by day foods? I think this is what people are asking. Or plan the week by week by buying at the grocery store and stuff.

Like a table:

EXAMPLE ONLY:
Monday:
kale,peas,carrots and some chicken

Tuesday:
Romaine,Peas,broccoli,rosted soy beans

Wednesday:
Celery,whole wheat noodles cooked

And so on.

That is why they are asking how you know they are getting what is needed if you do not calculate everything.


I too am all in for "homemade diets" or "human foods" being that its right and getting all the right things they need, but being a rescue its just not possible to do feeding 30+ mouths would get costly for us.

 

[xxchelle]

I'm a little confused, unless I missed it somewhere. Rachael, can you give us the recipes for what you feed, or the ingredients? I'm genuinely interested, I like hearing and reading about homemade diets.

I don't make a homemade diet such as Suebee or the Shunamite. My rats get a 'human' diet... a breakfast each morning, and a dinner each night.

Yeah, I understand that I'm just wondering WHAT you feed for breakfast/dinner. Like what human foods do they get? Do you feed the same breakfast each morning, or is it different every day? And if it's different, what are the general ingredients? Sorry, I'm not trying to grill you so don't take it the wrong way! Haha. I'm just honestly interested.

 

Racheal, all we want to know is excatly what foods do you feed. Just telling us you feed human food is not doing it.

 

[jorats]

I think you guys better just give up. lol

 

[Argent]

Having seen how many people feed lab blocks here, I'm going to do a trial period on Burgess Supa Rat rather than Shunamite for a while, to see if Rufus loses some weight. He's the big beefy bully so I'm almost certain he's hogging the good bits, even though I don't add more food til it's all gone for a few hours. Here's hoping he trims down!
Also, it is impossible to find Oxbow or Harlan here!

 

I think you guys better just give up. lol

I was thinking the same thing, lol

 

[Rachael]

I've been busy and not really been reading this thread.

We don't have a set menu as I said, but say for breakfast.. wholemeal toast, egg, low sugar cereals such as corn flakes/rice krispies/bran flakes or muesli.... dinner..... apple/grape/melon/strawberry/sultanas/banana/breadstick/cream crackers/baked potatoe/cooked vegetables/cucumber/kale/broccoli/kiwi fruit.

At the moment as I said though, a lot are just getting baby foods some nights.

Tonight for dinner they have some yoghurt, grapes, cream cracker, and broccoli.

 

[Jennalyn]

Mine get a mix of Harlan Teklad 2016, Oxbow Regal Rat, and Innova Senior dog food at night with a pump of salmon oil on all the kibble. The dog food was left over from their first diet with Suebee's as babies. The HT is from Mainely Rat Rescue. And oh, I was so thrilled when they enjoyed Oxbox since I believe it's the healthiest. They like and eat all of the foods, and I moderate their overall portion size to last them throughout the day. So far I have healthy rats and very rarely any wasted lab blocks, so I'm happy.

Plus they get a 'salad' most nights of whatever rat-friendly foods are available. The more frequent ones are kale, bananas, strawberries, broccoli, red grapes, spinach, carrots, peas, etc. All in moderation, a'course. Spinach is never more than once a week and the peas and carrots are smaller treats.

It's always neat to see what everyone feeds their rats! A different diet for just about every person, it seems like.

 

I've been busy and not really been reading this thread.

We don't have a set menu as I said, but say for breakfast.. wholemeal toast, egg, low sugar cereals such as corn flakes/rice krispies/bran flakes or muesli.... dinner..... apple/grape/melon/strawberry/sultanas/banana/breadstick/cream crackers/baked potatoe/cooked vegetables/cucumber/kale/broccoli/kiwi fruit.

At the moment as I said though, a lot are just getting baby foods some nights.

Tonight for dinner they have some yoghurt, grapes, cream cracker, and broccoli.

Most of those things are treats for my guys.

 

[lilangel]

Same for us most of that is treats to my guys hehe But like i said before each to his/her own i guess. If you say it works for you well then it does

 

[Rachael]

It's okay I know you don't believe the diet is the best diet, but I'd say the same about lab blocks. I agree to disagree... because I'm not ever going to feed blocks, and you obviously won't feed the diet I have been

 

[Rachael]

I've been busy and not really been reading this thread.

We don't have a set menu as I said, but say for breakfast.. wholemeal toast, egg, low sugar cereals such as corn flakes/rice krispies/bran flakes or muesli.... dinner..... apple/grape/melon/strawberry/sultanas/banana/breadstick/cream crackers/baked potatoe/cooked vegetables/cucumber/kale/broccoli/kiwi fruit.

At the moment as I said though, a lot are just getting baby foods some nights.

Tonight for dinner they have some yoghurt, grapes, cream cracker, and broccoli.

Most of those things are treats for my guys.

I read you give cucumber as a treat and wondered why as it's mostly water??

 

[jorats]

Treats don't need to be nutritious, only healthy. Cucumbers are much much better than something horrible like yogies.

 

[Rachael]

Mine agree on yogies being horrible, they won't touch them...

 

I've been busy and not really been reading this thread.

We don't have a set menu as I said, but say for breakfast.. wholemeal toast, egg, low sugar cereals such as corn flakes/rice krispies/bran flakes or muesli.... dinner..... apple/grape/melon/strawberry/sultanas/banana/breadstick/cream crackers/baked potatoe/cooked vegetables/cucumber/kale/broccoli/kiwi fruit.

At the moment as I said though, a lot are just getting baby foods some nights.

Tonight for dinner they have some yoghurt, grapes, cream cracker, and broccoli.

Most of those things are treats for my guys.

I read you give cucumber as a treat and wondered why as it's mostly water??

Treats don't have to be junk, they can be healthy. My guys consider cucumber a treat and they love it.

 

[Ewa]

A treat is important for behavior and should be something healthy , like cucumber. it isn't a treat because of what it is , it is a treat because they don't get it with every meal.


And I changed food. I now use Harlan 2016 and sue bees mix.

 

[Rachael]

I didn't mean treats have to be "junk"... their treats can be tasty but not "junk"!
I understand why you give them say, cucumber, as a treat. That's just something ours have for a dinner though and they don't really enjoy it compared to some other foods. They do enjoy it but it's not something if I gave them when they ran to me they would eat, they would just drop it haha.

 

Cucumbers & veggies are tasty, mine come running for things like this
I rarely ever feed cereals.
They only get bread with meds.
I don't feed dairy.
So mainly their treats consists of veggies.

 

[Rachael]

Vegetables are good for rats though, so why make that a treat? And I don't give them bread dry, they sometimes get wholemeal toast which again is fine.

 

What do you consider a "treat"? I consider their food their lab blocks and veggies treats, & what is wholemeal toast?