What i feed my rat?

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ectopistes

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2010
Messages
63
Location
brazil
Well, hello people, i´m from brazil, my english is not so good and well, i know that many topics here are about this matter but, you talk about brands that my country dont have.

Well, there´s only two brands of rat food here, one is Labina from Purina and the other is Nuvilab CR-1 from Nuvital, my rats have 4 weeks and i dont know what to give to then, they are eating seed mix, with sunflower seeds and corn, that i know thats not good to them, well, what i choose:

Labina
Protein: 23% (minimum)
ether extract 4% (minimum)
fiber: 5% (maximum)
total mineral: 10% (maximum)
calcium: 1,3% (maximum)
phosphorus: 0,85% (minimum)

Nuvilab CR-1
Protein: 22% (minimum)
ether extract 4,5% (minimum)
fiber: 8% (maximum)
total mineral: 10% (maximum)
calcium: 1,4% (maximum)
phosphorus: 0,80% (minimum)

Well, i only have those options, i want to give the best food avaible to my babyes, but or i choose one of this brands or i made i made a homemade mix, but i need a recipe :cry:

Please help a fellow brazilian rat lover.
 
At 4 weeks, higher protein is good. As they get older, you can supplement with fresh veggies to bring their total protien level down, just make sure that you aren't giving them things that would increase the protein, like meat or nuts.

My guess is that Labina is the same as our Mazuri, so you might even be able to get the lower protein ones when your kids get older.

Hopefully Sorria will see this, she knows A LOT about rat food, so she might be able to help you make your own.
 
Do you have a university with a lab in your area that you could possibly buy blocks from? Many labs that have animals will have something more or less suitable for rats. Call and ask what they have and if they are willing to sell you anything and let us know - we can help and let you know if they're any good.

Another thing to look into would be hamster blocks - some of them offer decent rat nutrition.
 
At a very young age, those two would work. As they get older, supplement with lots of veggies and they will do fine. :)

Wow from Brazil!! Welcome!
 
handmeafish said:
At 4 weeks, higher protein is good. As they get older, you can supplement with fresh veggies to bring their total protien level down, just make sure that you aren't giving them things that would increase the protein, like meat or nuts.

My guess is that Labina is the same as our Mazuri, so you might even be able to get the lower protein ones when your kids get older.

Hopefully Sorria will see this, she knows A LOT about rat food, so she might be able to help you make your own.
Click to expand...

Thanks, if i dont find a better food, i will do this i think.

smilez_n_hugs said:
Could you possibly post the ingredient list, that might help us to give you a more informed decision.
Click to expand...

Nuvilab Cr-1:
Product Composition: corn grain, soybean meal, wheat bran, calcium carbonate, dicalcium phosphate, sodium chloride, vitamin premix mineral and amino acids.

Labina
I really cant find the product composition for this product :( , but i sent an email to purina...

what you think?
victoria said:
Do you have a university with a lab in your area that you could possibly buy blocks from? Many labs that have animals will have something more or less suitable for rats. Call and ask what they have and if they are willing to sell you anything and let us know - we can help and let you know if they're any good.

Another thing to look into would be hamster blocks - some of them offer decent rat nutrition.
Click to expand...

I sent an email to the pharmacy course cordinator asking the name of the food and if he can sell some to me, waiting his answer, but i think that he uses labina, because its very common here in others universitys here in brazil.
I never saw hammster blocks here, i will try to find it today.

Thanks

jorats said:
At a very young age, those two would work. As they get older, supplement with lots of veggies and they will do fine. :)

Wow from Brazil!! Welcome!
Click to expand...

Thanks, if i dont find a better food i will do this, that forbidden food list is offline? do you know what veggies i must supply?

Thanks again, here in brazil rats as pets is very very rare, thats explain the difficult to find things designed to them.


Sorry if my english is rude, i know it is very bad :oops:
 
SQ said:
This link contains a good homemade diet.
It also has the forbidden foods list.

http://ratfanclub.org/diet.html
Click to expand...

I found this dog food, i read that i can use dog food from a good sorce, what do you think:

monello dog, smalls races
Crude Protein (min.)
22%

Ethereal Extract (min.)
11%

Fibrous Matter (max)
3%

Mineral Matter (max)
8%

Calcium (min. / max.)
1.0 / 2.2%

Phosphorus (min. / max.)
0.8 / 1.6%

Moisture (max.)
10%

Omega 3 (min.)
0.2%

Omega 6 (min.)
1.0%

Saponin (min.)
7mg/kg

AMINO ACID-ZINC (min.)
30 mg

IRON (min.)
80 mg

Copper (Min)
7 mg

COBALT (min.)
10 mg

Iodine (Min)
1.5 mg

SELENIUM (min.)
0.3 mg

SELENIUM-AMINO ACID (min.)
0.05 mg

L-LYSINE (min.)
0.5 mg

Vitamin A (min.)
9000 IU

Vitamin D3 (min.)
800 IU

VITAMIN E (min.)
200IU

Vitamin C (min.)
100 mg

Vitamin K3 (min.)
4 mg

Vitamin B1 (min.)
7 mg

Vitamin B2 (min.)
5 mg

Vitamin B6 (min)
5 mg

Vitamin B12 (min.)
25 mcg

Pantothenic Acid (Min)
10 mg

Niacin (min.)
50 mg

FOLIC ACID (min.)
1 mg

Biotin (min.)
0.07 mg

MANGANESE (min.)
5 mg

ZINC (min.)
100 mg

SQ said:
This link contains a good homemade diet.
It also has the forbidden foods list.

http://ratfanclub.org/diet.html
Click to expand...

thanks for the link, the homemade diet is a little complicate to me :( but the forbidden food list was amazin, the mix that i´m using has crude peanuts in it :emb: and the water that i was using has Fluorine then i´m using mineral water now

thanks
 
I would research all 3 major strains of home-made mixes for rats out there - Suebee's, Straights & Shunamite.

I use my own mix for my boys (they also get HT blocks in the morning, however I feed them just for variety. They use to only be fed this mix, without the blocks and did very well on it.)
I've put a ton of research into mine and it's a bit of a mix of all 3 of the above listed ones.
I've done the math on the contents as well, to make sure that it meets their nutritional needs. :)

You're welcome to look into it and use it, if you'd like.
35g Brown Rice
16g Hulled Barley
14g Wheat Kernels
7g Hulled Buckwheat
7g Soy Flakes
7g Quinoa
7g Oat Groats
7g Split Peas
7g Millet
5g Pumpkin Seeds
about 1g Golden Flaxseed

I also, of course, give them fresh fruits and veggies each day.
And will give them cod liver oil, salmon oil, organic dried dandelion leaves & garlic the odd time.
 
MMak said:
I would research all 3 major strains of home-made mixes for rats out there - Suebee's, Straights & Shunamite.

I use my own mix for my boys (they also get HT blocks in the morning, however I feed them just for variety. They use to only be fed this mix, without the blocks and did very well on it.)
I've put a ton of research into mine and it's a bit of a mix of all 3 of the above listed ones.
I've done the math on the contents as well, to make sure that it meets their nutritional needs. :)

You're welcome to look into it and use it, if you'd like.
35g Brown Rice
16g Hulled Barley
14g Wheat Kernels
7g Hulled Buckwheat
7g Soy Flakes
7g Quinoa
7g Oat Groats
7g Split Peas
7g Millet
5g Pumpkin Seeds
about 1g Golden Flaxseed

I also, of course, give them fresh fruits and veggies each day.
And will give them cod liver oil, salmon oil, organic dried dandelion leaves & garlic the odd time.
Click to expand...

oh, thank you, but some ingredients of this list is very hard to find here in brazil, and well, i have another problem, there´s a law here that tap water and bottled water must have Fluorine, i know its silly, Fluorine is bad, what can i do now? distilled water is good to them?
 
I use to think some of the ingredients were hard to get, but if you have a natural, hollistic market nearby..they just might!

As for the distilled water, I'll leave that for someone else to asnwer, as I'm not too sure.
 
ectopistes said:
Sorry if my english is rude, i know it is very bad :oops:
Click to expand...


You're doing much better than many people who speak english as their first language... so don't worry!

Welcome to the forum!
 
ectopistes, have you ever thought about buying food online? You might be able to find a better quality food on the internet.

Your English is very good, by the way!
 
MMak said:
I use to think some of the ingredients were hard to get, but if you have a natural, hollistic market nearby..they just might!

As for the distilled water, I'll leave that for someone else to asnwer, as I'm not too sure.
Click to expand...

i discovered a store that sells organic food here in my town, tomorrow i will go there and see if they have this, but millet and pumpkins seeds are unusual here.

Moon said:
ectopistes said:
Sorry if my english is rude, i know it is very bad :oops:
Click to expand...


You're doing much better than many people who speak english as their first language... so don't worry!

Welcome to the forum!
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks, but i need to improve it.

Smittenkittens said:
ectopistes, have you ever thought about buying food online? You might be able to find a better quality food on the internet.

Your English is very good, by the way!
Click to expand...

Here in Brazil, there´s only that two brands that sell rat food, sure i can import but the shipping will be very very expensive, last thing that i imported was a guitar amp from ebay, it´s weight was around 7/8 pounds, the shiping was around 80 USD.


oh, the university dont aswered my email :(

edit: i found a bottled mineral water with 0,06 mg/l of flourine, it´s almost nothing, can i use this water?

Sorry, i know it´s many questions, but i have an extreme respect for life, i love my pets and to them i want the best. :heart:

thanks
 
I'd say the bottled water you found would be fine.

And don't worry about asking too many questions, you just want to do the best you can for your pets and that is wonderful!
 
I agree - keep asking questions, we never mind answering them! I can imagine it's hard to find local support for rat information, but we love helping newcomers!

Welcome and Bienvenido a nuestro hogar! (unfortunately that's all the Spanish I know, I'm very fluent in french though!)

Would you tell us about your rats? What colors they are, what their personalities are like?
 
M0onkist said:
I agree - keep asking questions, we never mind answering them! I can imagine it's hard to find local support for rat information, but we love helping newcomers!

Welcome and Bienvenido a nuestro hogar! (unfortunately that's all the Spanish I know, I'm very fluent in french though!)

Would you tell us about your rats? What colors they are, what their personalities are like?
Click to expand...
:lol: thanks, but here in brazil we dont speak spanish, we speak brazilian portuguese, lets say that this language is a variation of portuguese of Portugal. And yes, here Rats are VERY rare, so the the food and the care guides, people have some prejudice about them, sadly :(

Well, i have two male rats, i think they are hooded, but i´m not sure, they are equal this rat:

RatPetRemmyHooded.jpg


One is very, very curious and explorer, always scouting the area, the other is a little scared, afraid of everything, always try to hide and only go out when the other scout the area. its very funny. Both are lovely, like to stay with me when i grab then to play :D
 

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