Rat food

[Whitdadie]

What can you get away with for feeding rats? I am now breeding rats (1 litter of 10 just popped out) so i can feed my ball but cant seem to find reasonable rat food around here. Can they eat just about any small animal food, like rabbit gunnie-pig hampster food? I have been feeding them hampster food but it is very expensive. What do you all feed you feeder rats?

 

[Washout]

Can't you just feed them kitten chow and vegetables? They are omnivorous afaik..

 

[Immortal_sin]

we have had pet rats for years, and we have fed them a mix of fresh fruit, nuts, and any leftovers from our own meals. They will eat most anything, you don't have to buy commercial food for them. Make sure it's balanced, and don't feed them too many sweets or fatty foods, and they should be fine.

 

[mouse]

dog kibble. that was all mine would eat - they didn't like hamster food.
cat kibble is only okay if the female rat is pregnant, at least according to the rat book i have.
dianne

 

[atavuss]

I have been using Pedigree brand (I think that is the brand, it is a yellow bag with a picture of a running Irish Setter on the bag). I used to use rodent lab chow but it was a pain to get it from the local farmers feed outfit so I took the rodent lab chow fiber, fat, etc. information and looked at all the dog foods to find the closest match, pedigree brand was very close. I have been using this food for several years with no problems. I also give the rats any leftovers we have, they will eat darn near anything (in moderation).

 

[Malkavian]

The petstore I used to work at used the following mix:

Hampster seed mix
sample dog food (ie promotional bags of varoius things they had)
lab blocks

with the seed mix being the majority, with a bit of kibble and lab blocks on top