Food
There are many possible ways to feed rats, which I will not be going into here. You may find these articles on feeding useful.
For my own rats, I feed a home-made diet based on minimally processed grains, with smaller amounts of processed grains, seeds, dried vegetables, herbs and other bits and pieces. See pictures below for examples of what their dry mix looks like. Along with this they get regular fresh food, mostly vegetables with smaller amounts of fruit, occasional cooked carbohydrates and sometimes fresh protein. They also get a range of supplements depending on their ages and any health conditions.
I have carefully balanced their diet and am constantly learning more about nutrition in order to make sure I'm not missing anything. I enjoy doing this, and the rats enjoy the food and look well on it, so for now it seems successful. However, it is a relatively complex way of doing things, one which I would not recommend to new or inexperienced owners, or simply those who would rather feed in a different way. There are many alternative ways of feeding rats whilst still maintaining good variety, nutrition and their enjoyment from food.
For my own rats, I feed a home-made diet based on minimally processed grains, with smaller amounts of processed grains, seeds, dried vegetables, herbs and other bits and pieces. See pictures below for examples of what their dry mix looks like. Along with this they get regular fresh food, mostly vegetables with smaller amounts of fruit, occasional cooked carbohydrates and sometimes fresh protein. They also get a range of supplements depending on their ages and any health conditions.
I have carefully balanced their diet and am constantly learning more about nutrition in order to make sure I'm not missing anything. I enjoy doing this, and the rats enjoy the food and look well on it, so for now it seems successful. However, it is a relatively complex way of doing things, one which I would not recommend to new or inexperienced owners, or simply those who would rather feed in a different way. There are many alternative ways of feeding rats whilst still maintaining good variety, nutrition and their enjoyment from food.
Feeding
How you feed your rats is just as important as what you feed them. Here at Kahini Rats, we scatter their food and mix it into their substrate, as well as hiding it in boxes, hanging it in difficult to reach places and using food puzzle toys. All this serves two main purposes. Firstly, as the rats have to work for their food, it keeps them more active which is useful for weight control and general health. Secondly, it allows them to use their natural behaviours such as foraging, digging, problem-solving, climbing etc. This serves as a great source of entertainment, helping to keep their very clever little minds busy, which results in happy, fulfilled rats. On top of this, there is the added bonus that it becomes almost impossible for food possessive rats to hog all the food, whereas if they have a bowl they can tend to protect it and not let anyone else get sufficient amounts of food.
As well as making access to food more difficult, we also don’t have food available all the time for healthy adults. From my experience, there are very few rats who will control their intake of food and remain at a sensible weight. Judging by the rats who have lived here, the vast majority of them will eat any food available and have a tendency to become overweight. Therefore we feed them enough that their weight remains stable (or increases/decreases if necessary) and no more, however much they look at us with their pleading eyes and try to convince us they are starving! Of course this doesn’t apply to very ill rats who are struggling to eat and need easily accessible calories to keep their energy levels up.
As well as making access to food more difficult, we also don’t have food available all the time for healthy adults. From my experience, there are very few rats who will control their intake of food and remain at a sensible weight. Judging by the rats who have lived here, the vast majority of them will eat any food available and have a tendency to become overweight. Therefore we feed them enough that their weight remains stable (or increases/decreases if necessary) and no more, however much they look at us with their pleading eyes and try to convince us they are starving! Of course this doesn’t apply to very ill rats who are struggling to eat and need easily accessible calories to keep their energy levels up.