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Food Preparation - a Typical Meal |
The Finished Product - a Typical Meal |
Rats are omnivores. This means that they eat vegetables, fruits and meats. It is essential to feed a good, nutritionally complete staple diet that is suitable for the average pet rat. This means a diet specifically formulated for rats. Good examples of excellent staple diets for rats are Oxbow's Regal Rat, Harlan Teklad lab block and Mazuri lab block. We feed Harlan Teklad and love the results we get while feeding it - including smaller and firmer droppings and an overall excellent condition.
Along with the processed diets listed previously, there are also many homemade diets out there that can be mixed by hand utilizing various grains and dried fruits, high quality dog kibble, etc. Although these diets use things that can be found in your average organic food market they are not always nutritionally complete. These diets can often lead to obesity if fed in a free range manner than many rat owners like to do.
Along with the standard diet, rats adore and crave a variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs and meat products. However, like all living things, they have specific dietary requirements. When shopping for products that would go to feed a pet rat, you must think about the dietary requirements of a small human child. This means anything that a child from the age of two years until five years can have, a rat can have - in moderation, of course.
This list includes, but is not limited to vegetables, herbs, fruits (avoid citrus fruits as they have been known to cause cancer in male rats) and meats. Grains that are found in mixes such as Suebee's can be fed in moderation as well, minus the high-quality dog kibble.
Typically, when it comes to preparing fresh foods for pet rats, dinner is an appropriate time. This will enable the rat owner to cook a healthy and flavorful meal for his/her pets. It could include leftovers from the rat owner's own dinner if they are on the safe list of foods. When feeding leftovers, try to avoid feeding too much fast food or restaurant food as it could lead to obesity in rats.
An average dinner with our rats consists of at least one fruit, one meat and a variety of vegetables. We also like to include some pasta and baby foods on occasion. We utilize all organic products because they are grown with no ingredients that could potentially harm our animals. There are various sources for purchasing these products, but we like to use Barry Farm and a couple of local stores. We also use and recommend TEK Plus - which is an herbal supplement that helps aid maintaining the overall health and condition of our rats.
When preparing a meal for just a couple of rats or a whole rattery full, it is best that you get things set up ahead of time so that no items are forgotten. We prefer to use large bowls so that items are distributed evenly and there's enough food to go around to everyone. They're also easy to wash and sanitize by hand or in a dishwasher.
Fruits and vegetables are washed and cut and placed into the bowls first. If noodles or a noodle-based dinner will be cooked, it's best to start that prior to anything so that the noodles have time to cook while preparing the rest of the dish. Make sure that, when cooking for rats, pieces of food are cut up into rat-safe sizes so they're easy to haul off away from a "thieving" cagemate!
Once everything is completed, chaos will no doubt ensue over the delicious meal that has been so lovingly created for the beloved fuzz balls that share one's life. Make sure that dishes are not left for more than a couple of hours to ensure that there is no food spoilage. All dishes should be washed and ready to repeat the next day.
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