Isn't it bad to feed your rats "people food?"
There's no such thing as "people food." Rats existed on earth long before people did.
If by people you mean "processed" or "fatty" then yes, rats should definitely not eat that regularly. Knowing these foods cause health issues as early as our 40's, consider your poor rat's "40's" is only 1.5 years old!
However if by "people food" you mean "nutritious" "fresh" or "natural," then you would do well yourself to follow such a diet to reach your maximum potential.
I don't want to feed natural. Whats the best packaged feed I can feed my rats?
None if you don't want to deal with tumors and abscesses by rat's 2nd year. If you wouldn't eat something yourself, neither should you feed it off. Although one guy did eat monkey chow (same nutrition requirements as us, apparently) in a 1-month experiment. You can read about it in The Monkey Chow Diaries . My parents never did buy baby food. They bought us real chicken and rice, and bananas and potatoes, and put them in the blender. My grandpa's cat, from a village where there was no such thing as pet or baby food, lived 33 years on real meat grown locally.
While traveling or working long hours, or if someone else will be sitting my rats, I do recommend putting Harlan Teklad 2014 in the cage. If an adult rat needs about 15g of food per day, each lab block counts for app. 5g. Why Harlan? Because they breed their own laboratory rodents too, they'd be the only ones who've done enough research and experimentation on the subject. Their chows are 'theoretically' complete designed with ingredients least likely to affect outcomes of their clients' experiments. From their website nutritional profile
Does it matter what brand of grains and legumes I buy? Can't I get it all at the bulk food store?
There's really no point. I prefer to stick to good local (Canada and USA) brands, as it eliminates the worry of questionable ingredients from poor countries. When in doubt I do a bit of sleuthing on Google for customer satisfaction and reviews.
As for bulk bin food stores, I've heard horror stories from friends who worked there re. storage and handling. On 2 occasions at our Canadian chain "The Bulk Barn," I pointed out maggots and cobwebs in the bins of grain. They do have a high quality selection of rare and imported packaged goods though.
Your Diet is Making my Rats fat. What do I do?
About the only good feature of lab blocks is they dislike it so much that it prevents obesity. Just like us, rats will overeat given the chance. So experiment with tailoring their intake until you find something that works. Don't forget they need exercise too. Climbing and jumping will burn a lot of calories !
There's no such thing as "people food." Rats existed on earth long before people did.
If by people you mean "processed" or "fatty" then yes, rats should definitely not eat that regularly. Knowing these foods cause health issues as early as our 40's, consider your poor rat's "40's" is only 1.5 years old!
However if by "people food" you mean "nutritious" "fresh" or "natural," then you would do well yourself to follow such a diet to reach your maximum potential.
I don't want to feed natural. Whats the best packaged feed I can feed my rats?
None if you don't want to deal with tumors and abscesses by rat's 2nd year. If you wouldn't eat something yourself, neither should you feed it off. Although one guy did eat monkey chow (same nutrition requirements as us, apparently) in a 1-month experiment. You can read about it in The Monkey Chow Diaries . My parents never did buy baby food. They bought us real chicken and rice, and bananas and potatoes, and put them in the blender. My grandpa's cat, from a village where there was no such thing as pet or baby food, lived 33 years on real meat grown locally.
While traveling or working long hours, or if someone else will be sitting my rats, I do recommend putting Harlan Teklad 2014 in the cage. If an adult rat needs about 15g of food per day, each lab block counts for app. 5g. Why Harlan? Because they breed their own laboratory rodents too, they'd be the only ones who've done enough research and experimentation on the subject. Their chows are 'theoretically' complete designed with ingredients least likely to affect outcomes of their clients' experiments. From their website nutritional profile
Does it matter what brand of grains and legumes I buy? Can't I get it all at the bulk food store?
There's really no point. I prefer to stick to good local (Canada and USA) brands, as it eliminates the worry of questionable ingredients from poor countries. When in doubt I do a bit of sleuthing on Google for customer satisfaction and reviews.
As for bulk bin food stores, I've heard horror stories from friends who worked there re. storage and handling. On 2 occasions at our Canadian chain "The Bulk Barn," I pointed out maggots and cobwebs in the bins of grain. They do have a high quality selection of rare and imported packaged goods though.
Your Diet is Making my Rats fat. What do I do?
About the only good feature of lab blocks is they dislike it so much that it prevents obesity. Just like us, rats will overeat given the chance. So experiment with tailoring their intake until you find something that works. Don't forget they need exercise too. Climbing and jumping will burn a lot of calories !
Your diet is making my rats pee, whew!
Cook a little longer to remove more water, or experiment with using less water. Flushing their kidneys prevents renal disease in the long run, but is not necessary every day.
Sometimes I'm out of dry beans and fresh fish. Is canned OK?
Excess salt is necessary to the preservation of many foods (consider salt-fish), but its neither necessary nor advisable to consume it. 50% can be removed by rinsing (including fish), you should go a little further by doing a couple short soaks (30 minutes) to rid the rest by osmosis. !
What are nitrosamines?
Potent carcinogens in food. Read more here.
What are Fillers?
You've probably heard of the starchy, indigestible and waste meat "fillers" that all pet foods contain. Items like gluten meal, plant and animal by-products, "animal digest," flour and hulls." Fillers can be a useful part of a healthy diet, but while they are generally of lower nutritive status but should be not *too low nutrition. What do we use as fillers for our rats, especially since we are trying the food regulation experiment (hybrid between deprivation and free-feeding)? Food regulation gives the pancreas among other things a chance to rest between meals. So far we've used mainly red and wild rices, anthocyanin-rich black rice, and beet pulp. Can't go wrong!