rat food

[stoicspirit]

what kinda human food can rats eat..? i know they can eat lettace but thats all i know of. can they eat bananas, oranges and meats as well?

[opokki]

I used to give mine dehyrated mixed fruits (banana chips, apples, apricots,ect.) and unsweetened cereal in addition to his pellets.

[mzdolittle]

Regular ice berg lettuce isn't good for rats or anything else. It has no nutritional value for animals or humans. If you're talking about romaine, endive, radicchio, etc., then you can feed it to your rats. My rats eat a lot of different fruits and veggies, fresh, frozen, cooked and raw. They eat lab blocks and food I mix myself. I also give them yogurt and baby foods from a jar. They like pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and an occasional peanut in the shell. I have given them chicken and turkey cooked, with no seasoning. I give them cooked egg and once in a while a bite of hamburger or sandwich meat, but not often.

[Love Bird B]

Mzdolittle,

What was the age of the oldest rat you ever had?
b

[mzdolittle]

I actually had one that lived to be 2 months shy of 4 years. It was a female and she was the 4th generation from my breeding. Her name was Anastasia. She had tilt head when she was 3 and I had considered putting her down, but one of the other females, Daisy, decided to help her out with her day to day living. I put the two of them in a one story cage by themselves, and the young one would nudge Anastasia towards the water bottle and food. I even saw Daisy take food over to her. Daisy would groom Anastasia, which isn't unusual at all, but it's always a mutual thing in healthy rats. Anastasia never groomed Daisy back, but she didn't seem to care. When Anastasia died, Daisy missed her and wandered around like she was lost. She stopped eating and lost weight. I put her back in with the female colony and she took up with another older rat and they were best buddies. Most of my rats only live between 2 and 3 years.

[Love Bird B]

Thanks mzdoolittle. What a caring and wonderful story for the little fur balls that are here and gone way too soon. When I kept rodents, they had problems with tumors and I couldn't stand to see them suffer. My rodents were always rescues from reptile shows and I don't think longevity was a factor for breeding them.