# raw rat diets? Please help!



## RiverRun

To make a long story short, our last rat died so we are looking into getting two more. I want these to be as naturally cared for as my dogs and cats are, but I am having a horrible time trying to find information on them. The only fully natural rat diet I can find in detail is a vegan one :twitch:, but rats are omnivorous?!? What about the protein? Im a little confused here and would really like some help. I am searching high and low for a diet that makes sense for them, and I am not having any luck. Granted, I am very new to rats so I really do not know much about them. Most of the homemade diets I find include pellets from pet stores; I am looking for 100% all natural diet. Any ideas??


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## swolek

I'm guessing you've seen this one already? The rat owners I know feed something like this: ratsrule.com - suebee's rat diet

Sorry I can't be of more help, I don't have rats. I've done homemade hamster and spiny mouse diets but I'm not sure if they have similar needs.


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## Steph

I have 2 male rats. I do not feed them any meats. Just raw fruits and veggies and lab blocks. They are almost 3 years old.


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## RiverRun

hmm, ok then. This is very different for me! I am not use to rat diets. The breeder I am getting my rats from feeds a natural diet, somewhat. She feeds fruits, veggies, cereal, lab blocks, and a few other things. I have heard of giving them meal worms as a treat sometimes, any experience with that? We already get them for the lizard, so we have them on hand. 
Like I said, this is a new experience for me, im too use to dogs and cats. lol


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## Scarlett_O'

I found this from Wiki

Are rats herbivores omnivores or carnivores

"Rats are actually omnivores! Wild rats not only eat seeds, grains, nuts, berries and other fruits, but they also eat worms, insects, fish and eggs!"


Also this:


Rat Facts

"Rats can also eat smaller pets. Rats are omnivores, and have enough predatory instinct left in them to consider birds, fish and even some smaller rodents as "snacks.""

And this...looks pretty interesting!:biggrin:
http://www.ratfanclub.org/diet.html


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## RiverRun

Thank you for the links. I had found the last one you posted previously, and tucked it away for later. There is a lot of good information on that page and I found the cooked bones to be very interesting.The recipe itself rather terrifies me. Not sure why, but I would be afraid of messing it up.
I do wonder if I could pull some of the chicken bones out of the girls' meat and cook it for the rats...something to look into I guess.


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## Maxy24

I know my friend feeds hers hard boiled eggs (with the shell) and they have a grand old time figuring out how to open them. I did some forum searching and found that they need a small amount of animal protein for vitamin B12 and get calcium from bones, shed antlers, and mineral deposits. So I'd either get bones, antlers, or cuttlebone.
Check out this blog...here are two helpful posts (part 1 and 2), but check out the rest:
NOM-ology: So you want to create your own rat diet...
NOM-ology: So you want to create your own rat diet... Part II


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## RiverRun

very, very interesting links! I loved all the information I found on there. Creating a proper diet for rats sounds rather complicated, but I definitely would like to attempt it at some point(whenever I know enough about it).


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## grab

My rats have always eaten the Suebees diet along with fresh foods. Although I haven't tried it (cannot stand fish), I've heard Sardines are popular with rats. Mine have, however, eaten chicken, which seems very popular with them.


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## xchairity_casex

I know this is an old thread- but i would like to bring it up again since i have recently started raising rats- and am trying to raise them on an all natural, all raw diet.
ive been doing research, and while i havent found a WHOLE lot, i have found some info and have been using common sense to piece it together.

the majority of my own rats diet is seeds,nuts and veggtibles wtih some fruit and raw meat/bones mixed in.
a rats digestive tract is similar to a humans! and in the wild a rat is a scavenger, from what i have read the majority of a rats diet consists of nuts,seds and plants with some meat/insects thrown into the mix.
rats ARE also preditors and WILL hunt for food, they will hunt mice, baby birds and insects, some wild rats will even fish for a meal.

my own rats do not get cereal, lab blocks or anything artificial (once in agreat while they might get a tidbit but not often)

a daily meal for them might look somthing like this:
sunflower seeds,almonds,walnuts, squash seeds, chesnuts,soynuts, kale,broccoli, carrot, banana, peas, and some raw meat such as some raw egg or raw venison.

i made up on my own the amount of raw meat to feed, since there is VERY little info on it and most people seem dead set against feeding raw meat. feeding dogs raw meat i do know that less is more, so each rat gets about a finger nail sized piece every other day, i also give liver every 3 days, each rat gets a small sliver of liver and a small sliver of kidneys and a smal sliver of heart(not on the same days- its rotated)
raw bones are always availible for knawing and chewing. my mommy/ pregnant rats get more raw meat, they get a piece every day.

i rarely boil the eggs but feed them raw.


so far here is what i have observed feeding my rats this diet compared to when i had rats years ago feeding them a homemade grain/ceral based diet and the rats i fosterd for 5 months who were fed lab block based diet.

the coats are MUCH MUCH softer, even my males donot have harsh coats but exceptionally soft coats-
they have NO SMELL! if i accedentally let a cage go for a week-there is NO SMELL, not even my males cage, not even my males, while all my other rats had a distinct urine scent to there bodies these ones have none-
the teeth are not orange or yellow but white-
the poop seems smaller and is very dry-
they drink less water, ive always been a fan of smaller water bottles since it forces me to water them more frequently so they donot have to go 3 days without fresh water, i would imagine it would take these rats a week to empty a water bottle it used to take my foster rats (same sized bottle) a day to empty-
they gain weight faster, i got a tiny 6 week old female from a breeder who fed a diet of dog food, the female was quite thin, within a week of being with me she has doubled in weight (but is not overweight)
so far NONE of my males have gotten "greasy" for any whos owned male rats before, you know all about "buck grease" where males back ends will become "greasy" and kinda gross, this has not happend in any of my males, my oldm ales would need bathing to get the buck grease of atleast once per week.

one female i tok in, from a pet store came to me with a pretty nasty upper respertory infection, sneezing, goopy nose, goopy eyes, i did not expect her to live, i started her on a round of 100%cacoa choclate and an all natural diet, within a week her sneezing was gone, runny nose clear, goopy eyes gone and she has had no more symptoms of illness since being with me.

one of my females recently gave birth to 17 babies, all of the babies are quite fat, and momma has been able to feed everyone of them easily, when i feed her in the morning i can litterly see her nipples drip with milk, she is a double rex and double rexes/hairless rats are natorious for not producing enough milk for there babies. i read that feeding raw meat helps them to produce more milk, so just before the babies where born i upped her raw meat intake to daily, and am sticking with it so far so good and ever since having the babies momma has been CRAVING raw meat- venison heart in perticular it seems, when i lay out her breakfest of seeds,nuts,veggies, fruit and meat she ALWAYS ALWAYS grabs for the meat first thing and eats it all in one sitting.

i will probably begin weaning the babies onto raw eggs and cooked veggies/fruits and maybe some raw liver.

and of coarse, i neded to post some pictures


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## woganvonderweidenstrasse

Oh thank god! I thought you were gonna feed your dog a raw rat diet!:shocked:


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