How much food should i give my rat and what kind?

Question

How much food should i give my rat and what kind?

Answer 1

You should have food available to the rat at all times. They pace themselves. It is recommended that you feed them a good quality lab block, in addition you can also make your own food mix that includes oatmeal, puffed rice, flax seed, millet, sunflower seeds, pasta etc (look up homemade rat diet online). If your rat won't eat lab block, try feeding low-cal dog food like Nutro Lite. Fresh fruits and vegetables are a welcome addition to the diet, you can also give them cooked rice and pasta.

Answer 2

You should give it a store-bought diet made for rats. Fill 3 quarters of the bowl you have with food (unless it is a fairly large bowl, then just fill half).

Buy the variaty mix so your rat doesn't get tired of just one type of food!

Answer 3

what he said and if you caught him then give him bread and stuff like fruit

Answer 4

It's important to give your rat a well balanced diet.  The best way to do that is to provide a high quality lab block like Harlan or Mazuri along with some fruits and veggies.  Lab blocks are important as they are designed to provide optimal nutrition to lab rats.  It is in an experimenter's best interest to keep the lab as healthy as possible for experiments.  You can't really buy directly from Harlan as they sell only in very large orders.  Your best bet is to purchase it from a second hand dealer like Kim's Ark.  http://www.kimsarkrescue.org/content/vie...

Studies have shown that a diet in low fat and low protein will prolong the life of a rat.  This is why seed mixes aren't usually a good idea.  They contain far too many seeds (fattening), dried corn (can cause cancer), and alfalfa (indigestible to rats).  On top of that, a rat can pick and choose what they like (sunflower seeds) and forgo consuming any of the other items.

The fruits and veggies can provide variety and additional nutrients to the rat.  You can feed a rat almost anything: carrots, spinach, grapes, berries, banana, frozen peas, etc.  I also like to give mine "healthy" cereals like Cheerios or Wheaties as a treat.

A vegetarian diet is fine for a non-growing, non-breeding rat.  If your rat is still growing you can feed him/her some animal protein via dog biscuits as well as the items above.

If you'd like to learn more check out these sites on rat diet:

http://ratguide.com/care/nutrition/diet....

http://www.ratfanclub.org/diet.html

http://www.fancy-rats.co.uk/information/...

As for how much to feed them, it depends.  Some people say you should have a cup filled with food all day and let them graze.  Others feed their rats at certain points during the day.  "In general, an adult rat can eat approximately 0.5–0.75 ounces (15–20 g) of food per day, with some variations depending on the food being offered and on your observations of his daily activity and condition." http://quamut.com/quamut/rats/page/how_t...

Hope that helps!

Answer 5

just get food froma pet shop

Answer 6

you can feed them table scraps and cat or dog food but it is best to feed them store bought rodent food but don't get food with pellets in it they don't consider it food and they can starve to death because they wont eat them.