What is the best food to feed my rat. (that is cheap)?

Question

What is the best food to feed my rat. (that is cheap)?

Answer 1

Lab Blocks/"monkey biscuits", give them fresh fruits and veggies from when you are cooking.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bclee/rat...

This is what I buy my rats:  http://www.world-of-birds.com/food/monk....  They LOVE it and it is good for them.  Very cheap where I get it too.  You will need to go to a small private pet store, chains will not have it,  If there is a bird store by you they will definitely have it.

The mixed fun looking bags at the pet store arent actually that healthy or good for your rat, I would avoid those or feed them only in small amounts as treats.  That is not acceptable as a primary diet.

Answer 2

Suebee's mix (http://www.ratsrule.com/diet.html) is really good, and because you mix it all up yourself it's pretty cheap.

If you can buy the ingredients in bulk, mix it up and store in a container that seals well, it will be even cheaper.

Most of the commercial foods are not particularly good for you rat. Beware any seed mixes. They are far too high in protein and can lead to skin problems.

In addition to Suebee's diet, I added a little bit of premium, low protein (weight loss formula) dog food. Dog food with omega oils make their coats so soft. When my rats get older I switch to a mature premium dog food, with glucosamine for their joints.

Thanks for taking the time to learn how to do the right thing for your pet rats :)

Answer 3

you can feed your rats lots of things common humans eat daily.

such as:

noodles, eggs, veggies, fruits, unsalted sunflower seeds (just the shells).

etc.

just make sure not to feed them celerey.

you should buy your rat rat food out of a bag though too.

the daily food diet should only be an occassional thing to feed them.

you can find a variety of different cheap rat food from a variety of different stores.

you can get this from petco:

http://www.petco.com/product/6082/Kaytee...

the original bag from the store though is only 5 dolla. and a bit smaller.

OR

this one for only 4 dolla:

http://www.petco.com/product/106131/LM-A...

good luck with your little rat:)

Answer 4

Cheap and best can't be in the same sentence. If it's the best, it isn't going to be cheap. The best? Regal Rat which is put out by Oxbow. Is it cheap? No.

If you're looking for cheap and pretty good, go with Suebee's mix like the person above suggested. Just know that the mix REQUIRES Total Cereal and a high quality /low protein and fat/ dog food in it. These cannot be excluded or the diet is not complete. In fact, it isn't really complete even with those things and should be supplemented with a lot of variety and fresh foods.

My write up on Suebee's mix: http://www.petinfopackets.com/rats/ratfe...

There's other diet information on that page too.

I hope your rat has a same s*x friend like it should. Rat's are far too social to keep alone, it's not fair to them.

Edit: Please do not feed the two diets Davina linked to. They are very low quality, especially Kaytee which uses an unhealthy preservative called ethoxyquin in their food.

Answer 5

Your Pet Cat !

Only joking..........It's a rat...........rats eat

EVERYTHING !

Answer 6

alot of stuff like cooked noodels or bird seed feed it leftover dinner and RATS DIE OF LONELYNESS!!!

Answer 7

You should be able to go to your local pet store and see a brand or two of rat food for twelve or less dollars a bag.  You can make the decision which is better by looking on the back and reading about them.  These brands are okay for regular house hold pets, but if you were going to enter it in a contest or something, you might want to consider making your own.  For good recipes, you could always google "homemade rat food recipe" but I'm not sure if that would be more or less money.  Definitely more time to make though.

Answer 8

i fed mine dog food, but don't overdue it, give about 6-8 peices a day and supplement with fresh fruits and snacks like cheerios. too much doggy food will make rats coats greasy, as it has a lot of fat.

Answer 9

you can actually make up your own mix out of things you have in the cupboard. Just get an airtight container and add in things like low sugar cereals, dry pasta, raisins, dried apricots, bread sticks, crackers broken up, a cheap bag of rat cubes from a pet shop etc anything else which is suitable for every day, rather than treats which should be in moderation. For treats try yogurt, little pieces of biscuit, tiny cubes of cheese, fresh fruit and vegetables and little pieces of bread. I hope this has helped :)

Answer 10

I feed my rats what I consider to be one of the most well balanced diets, specificaly for rats. And it is also just about the cheapest thing you can buy.

It does involve a bit of hunting, but if you know of a store that carrier food items in bulk, you can get everything in one place, and for very little. The mix consists of mostly grains, high quality dog (or cat) food, as well as some other things.

Site: http://www.ratsrule.com/diet.html