Would this be a good rat diet?

Question

If you already answered my last question, thanks but I'm looking for more answers.

I just adopted 2 baby rats from the shelter and right now I'm feeding them Kaytee forti diet which I have now heard is really bad for them. I was wondering if this would be a complete diet:

1) Lab blocks for my pet health food store. (1st 4 ingredients are: soybean meal, wheat middlings, ground corn, soybean oil - 17% protein, 5% fat)

2) Rat kibble from the pet health food store. (It doesnt have any seeds or c**p like that in it. Every piece of food looks the same. Like mini lab blocks - 15% protein, 4% fat. Sorry, don't know the ingredients right now.)

3) A LITTLE guinea pig food for variety

4) Eukinuba, small breed, senior dog food. (9% protein, 3.5% fat)

5) Fresh fruits and veggies everyday.

I'm not that experienced with the whole rat food stuff but I did a little research and made this up. Oh, and I did hear about Harlen Teklad and Oxbow regal rat and I can have them shipped to me but shipping is about 15$ where I live and I really cant afford that much shipping costs so I have to use whats available to me and those arnt. So what do you think? Does it need tweaking? Thanks! All input is apreciated!!

Answer 1

Just to make sure, did you try looking at the shipping costs from Kim's Ark for the Harlan blocks?  http://www.kimsarkrescue.org/content/vie... I buy mine in 10lb shipments and they have $8 shipping to me up to 20lbs, so maybe that would help diffuse the cost of them.

I would stick to lab blocks, maybe the rat kibble, and the fresh fruits and veggies.  Guinea pig food contains alfalfa and rats can't easily digest that, plus it's designed for a GP not a rat.  It's best to try and get your rat to eat a quality lab block as that would provide the most complete in nutrition.  Same goes for the dog food.  Plus the dog food is going to just be redundant after the lab blocks for the most part.

Out of curiosity, what is the brand of lab blocks you are using?

If you are worried about variety, feed your rats different fruits, vegetables, and cereals (Cheerios, wheat puffs, wheaties, etc).  Try to keep the fresh food separate from the blocks as the blocks can get soggy.  You can also feed the occasion treat of yogurt drops, nuts in the shell (mine love peanuts), and table scraps.

Here's a good site about rat diets:

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

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

probably the fruit and lab blocks