Big Paws Only Dog Forums
BPO Food Forum => Food Discussion & Information => : Leah... January 26, 2009, 10:15:48 AM
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Okay, so I know y'all must get sick of hearing about my rats... but I couldn't think of a better place to turn to for advice about their food. Right now they are on the same dog food that my dogs are on (with many other things in their diet, of course) which is Blue Buffalo (fish and sweet potato formula). It contains 22% Protein and 12% Fat. The recommended levels for a RAT is 14-16% protein, and 4-5% fat. Now, Sky is a very active performance dog and I want to keep him on something with at least 18% protein. My idea is that I can keep 2 dogs and 3 rats all on the same food, but I'm beginning to lose hope that that will ever happen! Also, Sky has some sort of intolerance to dry foods with Chicken as the main protein source, yet eating a whole raw chicken has no effect on him. ::) Hence the Fish formula he's currently on. Sammie is a large-breed (border collie/newfoundland) dog and will be 9 years old this spring. I've noticed that some senior formulas are lower in protein and fat. The Blue Senior formula has Protein 18.0% and Fat 8.0%. I could put him on this, and make him share with the ratties, and keep Sky on his food. I guess the point of all this rambling is:
What foods do y'all know of that are lower in prot/fat and what is a good protein level for a very active adult dog like Sky?
Gee whiz, I stress myself out. :D
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Wow. For a moment there I wasn't sure if you meant fancy rats or rats like rat terriers =D I had pet rats most of high school and then all of college and will always have a soft spot for the little critters -they are great pets, especially if for some reason you can't have dogs! But it can get a little tiresome having to explain to practically everyone that these are rattus norvegicus and not rattus rattus :D
Anyways, from what I've read, active dogs require a high protein diet to keep up -not that I would know from experience as both my dogs are pretty sedentary :) but I do know that too much protein is a big no-no for rats and can cause a whole lot of problems... Which is why dog food is usually not recomended. I'd say spend the extra $10 a month and get them a good rat feed at a petstore and supplement with fresh veggies and fruit and grains -not too much nuts (protein,again) and a little chocolate does wonders for their colds! :) I hope this helps...? All I can say is that most of my rate came from petstores and they still lived over 2 years (more like 3-4 years), which is pretty impressive for rats, so I like to think it was thanks to excersice and diet ;)
So, are we actually talking fancy rats? Because if not, I just struggled with my phone's touchscreen to spew useless knowledge...
Anyway, good luck with your crew!
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I don't feed my rats dog food at all, I'm not familiar with doing that.
they both get rat chow which for a 5 lb bag is about $8-9 and for 2 rats lasts about a month (but mine are chunky monkeys......l ol). they also get baby carrots every day and 1-2 other treats, either a fruit/veggie/leafy or a cracker or cereal. Plus a bit of rat treat.
and a little chocolate does wonders for their colds!
Huh, I haven't heard of that, I may have to try it......althou gh my one gets more allergies than colds. :-\
My rat terriers, on the other hand, do get high protein/high fat foods to keep meat on their active bodies........ lol. Otherwise they'd wither away.......lol .
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My rats have a very uhh, shall I say "balanced diet". Basically, they're spoiled rotten, sometimes starting with the insides! They get a couple items a day off a very long list of snacks including but never limited to yogurt, fresh veggies and fruits, canned green beans, oatmeal (cooked or raw) boiled egg, boiled chicken or turkey meat and bones, cottage/ricotta cheese, pecans, and so many other stuff I find in my fridge that I know is healthy. The main staple of their diet is a mixture of about 50% dog food, 25% seed/grain mixture, and 25% lab blocks. The lab blocks are probably what you mean by rat chow. It's the ginormous pellets of who-knows-what, and I feed Forti-Diet brand. It's usually the only thing left in the bowl in the morning, and I'm not sure if one of them likes it, and the other two don't, or if they all just nibble on it with absolutely no intention of actually consuming any. ::)
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Okay, and I think there is something about rats and HS/college aged kids. I'm a junior in high school now, and almost everyone I talk to about rats had them "back in the day"... Maybe it's just that everyone likes that the rat has the same maturity level we do at the time. Does that mean I should be worried that my other pet is an Aussie??? :D
And yeah, chocolate is good for upper respiratory problems and colds. The darker the chocolate, the better. Lower in sugar.
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Actually my "rat chow".......well that's what I call it anyway......is a mixture of seed, banana chips, some misc. unidentified foods (lol) and the lab blocks.
Well I can honestly tell you that your rats eat much better than mine.......... ..lol. I buy veggies specifically for them b/c there is not much healthy foods in the house. They also get any bird treats the birds don't like.......... ..which happens more than one would think. ::) I know i have a really hard time finding any rat (or bird) treats at the store where the one of the first ingredients isn't some kind of sugar. I've been trying hard to go natural with all the pet's foods and it has not been easy. :P I like to mix it up, but end up buying alot of the same stuff b/c there simply isn't much choice for healthy treats.
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I actually own Black Rose Rattery and used to feed my rats lab blocks with fresh fruit and such daily. Well once my rattery began to grow (to about 50+ rats at a time) I had to change up the diet a bit. I was working at Festival Foods as a cake decorator and switched my rats over to their store brand dog food. The food is about $15-20 dollars for a 50 pound bag. I now have a blend I make myself. The recipe is basically below. I changes every once and a while for pregnant mothers, newly weaned babies, etc. My rats have been eating this now for years and are doing great and the price is very reasonable and by buying in bulk it lasts for a long time!
2/5 Generic dog food
1/5 Fresh Fruit or frozen baby food (they love the baby food in summer)
1/5 Fresh Vegetables
1/5 Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal (you can find it on sale pretty often for like 3 boxes for $5, I get the whole grain with vanilla oat clusters, it seems to be the favorite.)
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AAAAW! all this rat talk is making me want some!! which could be quite convenient since I was starting to get puppy fever and I currently reside in a teeny tiny apartment with two dogs!
To think I have been about two years without keeping rats! wow... I'm going to start looking for breeders here in Denver!!! and maybe visiting petsmart (which I like more than Petco when it comes to actual pets...) to see what they have...
This is getting to be pretty NDR, but after my bestest girl Chloe passed away my senior year in college (an American Blue, rex fur and standard ears), I just let her cage mates live out their lives and never got more rats, because that rat was seriously awesome! (as much as my very first, Guacala, who made me love fancy rats back in my sophomore year in high school -lived past me entering college). But I just realized I have apparently just recently gotten over those two and can probably move on (?) -we'll see, but once you have a baby rat in your hand, it's hard to resist!!!
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Well if you're ever near north eastern Wisconsin you can have one of my rats. ;) I breed dumbos, rex, and hairless. As well as double rexes/semi hairless whichever you like to call them. I almost always have ratty babies or my partner breeder has a litter. She is currently expecting a litter from one of my boys I bred and she has him as a stud with her beautiful Athena. Athena is a female berkshire rex and the male I gave them is an adorable black masked male with rex and dumbo traits from his parents. So the litter should he amazing!! We're also expecting a litter of kittens! We bred my half Maine Coon with her full Maine Coon so I'm excited about the baby kitties soon to come too.
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I may want to find you in a couple of year........lo l. My next rats will be a hairless and blue (although i have seen some adorable dalmation dumbos at work) and I want at least one to be a dumbo.
I live outside of Chicago, so w/i driving distance. ;)
My guys are only 2 now, although I know life expectancy is normally around 2, maybe 3 yrs. My one has cancer so not sure how much longer he'll be around. :'( And I don't think I should add anymore til' they both pass (not sure how easy it would be to add a baby in with an adult male). But I will def. keep you in mind when I'm looking for some newbies. :D
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I used to live in Kenosha Wisconsin, and was right on the border of IL. I don't breed blues currently, but I know a place in Kenosha which wouldn't be far from you, it's called Jim's Aquarium and Pets. The store is kinda weird, it's in the owners basement and its kinda scary down there lol. Even though going into the basement is scary they breed rats and have beautiful blues. I got a few of my fawn rats from them and never had any problems and they are really good about baking their animals up because it's a ma and pa store insted of a retail chain.
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I love rat people almost as much as I do dog people!
Dude, the seed mix I feed definitely has some of those unidentifiable foods. :D I'm so sorry your boy has cancer! Unfortunately that is one of the draw-backs to owning rats. I'm totally in love with your boys, they are so squishy looking!!!
Brittney, do you have a website? I'd love to see your rats.
I really want a blue as well, and I think when I get my boys (who knows when that will be) I want one to be a solid/berkshire blue... Or a Siamese. I think I have some weird issue with hooded rats. Not novel enough? Lol My hooded is hairless, so she's automatically in with the "in" crowd. 8) So... I'm in New Mexico. Zoo Crew, you need to UPS me your boys. Or at least one. ;)
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Oh, and Rosalba. I think it is officially time for you to get some new ratties!!! Little furry (or in my case not so furry) squishy curious little babies! How can you resist? The perfect apartment pet.
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I love rat people almost as much as I do dog people!
Dude, the seed mix I feed definitely has some of those unidentifiable foods. :D I'm so sorry your boy has cancer! Unfortunately that is one of the draw-backs to owning rats. I'm totally in love with your boys, they are so squishy looking!!!
Brittney, do you have a website? I'd love to see your rats.
I really want a blue as well, and I think when I get my boys (who knows when that will be) I want one to be a solid/berkshire blue... Or a Siamese. I think I have some weird issue with hooded rats. Not novel enough? Lol My hooded is hairless, so she's automatically in with the "in" crowd. 8) So... I'm in New Mexico. Zoo Crew, you need to UPS me your boys. Or at least one. ;)
I had site started but then I never finished it. I also have a myspace but the pictures aren't up to date. LOL! I had to change my actual site because I got a little hairless lady from a local petshop and she had an airborne virus and it whiped out my whole breeding colony. I was crushed. Alot of the rats I had were retired and I had some for over 4 years plus. It whiped out every rat in the house even the ones on a different floor. It was really weird. I've never seen anything like it. They all died within 2 days. So I had to bleach clean EVERYTHING and it took forever. But I have some old pics somewhere. I'll find them and post them.
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I love rat people almost as much as I do dog people!
Dude, the seed mix I feed definitely has some of those unidentifiable foods. I'm so sorry your boy has cancer! Unfortunately that is one of the draw-backs to owning rats. I'm totally in love with your boys, they are so squishy looking!!!
Brittney, do you have a website? I'd love to see your rats.
I really want a blue as well, and I think when I get my boys (who knows when that will be) I want one to be a solid/berkshire blue... Or a Siamese. I think I have some weird issue with hooded rats. Not novel enough? Lol My hooded is hairless, so she's automatically in with the "in" crowd. So... I'm in New Mexico. Zoo Crew, you need to UPS me your boys. Or at least one.
Sorry, no can do ;). I think Posey (my rat terrier) would miss them too much.......... .lol. She plays peek-a-boo with Tater every so often. ;D
I'm like you..........h ooded rats really hold no interest for me, unless they're hairless or blue. Your standard hooded rat is uninteresting to me, probably b/c that was pretty much all we ever got in at work.
I had site started but then I never finished it. I also have a myspace but the pictures aren't up to date. LOL! I had to change my actual site because I got a little hairless lady from a local petshop and she had an airborne virus and it whiped out my whole breeding colony. I was crushed. Alot of the rats I had were retired and I had some for over 4 years plus. It whiped out every rat in the house even the ones on a different floor. It was really weird. I've never seen anything like it. They all died within 2 days. So I had to bleach clean EVERYTHING and it took forever. But I have some old pics somewhere. I'll find them and post them.
I'm so sorry to hear about you losing all your rats. :( That must have been so difficult. I've heard of a similar thing happening with someone's snake breeder stock, they lost almost all their snakes as well.
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Awwe, that is a cute one. Would def. have to come up with a superhero name for that one with it's superhero mask.........l ol.
Hey, I can't speak on Rob's issues ;), but remember I have 2 rat terriers...... ..lol. And they don't dare touch the rats. I also have one very prey driven Keiko......lol . Oh how she would love to munch on Sunny and Tater but she knows that's a no-no. So she just whines and stares at them when I feed or take them out.......lol. She totally leaves them alone if I'm there, I can even put them up to her face and she'll look away. Granted I'm pretty sure she'd snatch them up in an instant if I wasn't in the room. :P ::)
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There's also part of me who hates the cat box and doesn't want one more thing to clean.
LOL........... .yeah I get that part. It's one thing that's been keeping me from adding any new reptiles for awhile. ;) Cleaning has never been my forte.......lo l.
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Julie, just do it! What can Rob do, run away and scream like a little girl? At least you'd have comic relief. :D
Keiko sounds just like my cat. She stalks them, licks her lips then looks at me and walks away. ::)
I totally hear ya on the littler box too! Just imagine having 2 boxes, one of which is for a rabbit who poops and pees in it faithfully (thank goodness) then digs in it. Litter and little rolly poops all over, and one dusty, stinky rabbit. Hence her name! Haha
So I just got word that not only is there a hairless litter due next month, but there are TEN rats looking for rescue from being snake food. (but they're all hooded :D )So needless to say, my colony is SO growing in the near future.
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Yea I have four cats and a litter trained rabbit so we have 6 litter boxes in the house. It gets to be a pain. And we always have to watch Roxi because she obsessed with eating the cat and rabbit poop. :P
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Ok well I managed to update the myspace site for the rattery. I breed mainly pets but I also offer feeder rats on occasion, like if there are birth defects, or temperment issues from early on. Some rats just aren't very nice sometimes, I'm not sure why yet. But here's the link. The only thing I didn't fully update was the past litters pictures because they are scattered all over.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=382092553
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Great site! That chinchilla male is just gorgeous! Out of curiosity, what pairing did he come out of? I'm trying to learn genetics and such.
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Oh, and Rosalba. I think it is officially time for you to get some new ratties!!! Little furry (or in my case not so furry) squishy curious little babies! How can you resist? The perfect apartment pet.
They ARE the perfect apartment pet! -that is why I kept rats (other than they are awesome), but I couldn't have a dog in the dorms -so I had rats, which should be close enough for dog people! seriously! rats can be trained, they learn their names, bond with their human, and even act protective! (I swear, my first rat used to chase my sister-in-law's cat off the bed to keep him away from me! it was hilarious to watch!) -like a teeny, tiny dog that doesn't bark and grooms itself! oh my! ^__^ and who can resist their tiny hands and nose twiches! Also, I always kept girls, and used to have a blast making them vibrate when they were in heat!! LOL -I don't know why I always found it so funny....
SO, I found this breeder here in Denver that seems pretty good. Their rattery is taking a month-long break right now, so I'm not rushing to contact her just yet -I'm taking my time deciding what I want... I might try for a boy for the first time ever!... AND she has DWARFS!! I've never even seen one in person! but I think I want one!!! apparently they are practically immune to cancer because of their growth hormone deficiency... so yay! I'm totally going to be a rat mom again!!! probably in a couple of months when it gets warmer :D
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CongRATS! Haha, I'm funny. 8) You'll love having them again, I'm sure. Post pictures of course when the baby comes home! You should message me the name of the breeder/website!
If I may be so bold... Would you consider getting two? Rats are VERY social, and although they love humans, they really do so much better with a rat friend or two. Plus, I always use it as an excuse when I can't decide between colors! :D
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CongRATS! Haha, I'm funny. 8) You'll love having them again, I'm sure. Post pictures of course when the baby comes home! You should message me the name of the breeder/website!
If I may be so bold... Would you consider getting two? Rats are VERY social, and although they love humans, they really do so much better with a rat friend or two. Plus, I always use it as an excuse when I can't decide between colors! :D
I know, I know... but I really think I want to start with one -but I know they are very social animals ad get lonely and cold, so I would keep it with me at all times until I got more rats -I'll at least get two, but again, I like starting with one (I haven't started from zero since my very first rat, and after that I would always have 3). But of course, the breeder might only adopt out in pairs to new colonies... so I might end up with two -and then again, I might not be able to decide between two, and the end result would be the same in either case... and then I'd have two rats on me at all times for like 2 weeks at the beginning, just because I can :)
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ah! forgot the link! http://www.camarattery.com/index.htm (http://www.camarattery.com/index.htm)
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Wow, I have never heard of dwarf rats. I'm glad he put a size comparison on there b/c I was wondering exactly how dwarf they were as I was scrolling.
some of them resemble gerbils a bit.
very cute. now you're making me want to get more!..........lol. But I dont' think my 2 adult males would probably do well being introduced to anything new, especially since it's just been the 2 of them since they were about 3-4 mo old.
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Great site! That chinchilla male is just gorgeous! Out of curiosity, what pairing did he come out of? I'm trying to learn genetics and such.
Yea he is. My sister took him and named him Socrates (she has another named Ben). He's huge and is almost 5 years old and is starting to lose his hair from old age. He was in a litter between my male agouti hooded I have on the website and a past mink dumbo self female. I also managed to breed a hairless female who did not have dumbo ears. It's actually pretty rare. She looked like a chinese crested she just had hair on her face, the base of her tail, and right by her feet. Another breeder bought her from me for $250 dollars! :o
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/dixiecat/015.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/dixiecat/013-1.jpg)
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Brittney- Haha my girl has standard ears. But she came from a breeder..Ish. My other HL is a Rainbow Exotics (aka Petsmart) girl, and she's a hooded dumbo.
Rosalba- Good thinking. Sometimes it's hard to get into the swing of things after it's been so long. Plus, you always get more bonded with that first one. At least, I do.
Zoo Crew- Hey, if your boys don't get along with newbies, that's just an excuse to get another cage, and start with your hairless and blue girls!!! ;)