Fruits and Veggies

Miscellaneous

Chocolate

Forbidden Foods

 

Here's a great rule of thumb: If it's healthy for you, it is most likely healthy for your rats!

And too much of anything is never a good thing! (That's true for humans, too.)

 

We may be offering supplements for sale soon, but for now, here are some great tips on how to supplement your rat's diet:

 

Fruits and Veggies
Best when given once a day in a separate feeding dish to keep moisture away from the regular diet, or it's even more fun to give by hand. Be sure to remove any uneaten food after four hours due to spoilage.

Some that I love to give are:

Grapes
Apples
Oranges-
- don't give them the rind; this is a known carcinogen in male rats
     - Also, avoid orange juice as it often contains orange rind.
Apricots
Bananas
Carrots
Broccoli
Romaine lettuce-
     - Please don't give iceberg lettuce; it's a very empty food and contains a lot of moisture.
Cucumbers
Spinach-
- highly recommended to give more often than others; excellent source of vitamin K, A, and other vitamins and minerals

Just look at what you have in your fridge and experiment (while using common sense, of course)!

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Miscellaneous

Chicken bones-
-Great for teeth. Be sure to remove excess meat and any fatty parts. Use common sense!

Dog Biscuits-
-Grreat Choice Healthy Treats are my personal favorite. Very healthy for rats.

Popcorn-
-Please keep it unsalted and unbuttered. You can make a bag and split it with your rats!

Small Animal Tasty Twigs from T-Rex-
-My rats LOVE these! They are an empty food, but a wonderful occassional treat. Can also be used for training purposes.

Crickets-
Yes, LIVE crickets! Your rats will love these more than anything. Feed with caution; they're very high in protein!

Kashi cereal

DON'T FEED YOUR RATS PIZZA CRUST!!
Ashton, my favorite girl, almost died from choking on a piece of pizza crust. View the details in our blog. Apparently this has happened multiple times to others. So take caution!!

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Chocolate

For great articles on what I'm about to summarize, click here or here.

To many people's great surprise, chocolate can be great for rats! Rats often get respiratory infections (which, if you've had rats, you've most likely noticed). If your rat is in respiratory distress, giving him or her a small piece of chocolate can ease their symptoms temporarily due to the theobromine in chocolate that is a natural bronchial dilator. In other words, your rat will breathe a little easier from eating that small amount of chocolate.

The best kind of chocolate to give your rats is semi-sweet (the semi-sweet chips are easiest to give). Milk chocolate contains milk, and some rats can be lactose intolerant! Why risk it if you don't know if they are or not? Stay away from white, unsweetened and baker's chocolate. Just make sure that whatever you do give contains real, pure cocoa, since that is what contains the theobromine.

Please don't abuse the chocolate! Chocolate is a treat, and is best given at a very minimum. There is no other nutritional value in chocolate! If you want to give it as a treat to a perfectly healthy rat, try giving one chip every other week. Other people say once a month, others once a week. Just use some common sense! Fat rats really aren't happy rats.

Finally, as I'm sure you'll notice as soon as you wave some chocolate in front of their faces, rats LOVE chocolate! Many owners, who know for sure that their rat typically will do anything for a small piece, will offer their rattie some chocolate when they think that he or she is ill. If their rat refuses the chocolate, then there really is a problem!

WARNING: Chocolate is not a cure-all for rats in respiratory distress! If your rat is overly sneezy or wheezy at all, please take him or her to the vet! You need to get some baytril or other antibiotic to bring down the infection. Chocolate is only a temporary solution and not to be used on a regular basis.

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Forbidden Foods
The following tables are from petratscanada.com.

The following should never be given to rats:

Foods that should be fed with caution:

If you want to let your rat try these, be careful:	Why?
carbonated drinks	rats can't burp!
chocolate	It contains stimulants that can lead to heart failure or neurological poisoning in high quantities. A bit of chocolate is okay and can actually temporarily alleviate respiratory distress
Peanut Butter	This can cause choking in rats.  If you want to give your rats some, mix it with jam or something liquid to make it less sticky.
Avocados	These are high in fat and are a good treat to feed rats that are in need of "beefing up" (make sure the fruit is ripe).  However, the pit, rind, skin and leaves of avocados are toxic.  The part of the fruit in contact with the pit has a higher concentration of toxins.
dried corn	It can have high levels of fungal contaminates which can lead to liver cancer.  A little fresh corn is fine.

  

Reference: Rat Health Care, 7th ed. by Debbie Ducommun. 2001.

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