Mixes VS Lab Block/Kibble
 

 

In my opinion lab block or kibble will always be better than mixes. They allow our rats to get solid complete nutrition as a whole. Whereas mixes could allow them to miss out on important parts of their diet because there is no way to make sure they eat each food item in a balanced way or even eat every type of item in the mix. 

 

 

Mixes:

• They are able to pick & choose what they want & be picky about what they don't want. So they can eat all of one item, ignore others completely. This is more so when you have multiple rats. Rat A eats all of one item, and Rat B misses out. If half of their protein is from that source well their nutritional needs won't be met at all.

• I feel mixes often lead to hoarding behavior. This leads to food often being completely wasted & thrown out (wasted money as well)

• Rats are very small, tiny changes in the amount of one food or another will impact them greatly.

• If you have multiple rats greedier more bossy rats may steal all the yummiest stuff meaning other rats will miss out on them entirely.And in turn, this can lead to fighting, bickering, bullying and stress in the cage.

• So even if the diet mix is well balanced to meet their nutritional needs, it is very likely that the rats will never eat it in a balanced way and it completely defeats the purpose.
   

Store bought mixes often contain ingredients that are completely unsuitable or in the wrong unbalanced amounts- dried corn, alfalfa, too many nuts & seeds (high in fat), sugars, and also colors/dyes.

Lack of Variety?

The biggest complaint I hear about blocks is the lack of variety... first I think it is absurd as even with a mix they are still eating the same foods every day. How is that any different? How does eating the same 5 foods daily equal variety over eating the same single food? They are still eating the same thing every day.

 

Secondly, no matter what the base of their diet is you should always offer them fresh veggies, fruits, other whole foods, and treats. That is where the variety should come from!

Why is giving fresh foods ok but mixes are not? Because fresh foods are fed in small amounts in a controlled & scheduled manner. It means each rat is going to get roughly the same amount and you are aware of who is eating what.

 

Homemade mixes:

I often see many people wanting to make their own mixes and there are some guides around. Most of these guides are absurd and horrible. The makers have not taken any actual nutritional information into account when putting these together. They just said, "hey rats can and will eat this stuff so let's throw it all together!"

 

This does not make for any kind of healthy diet. Throwing together cereals, nuts, seeds, dried fruit and dog food is NOT a healthy well-balanced diet. Many cereals are loaded with sugars and some such as Total contains scary preservatives! Nuts & seeds are very high in fat and should be fed sparingly. Dried fruit is not the same as fruit, often contains added sugar and fruit in itself is too high in sugar to be fed often. 

 

There are some mixes out there that I think are not awful. I still do not like mixes for the many reasons listed above but there are people who have put in the effort and time to put together well thought out mixes. These often contain a variety of grains and very healthy ingredients and are not the budget-friendly option many are looking for when they want to do mixes.

 

Block/Kibble diet:

There are only 3 brands of food I recommend. These are the highest quality rat foods available.

 

• Oxbow Essentials Adult Rat Food

  Oxbow is my food of choice and what I feed my rats. I feel it is the highest quality rat food on the market. It contains ideal protein and fat levels for adult rats. It does not contain corn or alfalfa.
  
  I like the smaller pieces and feel it helps toward preventing hoarding, none of my rats hoard food actually!
  
  Oxbow is the most expensive of the three. But IMO well worth the price for the quality you are getting. You can buy small bags at PetSmart or online but the smaller bags are quite expensive for the amount. It is much smarter to buy in bulk as the price difference is way lower. The bulk 20 lb bags will last most people a long time. It costs about $2/lb which 1 lb will generally last most rats 1 month. I do not feel $2 a month per rat as expensive. I purchase it through www.chewy.com which is the best price I have found & they have free 2 day shipping on orders above $49 and normal shipping is just $5 ish
  
  I do not recommend feeding the young formula as it is not as high quality as the adult. Many rats also do not seem to prefer the taste of the younger formula either.
  
  Ingredients:
  Whole Brown Rice, Oat Groats, Wheat Bran, Wheat, Soybean Meal, Menhaden Fish Meal, Calcium Carbonate, Natural Flavor, Soybean Hulls, Brewer’s Dried Yeast, Flax Seed Meal, Monocalcium Phosphate, DL-Methionine, Canola Oil, Hydrolyzed Yeast, Wheat Germ Meal, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Salt, Inulin, Magnesium Oxide, Mixed Tocopherols (preservative), Choline Chloride, Sodium Bentonite, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Oxide, Manganous Oxide, L-Ascorbyl-2-Monophosphate (Vitamin C), Niacin, Copper Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Biotin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Sodium Selenite, Thiamine Mononitrate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Vitamin K), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Calcium Iodate, Cobalt Carbonate, Rosemary Extract
  
  Guaranteed Analysis
  Crude Protein (min) 15.00%
  Crude Fat (min) 4.00%
  Crude Fiber (min) 2.00%
  Crude Fiber (max) 5.00%
  Moisture (max) 10.00%
  Calcium (min) 1.00%
  Calcium (max) 1.50%
  Phosphorous (min) 0.80%
  Vitamin A (minn) 8,000 IU/kg
  Vitamin D3 (min) 1,000 IU/kg
  Vitamin E (min) 125 IU/kg
   

 

• Harlan Teklad/Native Earth
  You can find it sold on some sites, where they have opened the bags & portioned them out into smaller amounts that they then sell.
  
  I am not a huge fan of having to buy it already opened by someone. It gives me all kinds of worry on freshness, quality, and such. How do I really know what I am getting? I do not wish to speak ill of any site that does this. I probably have no cause for concern but it just does not sit well with me and is not something I would be comfortable in purchasing.
  
  The Native Earth version you can buy has 18% protein and is only sold in large bags.
  
  Harlan does contain corn. The blocks are fairly large in size and personally I found many wasted. My 100% non hoarding rats would hoard them, I think because they were larger and not able to eat them in a single sitting. They are often used in hoppers which makes their larger size better. There always seems to be a ton of dust in the bags and they can be super messy.

  This is a lab block. It is sold commercially as Native Earth. 
  
  Harlan comes in many different formulas and protein levels. The lower protein formulas can be more difficult to come by.
  
  Ingredients for the Native Earth 2018 Formula:
  Ground wheat, ground corn, wheat middlings, soybean meal, corn gluten meal, soybean oil, calcium carbonate, dried brewers yeast, dicalcium phosphate, iodized salt, L-lysine, DL-methionine, choline chloride, niacin, vitamin A acetate, biotin, pyridoxine hydrochloride,thiamine mononitrate, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K activity), vitamin E supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, calcium pantothenate, ferrous sulfate, magnesium oxide, manganous oxide, zinc oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, cobalt carbonate, chromium potassium sulfate.
  
  Crude Fiber (maximum)5.00%
  Calcium1.01%
  Phosphorus0.61%
  Crude Protein (minimum)18.90%
  Crude Fat (minimum)5.00%
  
   

• Mazuri
  This brand of rodent food is made by Purina.
  
  It does contain both corn and alfalfa. They have different formulas with different protein levels. Some of the lower protein formulas do contain BHA though. Their common formula sold in pet stores has 23% protein, which I feel is a bit high for an adult.
  
  Ingredients of their formula in petstores:
  Dehulled Soybean Meal, Ground Corn, Wheat Middlings, Ground Wheat, Soybean Oil, Cane Molasses, Ground Oats, Calcium Carbonate, Dried Beet Pulp, Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal, Wheat Germ, Brewers Dried Yeast, Salt, Calcium Propionate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Dl-Methionine, Choline Chloride, Dried Yucca Shidigera Extract, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin A Acetate, Folic Acid, Thiamine Mononitrate, D-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate (Form of Vitamin E), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Manganous Oxide, Zinc Oxide, Ferrous Carbonate, Copper Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Cobalt Carbonate
  
  CRUDE PROTEIN23.0% min
  CRUDE FAT6.5% min
  CRUDE FIBER4.5% max
  MOISTURE12.0% max
  ASH8.0% max
  VITAMIN E50 IU/lb min

 

 

It is important to note that per my contract I require all adopters to feed one of these three brands of food listed above before I will sell to them. Diet is far too important to their overall health. I am open to discussing an alternative though.

 

Feeding Dog Foods:
Dog food can in some cases be ok for rats. I do not recommend dog food in most cases. High-quality dog foods are usually too high in protein and not suitable for a rats diet. Lower quality dog foods are often close in ingredients to many rat foods though but you do risk poor ingredients as well. 

I will supplement my nursing moms/growing babies with high quality dog food for extra protein, which moms and babies need. 

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Doggy Bag-

This has become a popular food shared in many breeding and pet groups recently. It is dog food sold at tractor supply and is absurdly cheap. It is scary how cheap this food is. 100% it should never be fed to a dog, and I don't think it should be fed to any animal. 

I strongly feel this is poor, crappy, bad food. 

Many people say the ingredients and nutrients are similar to rat food, but the quality of ingredients matter too. In order to produce and sell a food that cheap, it is not going to have well sourced ingredients. 
https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/doggy-bag/

 

Feeding Cat Foods:
Do not ever feed cat foods. Cats and rats have very different nutritional needs. Cats are obligate carnivores. Any kindof of quality cat food will be far far too high in protein for rats.

 

Feeding Bird Foods:
No... while some seeds can be a nice treat, bird food is so not suitable for rats. Their base diet should definitely not be made up of a seed base.

Rabbit/Guinea Pig food:
No, this will kill your rats. Rabbits and guinea pigs eat a grass-based diet which does not contain nutrition for rats. Rats would become sick from malnutrition. 

 

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