Diet

We try to keep our rats on a low fat, grain heavy diet - like is because overweight rats can have significant health issues, especially later in life.  

We don't add tasty things like banana chips, dried fruit (except the occasional cranberry), coconut or almonds as we found our rats picked these out first and just scoffed them over the healthier options.  

Our standard dry mix consists of:

Cereals:

• Kornies

• Corn flakes

• Rice bubbles

• Wheatbix

• Wholegrain oats

• San Bran

• Bran Flakes 

Grains:

• Barley Flakes

• Wheat

• Hulled Buckwheat

• Kibbled Wheat

• Rye Flakes

• Brown rice 

• Barley 

• Green split peas

• Red lentils 

• Brown lentils 

• Puffed spelt

Seeds & dried fruit:

• Pumpkin seeds

• Linseeds

• Sunflower seeds 

I try to keep the seed portion of the dry mix very minimal, with exception to the linseeds which are rich in omega 3 fats and folic acids so are beneficial in their diet.

We will also be adding dehydrated foraged plants like:

• Puha (Sow Thistle)

• Dandelion

• Plantain 

• Nasturtium 

• Hibiscus 

• Basil

A good quality pellet should be a rats staple diet. We personally feed about 70% pellets and a 30% dry mix. They're not as tasty as a dry mix, but are all super nutritious. 

From pet-shops like Animates, you can pick up:

• Supreme Selective/Science Selective 

• Vetafarm Origins

Online shops:

• NZ Rat Rescue lab blocks

For large quantities (10kg +) you can go to Feed shops, like Sharpes or Horselands and get:

• Sharpes Diet 86 

• NRM Pig Nuts 

This works out really cost effective if you have a good number of rats. 

We've compiled an extensive list of rat safe & unsafe foods. If in doubt, check Google or in rat groups on facebook for a second opinion.