How To Choose Rat Food

Hi, my name's Marie. I'm the deputy manager of the Small Animal Department at Wood Green Animal Shelters and I'm going to tell you how to care for rats. I'm going to tell you how to choose a rat food.

First of all, you want to have a look around at your local shops and see what rat foods are in the market. There are many different types including pellet forms and muesli forms. Both of these are fine but you will only need to use this as a base and still add in lots of different types of foods and textures to add in variation and ensure that everything is met to the rat's age and breed as well and possibly health issues.

You want to consider adding in all sorts of different types including dried herbs and these can be purchased from most pet shops or rescue shelters. You can find the mixed ones filled with all sorts of dried herbs and also meadow and garden plants as well. You can make some of your own dried herbs but make sure you are confident in choosing and selecting those plants.

Another really good thing is to actually have a look in your kitchen and see what you've got available. Adding into the mix, and this is a homemade rat mix and this is really healthy for them, we've got dried pasta, dried rice, but it doesn't always need to be dried, it can be cooked and you can add that as a treat on the cage. We've also got different types of cereal in here.

Please make sure when you are choosing different types of cereal that these aren't sugar coated. You can also add in all sorts of dried vegetables and seeds as well, and they're all really really healthy. Another good treat to add into the mix or to hide around your cage is good quality dried cat mix or dog kibble.

These can be added into the mix or scattered around in the accommodation. There are all sorts of books available. It's a really good idea if you can log on to a local rat forum on the internet.

Many of these books have really good examples of making up your own rat diets. So, do have a look at purchasing one of these because they'll be able to use a really good guide as your rat varies from its age and possibly even health conditions as well. There are great examples in there, and there are some really good ideas in building and making your own type of food as well and treat ideas as well.

You then want to consider how you're going to present the food to the rats. You could just place it in a bowl and this could be placed in the cage or you could consider either scatter feeding or even putting it in a hiding area. One option would be for the treats, is to get some organic soil, place it in a small tub or even in a really large cat litter tray and then you can get some of these dried treats, the natural herbs range, scatter them around in there and the rats can have great fun rummaging around and digging for the treats.

Another really good idea is to get a toilet roll and wrap this inside some paper, turn it into a bit of a Christmas cracker and then you can get some of the dried treats and even some of the diet that you've made up yourself for the rats, place that inside there, Christmas cracker treat, hide that in the cage, and the rats are going to have great fun shredding this apart and finding their really healthy diet. So as I said, there are many types of mixes on their diet on the market but don't use these as their solid mix. You're really going to need to add in lots of variations.

In the wild, rats will be foraging for all sorts of different types of food, they need a varied diet, so use the rat base as a mix and then add in all sorts of healthy treats. Avoid colorants and treats filled with sticky and sugary substances and also add in these vitamin and mineral blocks as well. It's really good if you can keep the diet as healthy as possible, then it's going to be fine for them and that way, you're going to have really healthy and active rats.

And that's the best way to choose a rat food. .