Ready Made Mixes

I got 2 girls at very short notice the other day and just hopped into my local pet shop and grabbed a bag of reggie's rat mix which they seem to love (they had been fed on chinchilla food!). But I am doing a bit of a big shop on zooplus (new toys, treats and hammocks) and was looking at their available rat food.

They had 2 types which both got good reviews but I just wanted to see which you lot would think would be more suitable or should I just stick to the Reggie Rat Mix (although it looks like it's full of colours!)
Option 1 - Tima Rattima Premium Muesli Rat Food
Option 2 - JR Farm Rat Food

(I do give them greens, fresh fruit and veg, some low fat dog treats, bits of ryvita and other bits and pieces every now and again. I'm trying to keep their diet varied and interesting. So I'm really just after a good "base" meal ...if that makes sense!)

Which do you think would be better? Thanks

As far as I know JR Farm isn't so bad (but I could be wrong!) I haven't had chance to look up the nutritional contents of either yet, but I'm sure someone will for you!

We don't tend to feed ready made mixes, so I can't offer much advice!
xx

Before I fed the Shunamite diet I used Burgess Suparat, which I was really happy with All the nutrients are in the one nuggat, so it discourages selective feeding. I've heard that it's high in fat though.. But I'm not too sure! Then I decided to go for a homemade rax mix, which works out cheaper in the long run since you're basically just throwing together stuff that you have in your house, some rabbit food, and dog food I'm sure they'd be fine with Reggie rat though! From what I've heard it's pretty good

Certain nugget based foods have been seen to cause a higher incidence of tumours in older rats...

Just saying!

xx

As far as I remember Reggie Rat is pretty poor, the meat content is very dubious and it's highly coloured, as you say. I would also stay away from Burgess. The JR farm one isn't bad, though a little bit protein high from what I remember (though if they're young that's probably for the best). I would recommend Science selective rat as a base, I use it in my own mix, it is uncoloured, vegetarian (I give meat in high quality dog kibble and fresh) so no dodgy MRM, though it is homogenised so not suitable to feed on it's own (in my opinion). I've also heard very good things about Mr Johnson's Rupert Rat, which I tried and my guys loved but it's tricky to get hold of, and Beaphar xtra vital, though I've never tried that one so only going off what others have said.

Other than that, there's feeding Shunamite style using a rabbit mix as a base as people have said already. (I feed this but use rat food)

I buy the Pets At Home own brand pellets one instead of a mix cos I've read mixes arent great because they just eat the bits they like and then don't get a full diet. Though Pets At Home fed them the mixes, and it took a while for them to come round to eating the pellets.

I wanna try and give them more variety also with lean meats and different fruit, vege treats and things, but I'm a little worried about giving them too much or making them fat.

Rats fed on nuggets are prone to obesity and other diseases. What you've read on mixes can be true, but quite often rats aren't that picky and there are ways around it (such as not feeding again until they've eaten it all). I'd recommend a mix such as ratrations no7 or no11 (google ratrations). Delivery to NI normally comes to about £10, but the mix is amazing and I think it's worth it to remove the stress of making a mix from scratch. As an alternative, I think the reggie rat seems quite good too.
With any mix, rats need to be given fresh fruit and veg as well and the more variety the better. If you're worried about weight gain, the 'average' rat should have about 20g of food a day, although this can be higher or lower depending on age and health etc.

Gosh, all the conflicting info is hard to keep up with. xD

Ah, I just read up in more detail, hadn't noticed Katherine's comment on reggie rat. Didn't know such things, the only reason I recommend it is because the rats I'm currently ratsitting are fed it and they seem to enjoy it.

I'm on the ratrations website. Gosh me, there's a lot on there. Lol.

Little confused about the non-soya mixes etc. Should I be wanting soya included or not?

Are these the mixes you meant?
http://www.ratrations.com/no7-complete-all-adults-p-682.html
http://www.ratrations.com/no11b-complete-for-adult-rats-p-804.html

Is there any extra vitamins etc that anyone else uses? I've read giving them extra vitamins can help with recovery if they're ill etc.

To be honest, I know NOTHING about soya at all, maybe someone else can help there.
Yeah, they are the ones I was talking about. If your rats are still young (I'd say under 6 months or there abouts) you could maybe get the mum's and babies one (no9), especially since they're pet shop ratties.
I used to rotate between 7 and 11 including garlic and soya. I now use no8 because most of mine are over a year and 2 are over two.
I also use the 'dr squiggles' daily essentials vitamins supplement. Mine get it every few days (you just mix it with water, a teaspoon or so per 500mls is normally what I use). I also get them malt paste because it's good for feeding them up if they're sick or old (another, probably cheaper alternative is baby food). I've never tried any of the calcium supplements, but I've heard good things about them too.

Also, a note on quantity. I order the 5kg bag normally (so postage is about £10). It lasts me about 2-3 months, and I have 8 rats. So it really is actually good value, I think anyway. If you don't have much storage room, maybe a smaller size would be better, but I have the bag in the bottom of a cupboard in the kitchen, so if you have space I'd go for a bigger bag as it saves you ordering again for a while.

Thanks for the advice. Might actually be a good thing being able to order it as I can't get over to the petshop much myself anyways.

No bother at all.
If you want I could always try and bring you a sample if you're worried about ordering so much or anything. I'm actually going to put an order in tonight or tomorrow (student loan is just in - YAY).
And, or course, there's obviously plenty of other ready-made mixes in shops and online, that's just the one I've settled with.

I think I'll order a couple of things from that site. So I'll just get some to try and see what they think. Is that the site you use? Just wondering what kinda time it takes for stuff to arrive.

Yeah. Delivery normally takes 3-5 business days and comes by courier, so it's generally delivered during the day, which could be a pain if you're not home a lot during the day?

Just on a side note, they were some error on the site last time I ordered (a couple of months ago) and they charged me £17 for delivery instead. They rang me the same day but to let me know they were aware of the error and refunded me the £ no questions asked, in fact I hadn't even realised they'd over-charged me, so it was nice they called. Anyway, I just thought I'd mention it in case the delivery cost shows up as more than it should be.
Actually, I just put in my usual order and it showed up as £10.34, so i'm assuming it's working again okay

Ah, that's great. And that'd be fine. I'm usually always in, and if I'm not it's a very rare occasion when nobody is in.

And I'll keep an eye out for that. Thanks.

Another alternative is the rabbit food Mr Johnson's (that's what we use anyway!) mixed with good quality dog kibble and human grade low sugar and salt cereals. I wouldn't feed the pellet mixes as the meat proteins are often not well sourced and have been seen to cause an increased incidence of tumours.

xx

I ordered a small bag of the one redrach suggested. My girls are about 13 to 16 weeks, so I've gotten them the mum and baby one since they're still kinda small.

Good stuff let us know how you get on with it! (and at this age, you can't really give them too much chicken, fish, eggs etc)

xx

Just ONE more question. xD You know the treat stick things you attach to the bars of the cage, they've got grains and things on them. Are they fattening?

Just wondering how often it's okay to give them.

They're probably a bit sugary and fattening, but won't hurt to give occasionally! Once a week maximum I would say

xx

I get the treat sticks, usually the dandelion or strawberry. Mine only get them about once a month, but once every other week, or every week as zoundz said is fine. There's also lots of healthy treat ideas you can try like fruit and cereals. Mine love getting cheerios threaded on a string & hung about the cage

Got my food mix from Rat Rations today. I obvs didn't properly read what's in it cos was kinda surprised to find all the dried bugs and fish in it! Hadn't expected that to be in the mix. (I suck at reading lists)

This one is Mums and Babies to help build them up a bit after being unwell. Gonna see how they like it and then probs order the regular one that Redrach suggested.

Took a little longer than expected to arrive, though I only got the 1kg this time. Think I'll get the 5kg next time if it goes well, so it won't matter so much how long it takes to arrive.

LOL i've never had the mum&babies one, dried bugs, ew. But it's good protein for them, get them big & strong.
That's odd that it took so long to arrive, mine arrived 2 days ago.