Sunday, August 2, 2009

What are some fresh foods you can feed a rat?

Such as lettuce...
Answers:
Actually your question should be, "What fresh foods *can't* you feed rats?" That list would be much shorter as rats can eat a huge variety of foods. The more variety you can get your rats to eat the healthier they will be in the long term. Rats are omnivores like us, and they can eat like us. Rats can have meat, vegetables, fruits, dairy (for those that are not lactose intolerant), and grains in every way shape and form. Avoid sugars and fats for rats unless they are sick.
On the question of lettuce:
Lettuce is fine for rats, just avoid Iceburg (head) lettuce as it has no nutritional value for rats.
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/firstgarden...
I give my rats red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, and bibb lettuce.
I also give the rats "President's Choice Organic Field Greens"
http://greendeals.ca/2007/02/05/organic-...
Wash all greens carefully. Don't give the rats too much, don't want them to get diarrhea.
I have answered food-related questions many times here at Y!A, here's a summary of those answers
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...
There's just a very short list of foods to avoid:
raw dry beans or peanuts鈥攃ontains antinutrients that destroy vitamin A and enzymes needed to digest protein and starches, and causes red blood cells to clump
raw sweet potato鈥攃ontains compounds that form cyanide in the stomach
green bananas鈥攊nhibits starch-digesting enzymes
green potato skin and eyes鈥攃ontain solanine, a toxin
wild insects鈥攃an carry internal parasites and diseases
raw bulk tofu鈥攃an contain bacteria, packaged raw tofu is safe
orange juice鈥攆orbidden for male rats only, d-limonene in the skin oil, which gets into the orange juice during squeezing, can cause kidney damage and kidney cancer due to a protein that only male rats have in their kidneys. Pieces of the orange fruit are okay if you wash the orange-skin oil off of it after peeling it.
spazrats
"my life has gone to the rats"
Any fruit or veg should be fine. I used to make my hamster salad (no dressing) and put it on a big plate for him so he could pick off what he wanted and then put the rest in his food bowl : ) Just don't give him anything like peppers or chillis.
you can feed a rat just about anything if they like it and if it's small enough. My boyfriend's mother owned 9 rats and she would leave pieces of noodles and chicken, etc. She would mix rat food with pieces of human food. If they'll eat it, it's okay. She spoiled her rats and they apparently lived longer than expected.
Pretty much all fresh fruits and veggies are good for them. My rats will eat almost anything, but you should probably limit their intake of meat and processed foods.
Rats enjoy many fresh foods such as lettuce, apples, oranges, pears, bannanas, and vegetables. Avoid sticky foods such as peanut butter as they can cause choking.
bananas are my rat's fave and my rat before them
my rat loves melons and yoghurt!
They only like certain human foods just like we do!
But they can eat almost every fruit and every vegetable

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