Lab blocks tend to be one of the main staples in a rat’s diet, so learning how to look for a quality one is essential. Harlan Teklad is one of the largest producers of laboratory rodent diets. The company states that their diets “provide uniform nutrition” and they are “designed to minimize the nutrient variances” that would occur if feeding varying diets. Well, this is true, but one must only look at nature and how a rat would eat in the wild to realize that the varied diet is exactly what a rat needs. Our pets at home need variety and fresh, whole foods. They are not part of a laboratory that needs fixed nutrient contents to keep studies and analysis numbers consistent. What they need is much more than Harlan Teklad can provide. This is not to say that providing a lab block along with other foods is bad. Some lab blocks do offer the balanced nutrition your rat needs. But, watch ingredients, not brand names.

Typically, Teklad Global Rodent Diets have the first three ingredients as wheat and corn products. Ideally, if a block is fed to females, the main ingredient should be soy. The only Teklad diets to use soybean meal as the primary grain are #8604, #8640, and #8664. But, with higher soy, comes higher protein. And, the current thinking is that low-protein diets are especially recommended for older male rats. So, watch protein and fat levels along with ingredients to tailor to your rat’s specific needs. Teklad diets do use soybean oil as a source of fat, though, which is a highly digestible source of energy. Soybean oil supplies all three omega fatty acids (linoleic, linolenic, and oleic) and antioxidants. The Teklad diets are also free of fish meal, which eliminates nitrosamines. These are things to keep in mind when looking at a lab block. A lab block’s main advantage is that you can be sure the rat is getting balanced and adequate nutrition since it cannot pick out favorite parts. However, you should still offer fresh fruits and vegetables for variety if you choose to stick with a lab block as your rat’s staple diet. As a side note, one lab block I personally have used is the LM brand. It has soy and wheat as its first ingredients, and is surprisingly inexpensive. And, my rats actually eat it, which is nice as well!

As an alternative to the traditional lab block, there are some companies that are spicing it up a bit, and looking towards natural foods and healthy ingredients to feed rodents. One such company is Oxbow, the producer of Regal Rat. It also prevents the selective eating as with lab blocks, and is seemingly more committed to providing overall care beyond minimal dietary requirements. There is no corn in Regal Rat, and the primary grains used are whole brown rice, oat groats, wheat, and soy. The only downfall of this product is that it is only appropriate for rats that are at least 4 months old.

Often, you will hear high quality dog foods can be substituted for lab blocks or Regal Rat. Although this is easily another article in itself and is debatable, let me tell you what I know of the pet food industry, having worked directly in it on several levels. Two of the brands I’ve heard suggested are Iams and Science Diet, the two diets I would never recommend you purchase for, let alone feed, to any animal. Both companies are notorious for their inhumane animal feed studies, but if that does not bother you, then just look at the ingredients. Ground corn, plastics, milling throwaways, and meat byproducts, as well as chemical preservatives are all over the place. Bad choice! I have also heard Nutro Natural Choice Lite as an option. Although, ingredient wise, this is a much better choice, it should only be given in moderation because lamb as a staple in the diet is too high in minerals and cannot be utilized and efficiently excreted from a rat’s body. If you really want to include a kibble, try Nature’s Recipe Vegetarian Formula or Natural Balance Vegetarian. Both contain highly digestible whole grains, without the need for byproducts, fillers, dyes, or sketchy preservatives. In fact, Nature’s Recipe also makes a vegetarian canned diet and crunchy treat. Both of these can be excellent additions to your rat’s diet. They are much more suitable to your rat’s dietary needs. Even if you choose these, the lab blocks, or the Regal Rat, you should still offer fresh foods daily to complement the staple portion of the diet. Keep in mind if you choose to use a dry dog food, you must be very cautious to get a proper balance of vitamins and minerals, as well. In general, formulations for dogs do not make a good substitute for rat food because rats have very different dietary needs. Therefore, although there are suggested dog food products to use, it is only ideally to use as a supplement to the main diet or to be given as treats.

This brings us to the other types of commercial diets, which includes the many choices of mixes. There are some that are definitely better than others, but keep in mind that if you choose this as a staple diet, and your rats eat selectively, they will not get all the nutrients that the food is designed to provide. Supplementing with fresh, healthy foods is therefore very important for adequate nutrition here too. When looking at different rat mixes, the first things to look for (and avoid) are the typical rabbit pellets and corn. The pellets are basically empty filler and better used as bedding for your rats than food! Ideally, the pellets and corn should not be the main ingredients, and if they are, they should not be the first, and should be well balanced with other whole grains. Some of the mixes out there are almost more appropriate to feed along with your own staple diet rather than fed as the sole source of nutrition. This is because there are some elements of a select few of the mixes that are good to get into the diet. Some may even be used as a treat. Two of the mixes that are of higher quality are Brown’s Second Helping for Rats and Supreme’s Reggie Rat. Both do have corn, but not as a primary ingredient, and they have a diverse blend of other whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. Brown’s also has probiotics in its formula. There are no chemical preservatives in either diet. One other that has probiotics and some of the properties of Brown’s and Reggie Rat is Small World’s Select Blend Mouse & Rat diet. However, this diet does have corn as a primary ingredient. Personally, I have not encountered any other mixes that are suitable for feeding to pet rats if health and longevity are primary goals. Check the ingredients and make sure you know what you are giving your rats, and I am confident that you will discover the very same thing.

Label checking should also extend to treats, so watch out for high amounts of sugars, dyes, chemicals, byproducts, fillers, and artificial preservatives. Use some of the examples in this article of healthy, real foods to feed your rats for treats instead. Remember that your rat’s diet includes the treats, and you do not want to counteract an ideal diet with treats that do the opposite in the way of health. In fact, as a treat, you can even share a bit of your dinner with them each night. Make sure and follow the general guidelines here for what you can feed your rats, and you may find yourself eating healthier too by sharing your meals with them!

If you choose to offer your own diet, you need to be sure that your rats get all the nutrients they need, so a staple or base is often used to play it safe. A lot of people find this is most easily accomplished by feeding a lab block or high quality rat formula, like Oxbow’s Regal Rat, along with your own mix and fresh foods. In a situation like this, the blocks should make up at least 80% of the diet, and you need to make sure that your rats are not just picking out the other parts or they will not be getting all their vitamins and minerals. There are lots of choices out there for lab blocks if you choose to feed them over the Regal Rat, so exercise caution and read labels to be sure you know you are getting the best quality ingredients and defeating the purpose of feeding a more natural diet. If using lab blocks, I personally recommend purchasing from LM Animal Farms.

There are also very specific formulations by experts in rat care that cover all the basics without the need for the additional vitamins and minerals from commercial diets. The best of these diets and the only one I recommend was developed by Debbie Ducommun; it is commonly known as the Rat Fan Club diet. It is one of the most ideal diets, not just because of ingredient quality, but because of complete attention to nutrient detail. However, the nutritional value of the diet does depend on you following all of these details to the letter. So, it is a bit more complicated until you get into a system for having all the fresh foods and main mix ingredients on hand. But, it is well worth the effort. This main mix and fruit/veggie diet can also be used as the 80% or more portion instead of lab blocks or Regal Rat when feeding it along with your own mix as stated above.

The Rat Fan Club diet is based on a main mix and specific supplemental fresh foods. The main mix ingredients are as follows: 1500 mg calcium (from chewable tablet), 2000mcg chromium picolinate, 50mcg vitamin B12, 40mg manganese, ¾ cup crushed Total cereal, 4 tsp raw sunflower seeds, 1 Tbsp flax seed, 3 Tbsp raw oatmeal, 4 tsp pearled barley, 4 tsp millet, 3 Tbsp cooked brown rice, 4 Tbsp toasted wheat germ, 2-¼ Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes, 2 Tbsp blackstrap molasses, 1 lb. soft tofu. Approximately 3 Tbsp of this mix should be fed daily for a 1-lb rat. The mix will need to refrigerated and should be used within 1 week. Along with the mix, you are also required rotate in particular fruits and vegetables, as well as liver and oysters, to complete the diet. The weekly calendar below shows how to include these fresh foods. The first two rows are required for adequate nutrition, but the second two are only suggestions and can be changed to include other fruits and vegetables that you may have on hand. Later in the article, there are other recommendations for some fresh foods that are particularly healthy to include in your rat’s diet, as well as some that should be avoided. For this and other diets, serving sizes of fresh foods for a 1-lb rat are as follows: 2 tsp cooked beans, ¾” cube cooked sweet potato, 1-½”  broccoli floweret, 2” square of leafy greens, 1” square of most vegetables, ½” cube fruits, 1 oyster, and ¾” cube cooked liver. For any questions or further details about the Rat Fan Club diet, please visit www.ratfanclub.org.

There are also other homemade mixes that have been used by many over the years. But, none are analyzed and formed as nutritionally complete diets like the Rat Fan Club Diet. Some of them can still, however, offer a healthy and tasty supplemental mix (20% or less of the main diet) and they have lots of room for personal adjustments using the information you now have on a rat’s dietary needs.

One of these mixes is known as Suebee’s. There are many variations on this diet, and it tends to be one of the most popular ones with those that make their own food because of its flexibility, but remember, this is not a diet meant to be fed as the sole source of nutrition. This is because the Suebee’s is NOT a nutritionally complete diet, as it is lacking in copper and calcium just to name a couple. To feed this type of grain mix diet to your rats, feed it in combination with the staple portion (80% or more) and a variety of fresh foods. Recall that the staple portion of the mix (80%) is Oxbow Regal Rat, high quality lab blocks, or the Rat Fan Club diet. Although the original Suebee’s accepts Nutro Natural Choice Lite dog food as the staple portion also, it is not recommended or suggested by nutritionists. The original grain mix itself includes 1 lb. puffed wheat, 1 lb. puffed rice, 1 box Total cereal, ¾ lb. rolled oats, ½ lb. unsalted soy nuts, ½ lb. dried fruit, ½ lb. dry pasta, ¼ lb. sunflower seeds, and ¼ muesli. Although there is some grain variety in this mix, there is some conjecture over feeding puffed grains because the puffing process creates unhealthy compounds, so it is recommended that if one uses this mix, the amount of puffed grains should be reduced or eliminated and replaced by whole grains like wheat berries or cooked brown rice.

There are also modifications that try to reduce the possibility of selective eating by eliminating different textures and shapes that are easily picked out. One example uses the following for the grain portion: 1 cup each of whole wheat flakes, triticale flakes, rye flakes, barley flakes, spelt flakes, soy flakes, kamut flakes, oat groats, toasted buckwheat, ½ cup each of flax seeds and sesame seeds, and ¼ cup each of sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. A downfall with this is that the whole food concept is somewhat lost here as you are using a majority of processed foods. Again, this is to be used only as 20% or less of a rat’s diet, though, with the other 80% being a nutritionally complete product.

One other diet that should be mentioned is that from the Rat and Mouse Club of America. It and the others above will start to give you ideas for what to put in your own homemade concoction! The RMCA diet’s grain portion is made up of 2 cups Cheerios, 2 cups Grapenuts, 2 cups oats, ½ cup sunflower seeds, and ⅔ cup unsalted soy nuts. Already, you can see that this diet does not offer much in the way of grain variety though, and you are relying again on processed cereals, and in this case, these cereals also contain sugar. To every 50g of this diet, you will also need to add 250mg calcium, 2.5mcg vitamin B12, 50IU vitamin D, and 50mcg vitamin K. If you can’t find a vitamin K supplement, just feed 1 small steamed Brussels sprout daily. For any homemade grain mix, vitamins can be additionally supplied using fresh fruits and vegetables. Review those ideas in the charts above or in the list below for healthy options. A rat can eat a third of its own body weight in a 24 hour period, so not only is important to regulate what your rats intake, but it also gives plenty of  opportunity to combine and rotate some of the ideas in this article.

Understanding the importance of having these fresh foods is vital no matter what you use for your main rat diet. Remember, the processed, devitalized foods found in your local pet store are lacking natural enzymes and healthy bacteria, which your pet needs for a healthy immune and digestive system. In fact, including healthy bacteria in the diet in the form of yogurt and cottage cheese is ideal. Other food supplements that are great to include in your rat’s diet are fish oil, kelp, flax, honey, molasses, apple cider vinegar, wheat germ, oatmeal, applesauce, cooked rice, etc. Feeding fresh, whole foods in this manner helps reduce the risk of disease as your rat ages.  It is important to also include fresh fruits and vegetables to provide vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, and phytochemicals to prevent disease and to slow the aging process. Most times, it is best to feed foods as is since cooking destroys enzymes inherently found in raw foods. There are some exceptions to this, though, and you can use yourself as a model for what may need to be cooked prior to serving. The choices of fresh foods are just as endless as those that are available for people. Remember to clean fresh produce well to remove as much of the surface pesticides as possible. Better yet, buy organic for yourself and your rats!

Fruits, although they should be offered every day, should be given in slight moderation compared to the fresh vegetable portion. The natural sugars in fruit are nutritionally similar to starches, though, and are very important to the overall diet. Some options can even have secondary health effects. Bananas, plums, prunes, and raspberries have antibiotic properties. Cranberries, strawberries, and again, plums and prunes, have antiviral properties. For arthritis, dates work well. Red grapes and blueberries have excellent antioxidant properties, so are good for fighting against cancer. Prunes are also good for stroke prevention because of their anti-inflammatory properties. Most any fruit is good, but male rats should not have orange juice or orange pieces that include the rind. In the oils of citrus, there is d-limonene, which can cause kidney damage and cancer as it reacts with a unique protein in the kidney of male rats. Green bananas should not be fed either as they inhibit the digestion of starch.

Vegetables should be offered in 2-3 servings per day and the list of possibilities is endless! Just as it is true for fruits, many vegetables also have special health related properties. Eggplants and garlic have antibiotic properties. Broccoli is an antioxidant. Celery is good as an anti-inflammatory. Most vegetables are fine to feed, with very few exceptions. Some may need to be cooked to be given to rats as well. For instance, green potato skin and eyes contain a toxin, solanine. There are also some myths about certain raw foods too, though. Feeding raw sweet potatoes or artichoke is okay, for example, but you will likely find that your rats prefer them cooked anyways! There are also some foods that can be fed, but should only be done so in moderation. Raw red cabbage and Brussels sprouts are healthy in limited amounts, but can have a toxic affect if fed excessively. Spinach, beets, and swiss chard, as well as some others in the same families, are high in oxalates, which can contribute to urinary and kidney stones in those prone to them. Dry corn has high levels of nitrates and amines, which combine during digestion to form nitrosamines, which are essentially carcinogens. Dry corn can also contain fungal contaminates that are a leading cause of liver cancer. This is another reason why corn, unless quality or source can be determined, should try to be avoided for the most part in commercial diets.

Some cooked legumes and herbs also have special properties. Tea, mustard, and garlic have antibiotic properties. Fish oil, ginger, garlic, and clove tend to work well for arthritis. Soy beans are antioxidants.  Parsley, fish oil, and flax are great for stroke because of their anti-inflammatory properties. There are also some foods in this category to avoid as well. Raw beans and peanuts destroy vitamin A and can cause red blood cells to clump, as well as inhibit the digestion of protein and starch. Other cautioned ingredients include carbonated drinks because rats can’t burp. Chocolate, especially dark, in small amounts is okay and can even act as a mild bronchodilator in rats with respiratory problems, but as with any refined sugar, the rule is to not go overboard.

So, what do I feed my rats? I try to use all these elements to provide the best variety I can.  I use the Rat Fan Club mix with my rats. I also use Oxbow Regal Rat, Reggie Rat, LM lab blocks, and Nature’s Recipe or Natural Balance vegetarian formula. And, of course, I have my own modification of a 20% whole grain mix, which is always evolving based on what I have on hand. My mix currently has the following ingredients: 4 oz. rye berries, 4 oz. brown rice, 4 oz. buckwheat, 4 oz. millet, 4 oz. flax seed, 5 oz. raw pumpkin seeds, 5.5 oz. oat groats, 6 oz. rolled oats, 6 oz. Kamut flakes, 6 oz. raw sunflower seeds, 6 oz. bulger wheat, 8 oz. barley, 9 oz. unsalted soy nuts, 12 oz. Total cereal, 16 oz. dry whole wheat pasta, and 17 oz. dried, unsulfured fruit. Most of what I include in my mix is organic. In addition to this, I feed fresh fruit, vegetables, legumes, oils and herbs daily.