Our Rat Diet

Note: Our rat diet has recently been changed to involve lab blocks and a specialized menu. This page will be updated with our new diet shortly.

Every domestic animal has it's collection of diet activists. You might find them on certain forums, each with their own forceful opinion. This is true in rats as well! Opinions vary but generally the golden rule is to avoid pet store mixes. The vast majority of these are full of seeds, grass and dried corn.

"Dried corn can contain high levels of fungal contaminates which has been shown to cause liver cancer in rats. Corn also contains high levels of both nitrates and amines. These two compounds can combine in the stomach to form nitrosamines which are carcinogenic. Other foods high in nitrates include beets, celery, eggplant, lettuce, cucumber, radishes, spinach, collards and turnip greens. Therefore, I suggest you limit the amount of these foods in your rat’s diet. Some fresh corn is fine, but if you feed your rats blocks, try to avoid brands which have corn as the first ingredient."
- Debbie Ducommun (The Rat Lady)

We encourage rat owners to make their own "ratty mix" using ingredients commonly found at your supermarket. A little extra effort is both healthier for your pet rats and cheaper for your pocket. We find our rat mix will cost about $20-30 and last for a couple of months (8 rats). In our opinion this is much cheaper than $10 for a small bag of rat food that will last a week.

We've listed the most common rat diets on the internet below. There can be some controversy about these, but if you're taking the step to make your own mix, it's already a healthier choice for your pets.
Suebee's Rat Diet
Rat Health Diet

Most of the rat diets on the internet are not Australian based. This can make it difficult to source the specific brands some of the overseas rat owners are suggesting, but it's very easy to find alternatives. Below I've listed The 28th Rat's ratty mix. We source all our ingredients from our local supermarket (Coles!). We try to opt for organic wherever possible but if you're short on cash the regular alternative will work fine as well. Organic products are listed in green.

Our Rat Diet
Click on the thumbnail to enlarge.

  • Abundant Earth Organic Puffed Kamut
  • Orgran Gluten Free Vegetable Rice Pasta Spirals
  • Abundant Earth Puffed Millet
  • Abundant Earth Puffed Rice
  • Abundant Earth Puffed Corn
  • Nature First Organic Traditional Rolled Oats (Creamy Style)
  • Nature First Organic Natural Museli
  • Home Brand Banana Chips
  • McKenzies Chick Peas
  • Basco Apricot & Apple (Cereal)
  • Sanitarium Puffed Wheat
  • Purina Supercoat Light & Mature Dog Biscuits (Make sure it's "Light & Mature" as this is lower in protein. If you're going for another brand, try to get the protein as low as possible by checking the back of the packet)
  • Home Brand Sunflower Seeds

A lot of rat owners suggest feeding their rats lab blocks. We find that in Australia it is very difficult to source branded lab blocks. Most of their lab blocks are supplied in an unbranded plastic bag and it's rare that somebody will be able to tell you the ingredients. This is why we suppliment our rat diet with dog biscuits (Purina Supercoat Light & Mature) as the base instead of lab blocks.

Our rat mix is available for our rats to pick at 24 hours a day. Like everyone else we love to give our rats healthy treats! We feed them fruit (apples, bananas, watermelon, rock melon, strawberries, grapes), vegetables (carrot, broccoli, peas & corn), oysters (they LOVE these), wholemeal bread, wheatbix, boiled eggs, peanuts - the list goes on, feel free to get creative with it. Another good treat is creamed cheese if you can teach them to lick from your finger.

Pregnant or nursing does, sick rats or rats that need a boost are given additional treats to help increase their energy. These include baby food, kitten food, chicken bones (cooked) and yogurt.

Questions/Comments

rheannan commented on 10-Aug-2011 12:37 AM 3 out of 5 stars
hi there i was just wondering what the ratios are for your homemade rat food,would i just empty every packet into a large container or would i need to use just a little of some items,any help is appreciated i recently got 2 female rats who have a selection
of fresh veg or fruit,some cockatiel mix and some pellets(from pet shop) and dry dog food
Rachel commented on 12-Aug-2011 11:58 PM 3 out of 5 stars
Same as the other comment. What ratios should be used?
Lakeisha Wall commented on 13-Aug-2011 01:18 PM 3 out of 5 stars
(Admin Post) Hey Rheannan and Rachel. I actually have a large tub that I pour all the mix items into. I don't use any particular ratios but rather empty the entire bags - with the exception of the dog biscuits (larger bag), which I try to level out with
the rest of the items. If you're interested in particular food ratios I'd recommend taking a look at the Rats Rule and Rat Fan Club diets, which I've linked to in the article above.
Julz commented on 29-Mar-2012 10:28 PM 5 out of 5 stars
I feed my gals very similarly, but I have access to Cummins cubes which are the best in Oz, Also I've had several problems with peanuts as treats so I don't give them, instead nuts in shells which they have to chew through before they get their treat!
I also have to be careful with wheatbix as the salt content in some brands is too high for my older rats with possible heart problems.

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