Food

Balanced Diet

A healthy diet is essential for your pets health and wellbeing. Rats are omnivores and their food pyramid should be:

Fats (4 - 8%)
Protein (12 - 20%)
Carbohydrates (72 - 84%)

Science Selective and lab blocks from us or NZRR are a great staple. Vetafarm Rodent Origins are also good pellets readily available from most pet stores in New Zealand but feeding only Origins can lead to weight gain.

You can create your own dry mix with items available at the supermarket such as Weetabix, rolled oats, puffed rice, seeds, dry pasta and other low sugar cereals like Cheerios. When I make a mix to supplement the lab blocks I track the ingredients so I can keep the macros correct.

Feed approximately 20 grams of dry food per rat per day.
I do not recommend Tui or Topflight rodent mixes as they have too many seeds, while seeds are healthy, too many can cause weight gain and other health issues.

Fruits, vegetables and 'people food'

Should be offered daily green vegetables are lower in sugar but variety is best. The occasional blueberry or half a strawberry, some apple (ensure to remove all seeds) or mashed avocado are usually favorites. Other human food such as cooked pasta, boiled egg, chicken and dehydrated coconut or banana chips.

Before feeding any 'people food' check that these are safe for rats, there are plenty of extensive lists of 'safe food' for rats like this one: Pet Helpful 

Clean water should always be available for your rats and I suggest having at least two water bottles in case one leaks or gets finished while you are away from home particularly when weather is hot and your rats are likely to drink more water.

Feed roughly one tablespoon of fruit/veg/chicken etc per day, try to limit sugary foods.

Treats

Treats now and again are a great way to bond with your rat, gain their trust and as a reward for training them. 

Suitable treats include yoghurt drops, frozen peas and corn, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, cheerios or baby food. There are some good treats available from NZRR as well as pet stores.

More useful info can be found here.

7 Ways to Enrich your Rats Lives

Rats are smart, social, and active animals that need lots of mental stimulation to stay happy and engaged. A rat that is happy and at ease is also more likely to be less stressed and healthier.

What does it mean to enrich the environment?

Simply put, environmental enrichment is anything that makes an animal want to interact with its surroundings, both physically and mentally. We often think that new experiences and "changes" from the usual are good for us.

Animals get used to and even bored with the things in their habitat, just like you might want to rearrange the furniture in your home, paint the walls, or move the pictures around.

How would you feel if you had to live your entire life in the same room that still had a baby crib as your bed? You should keep your pet rat's environment interesting and fun, changing the layout and some of the toys when doing the weekly cage clean will reduce the likliness of them getting bored.

How can I keep my rat engaged?

1. Keep several pet rats in the same cage (same sex pairs or de-sexed).

Getting your pet rat a friend is one way to make his environment more interesting. The best way to keep pet rats happy and healthy seems to be to keep them in small social groups, rats should be kept in minimum of a pair but 3 to 5 forms a family bond.

I would never suggest having just one rat. If you only have one now, it might or might not accept a new friend, but if you're just starting out with keeping rats, you should definitely plan on having more than one.

Rats have fun with each other by playing games, cuddling, grooming, and competing with each other. In general, they love living together as a small, social family. Having a friend who is another rat is not the same as having a friend who is a person, no matter how much they like them.

2. Buy a big cage and let your pets spend time outside of it while you supervise and play with them.

Rats are very active. If you let them be on their own, they will always find ways to have fun. By choosing a big cage, you can give your pet rats the space they need to run around and play.

The minimum housing space required per rat is 2.5 cubic feet or 0.7 cubic meters. Rat cages should be wire for ventilation and aim for at least 45 x 95 x 55 cm. The more space they have in their cage the better. Two good-sized cages are Strong Rat Cage (SRC) or Pet One (RSK) you can convert an Avi One bird cage too by adding some covered wire baking trays to give it more levels.

Rats like to climb, but if you have a two-story cage you need to add some ‘fall breaks’ like hammocks to make their home a safe place. Pet rats are prone to respiratory infections, but wire cages let air flow, which might help keep them from getting sick.

Larger, two-level cages give rats more options for bedding and toys, which are all important for keeping their sharp minds active. A bigger cage also allows for a dig box, or even a bioactive base.

3. Give them a variety of toys and switch them out. 

Pet rats play with toys all the time. They'll even use the toys to make up games to play with each other. Mine invented a ‘hide the peg’ game with their treat puzzle and after they played with it during free roam, I would have to dig out the pegs from their cage.

There are so many rat toys to choose from in pet stores, tunnels, bridges, chew toys and so on. Don’t overlook the bird section when shopping for toys for your rats as there are some good finds there too like perches. But you don't have to spend a lot of money if you don't want to.

Rats like to play with cardboard boxes, toilet paper tubes filled with shredded paper and a handful of treats, small pieces of apple branches cut from a tree in the yard that hasn't been treated with pesticides, ping pong balls, and paper bags from the grocery store.

The only limit to what fun toys you can find for your rat family is your imagination.

You can put a "new" toy in the cage every few days and take out the "old" one for a few weeks. When you rotate their toys your pet rats will be less likely to get bored when they have a variety of toys on hand.

4. Remember that food is also a form of enrichment.

 I HIGHLY recommend that the majority of your rat's diet be made up of something called "lab block," which looks like kibbled dog food and has the correct balance of nutrients for rats.

You could hide or scatter their dry rat food, so it takes the rat a while to find it. This encourages foraging and rats like to play "find the food".

The same goes for small amounts of treats or snacks. You can hide a piece of carrot under the bedding in a corner of the cage.

5. Cage Location

Keep in mind that naturally rats go out of their burrows to explore, while they should be kept safe in the cage while you aren’t around, they can see out of the cage. So, don't put it in a dull corner of the room.

You might want to put their cage somewhere like the TV room, since they like to know where you are and what you're doing. This can really make them part of the family. Wherever you decide to keep their cage ensure it is away from direct sunlight and draughts. 

6. Pea Fishing

This is especially great when the weather is warm, add water to a shallow container (could be just about anything) and some frozen peas (mixed vegetables also work) then add rats. Very entertaining for you to watch, keeps them interested because they can 'fish' for their treats and assists in cooling when it is hot.

7. Digging

Pick up a deep storage bin, at least 60 litres and some coco-coir. Make sure it is plain coir and doesn't include any fertiliser. Rehydrate the coir in the storage bin and let your rats dig and tunnel. You will need a Clean Up Crew (CUC) to keep the coir clean, springtails and isopods are both good options. There is some great information here on bioactive which you can either incorporate into the main cage, or the play area: https://azulinerattery.wordpress.com/an-introduction-to-creating-a-bioactive-rat-cage/