HELP!! Substitute needed URGENTY!!!

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Wild_Storm

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Grrrr.... Living in Far Northern Queensland. I can't get Rat & Mouse Pellets for at least 2 weeks. What else can I use for feeding the Rats?? Pig Pellets?? Chicken Pellets?? More Dog food to substitute?? ANY help is VERY appreciated!! Thank you VERY much.
 
Rats will eat almost anything, veggie scraps, meat scraps.... you name it.......... they eat it....... fruit, veg, meat, breads grains, meats................... most of whatever you can put in front of them!!!!!!!!! You'll find they actually enjoy it!!!! In really hot weather, to counteract the heat, I'd give mine a few frozen peas or corn in their dish or water....... tehy thougth it was christmas!!!!!

Even the large Bird seed cakes that are put out for wild birds!!!!!
 
Rats will eat almost anything, veggie scraps, meat scraps.... you name it.......... they eat it....... fruit, veg, meat, breads grains, meats................... most of whatever you can put in front of them!!!!!!!!! You'll find they actually enjoy it!!!! In really hot weather, to counteract the heat, I'd give mine a few frozen peas or corn in their dish or water....... tehy thougth it was christmas!!!!!

Even the large Bird seed cakes that are put out for wild birds!!!!!



Can I ask do you cook the meat???? The reason I ask is that after I gave my rats some cooked Chop bones, the next time some of them had a litter, they ate their babies!!! ALL OF THEM!?!?!?!?!?! :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :cry: :cry:
 
i have used sheep and cattle pellets to good effect when in a tight spot

go to your local grain store or animal feed store they should have it in 10kg bags and should cost you around $10-$15
 
separated other females and males from mum and babies...................... others caused the problem!!!!!
 
i have used sheep and cattle pellets to good effect when in a tight spot

go to your local grain store or animal feed store they should have it in 10kg bags and should cost you around $10-$15


Thanks for the heads up!! Can I hassle you more to know... Do those Pellets have Rumensen (spelling??) in them? Is it toxic to Rats?
 
See if you can get your hands on Biomare horse pellets, seems to be pretty common most people have no trouble finding it. Comes in a big 20kg bag for about $26.
 
separated other females and males from mum and babies...................... others caused the problem!!!!!


I bought these 2 females together. Apparently they have always been together. One had a litter before, but I don't know which one. They were off with one other rat, and he was just a big baby. I don't know what happened, but they will get one more chance and then they will be part of our food chain... My BHP will be big enough to eat them then!!!
 
Thanks Vixen, I will try that tomorrow when I have to go back into town. I can't believe that with Ridley's being only 30 kms from me (about 10km from the store) that I can't get Barrastock!!! Apparently it must come from Southern Qld!!
 
I used to give mine the beneful chicken dog biscuits when i couldnt get anything else, it never lasted long, i guess it tasted good. Ive been told that feeding them meat based products makes them eat their babies, i never looked into it, just got them chicken incase.
 
I wouldnt ever give them meat (fresh as in non-dog biscuit meat) for the whole carnivore taste of blood, eating their babies thing! Not something I want to risk.

I give mine a mix of Large parrot seeds (which has the usual bird seeds & grains in it minus the gritt, and also has whole corn in it which they love - I also add more corn and 2 different kinds of sunflower seeds in it as well), Lucerne, those sticky rolled barley flake things, and dog biscuits and occasionally I mix in some chook pellets, but they like the dog biscuits better.

The seed & grain mixes, I mix myself at the local animal produce store thingo, they just charge me like $9 for 7kg bag, dont know if thats good, but I dont mind paying that, when I get home I add the dog and chook food and mix it all together and I also give them food scraps on top of that aswell and its more interesting and tasty for them lol - even though they are going to eventually be food (except for my breeding stock, which is the main reason really, that and I dont think chook pellets are a substantial enough of a food source for them to live off)...The mix I give them even looks slightly tempting to me LOL! Yes, they may be classed as spoilt, but atleast it increases their life quality before they die lol Haha the dude at the produce store always says, "Man you must really love those rats, coz you definately spoil them with the mix you give them!" even though I have both rats and mice *minor detail though really :lol:*

When I run out of my special mix, I just give them dog biscuits and food scraps. Oh and the dog biscuits are either chicken, rice & veg, or beef, rice & veg flavoured, not sure if the beef one makes them eat their babies, but yeh, coz I just grab whatever the dogs have at the time lol

Btw, for all the grammar nerds, sorry its bad, my keyboards are stuffed (on one, half the keys dont work anymore mainly the grammatical keys and really only one letter key, which im glad for! and the other, all the keys are mixed up - all due to a mate spilling a whole glass of cocktail on them by accident) and I cant always be stuffed to swap them to get the right grammatical characters etc I find it effort enough to change it for that one missing letter, let alone all the grammatical characters as well! Bahaha really dont know why I felt I had to disclose all that:rolleyes:, but yeh, oh well LOL!:lol:
 
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Goat pellets are fine too. Rats are omnivores and will eat practically anything. I don't think feeding them meat makes them cannibals either. More likely stress, either overcrowding, temperature etc will cause cannibalism. Also if the mother has any sort of birthing problem, they will often kill the babies. That said, primarily vegetarian diet is cheaper anyway but they need a bit of protein too. I was giving ours dog biscuits as well as all the table scraps and pellets.
 
i feed my rats meat based dry dog food as well as alittle canned dog food (pal) and dont have any problems with them eating their young. isnt chicken meat? its only white meat. it still has blood like red meat
 
i feed my rats a mixture of homebrand pasta oats and bran as a more filling mix in cooler months, warmer months i use fruit , vege scraps sunflower and dry dogfood now and then. and now chicken pellets or work horse mix
 
My thoughts exacty FC,Chicken is just as much meat as beef is! They are both the flesh of another animal and hence meat, just one is red and one is white.... Dont know how chicken can be classed as anything BUT meat! LOL! Hmmm.... Maybe its like those "vegetarians" that only eat fish and white meat :rolleyes:.....Sorry to break it to them, but its STILL MEAT PEOPLE!

Phew, glad I got that out of my system, feel much better now! :lol:
 
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