Fun Food For Your Ratties
Variety is as good for rats as it is for humans. A varied diet makes life interesting and exciting, and happiness contributes to health. In general, besides a nutritious basic rat food, put a spoonful of everything you eat into their dish. Look for opportunities to score interesting, exotic foods for them that you DON'T cook at home: Tell Le Garcon you'll need a ratty bag for the paella. Slip some sushi into your pocket. Get into the habit of bringing Tupperware to cocktail parties and formals.
Remember: about introducing new foods, especially to babies -- since rats eat everything, the way rat children learn what's safe is by paying attention to what mom and the rest of the colony are eating. To introduce new food, nibble on the food yourself, then hand the rat the piece of nibbled food and blow on them a little so they can smell it on your breath.
Here are six of my favorite fun foods to give the rats. Some are perfectly fine to feed every day.
1) Pasta: why do they love cooked spaghetti so much? Maybe they're fantasizing that THEY are eating the SNAKE. Jess introduced me to putting hard uncooked macaroni regularly in their food dish but I gotta tell you: if you give it to them just before you go to bed, it'll sound like they're cracking lobsters all night...
2) Egg. Don't feed too much protein but every now and then, throw a extra egg in the pan and split it among the rats. You can even feed hard boiled eggs with the shell on: they'll nibble on it a little and get some calcium.
3) Scraggy drumstick: Next time you roast a chicken, grab a drumstick, cut most of the meat off, break in half (you may have to saw it a little with a serrated knife) and give the scraggy bone to the rats. The next morning, it will be clean, and inexplainably...hollow!
4) Pistachio nuts: unsalted ones are preferred. It's fun to see which of your rats are really good at getting them open and which find it a little challenging.
5) Shellfish: just hand them each a shrimp and STAND BACK!
6) Corn on the cob: I like to cut it into inch long little cobs but you can put the whole ear in there if it's long enough so that they can all eat at it standing side by side. It's also fun to give it to them unshucked and let them tear it open to find the kernals but you have to be sure the corn hasn't been sprayed.
And todays specials are...
Remember: about introducing new foods, especially to babies -- since rats eat everything, the way rat children learn what's safe is by paying attention to what mom and the rest of the colony are eating. To introduce new food, nibble on the food yourself, then hand the rat the piece of nibbled food and blow on them a little so they can smell it on your breath.
Here are six of my favorite fun foods to give the rats. Some are perfectly fine to feed every day.
1) Pasta: why do they love cooked spaghetti so much? Maybe they're fantasizing that THEY are eating the SNAKE. Jess introduced me to putting hard uncooked macaroni regularly in their food dish but I gotta tell you: if you give it to them just before you go to bed, it'll sound like they're cracking lobsters all night...
2) Egg. Don't feed too much protein but every now and then, throw a extra egg in the pan and split it among the rats. You can even feed hard boiled eggs with the shell on: they'll nibble on it a little and get some calcium.
3) Scraggy drumstick: Next time you roast a chicken, grab a drumstick, cut most of the meat off, break in half (you may have to saw it a little with a serrated knife) and give the scraggy bone to the rats. The next morning, it will be clean, and inexplainably...hollow!
4) Pistachio nuts: unsalted ones are preferred. It's fun to see which of your rats are really good at getting them open and which find it a little challenging.
5) Shellfish: just hand them each a shrimp and STAND BACK!
6) Corn on the cob: I like to cut it into inch long little cobs but you can put the whole ear in there if it's long enough so that they can all eat at it standing side by side. It's also fun to give it to them unshucked and let them tear it open to find the kernals but you have to be sure the corn hasn't been sprayed.
And todays specials are...
posted by Lee at 7:55 AM
1 Comments:
Leigh Parker...Thanks for the Blog. I am doing research on calcium carbonate formula and found your posts about Fun Food For Your Ratties to be very helpful. Thanks again.
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