# The infamous food debate.



## Tesumph (Aug 12, 2014)

I know there have been a lot of topics about this lately, so I'm sorry for adding another. I'm just reaallly confused. Up until just recently, I thought that virtually every rat owner considered harlan teklad to be the best of the best. Now I'm hearing/reading multiple people say it's not that good-- apparently oxbow is where it's at. Can someone explain why? It's not the protein: I feed harlan at 14%, sometimes 16%, and I'm pretty sure oxbow is 15%. My rats absolutely love harlan, and go nuts when I feed them. I'm just finishing up my last bag though, so it's time to spend an outrageous amount of money on food for another few months. I have a few questions. First, which is actually, really better and WHY? Biased opinions aside. Second, would rats go through Harlan or oxbow faster, or about the same pace? I buy 5lb of Harlan for $10-12, and I've found 20lb of oxbow for about $40. Either way it's a huge blow to my savings (high schooler with no job, ho ho), but I'm just wondering which lasts longer. How long do you think a 20lb bag of oxbow would last 5 rats? Thanks in advance, please share any insight to help me make up my mind, as I probably need to order something today.


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## Lita (Jul 10, 2014)

I think idealy its suppose to be 1lb per rat per month? So 4 months? From what I've seen people say both are great options it just depends on what you can get. I've seen a lot that the Harlan is best if you can get it but for most Oxbow is easier to get. Honestly I'm not even sure where you get Harlan, do they sell it in stores? Or online only? If your on a fixed or limited income I would look up how to buy each, compare sites and shipping charges, and order whatever is cheaper per month. I did this for hay for our hay eating animals and have switched suppliers three times depending on who is cheaper. Since Oxbow as a company is trusted in ways few small animal supply companies are they are a good choice in my book.


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## Tesumph (Aug 12, 2014)

I figured it'd be about 1lb per month. I buy harlan on eBay, there are some very good sellers. It's usually 5lb bags of a protein of your choosing for $11 or so. I've looked all over for the best prices, and they're roughy the same for both Harlan and oxbow. If harlan is just as good as oxbow or better, I have no problem with continuing to feed it. But if someone can explain to me why harlan isn't ideal and oxbow is supposedly amazing, I'll gladly switch. I'm just a bit on the fence with what's better for the rats. Seeing as though prices are the same and either way I'm ordering online, I just gotta figure out which is healthier.


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## inod3 (Jun 13, 2014)

Oxbow is viewed better by those who view it better because of the ingredients. For example, there's no corn in Oxbow Regal Rat, so if you believe corn is bad Oxbow is better. It basically comes down to whether ingredients like Whole Brown Rice, Oat Groats, Wheat Bran, Wheat are better than ingredients like Wheat middlings, ground
wheat, ground corn, corn gluten meal. 

There is also the advantage that Oxbow Regal Rat is found at local Petsmart and maybe other pet stores (expensive 3 pound bags though) while you have to order indirectly usually over the internet to get Harlan Teklad.

I currently feed the Oxbow, but consider the two foods comparable. I offered both to the current rats and they had a slight preference for the Oxbow. If you want higher protein than the 15% however I like Harlan Teklad better. Oxbow's Mouse & Young Rat block doesn't impress me.


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## Hedgian (Aug 18, 2014)

I've never heard of harlan. I've always heard oxbow was the best. My rats all love the regal rat premium oxbow food.


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## gotchea (May 4, 2013)

I mix all the top 3 together and my rats eat it all. Oxbow, Harlan and mazui. It's just what I have always done. I wouldn't want to eat the same food all the time. Not sure if it is good or bad to do it my way.


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## Vegn (Jan 2, 2014)

It's not just about protein and fat percentages. It's about the quality of those percentages. Harlan is mostly wheat and corn. Fatty, low quality filler. Oxbow uses mostly brown rice and soybean.


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## Tesumph (Aug 12, 2014)

So, basically, we're comparing good, adequate ingredients to really good, wholesome ingredients? You'd think for how difficult it is to get harlan teklad, the ingredients would be gourmet. But, I suppose it is produced with the intention of mass feeding lab rats, so it makes sense that it would have slightly cheaper ingredients. I'll order oxbow and pray they like it, because they're gonna be eating it for 4 months lol. Thanks all, maybe now I won't be cleaning up lab block crumbs all day.


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## Vegn (Jan 2, 2014)

Exactly. Companies don't care about the animals, it's more about results. They need a supply of food that is not going to change or change much batch to batch. For the most part they don't care about longevity, animals are almost always killed at the end of the study so why would they need the rats to live longer? Not to say that Harlan will kill your rat but I don't think they focus as much on high quality ingredients. Give Oxbow as a treat first. My rats get treats though the cage bars so I gave them Oxbow like a treat first and then gave it to them. They took to it fairly easily. I think it depends on what their last food was also, if they think it's tastier than their last food, they'll gobble it up but if they are used to something sweet and sugary, you might have more trouble switching them over.


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## Pandorascaisse (Mar 12, 2014)

I also like that Oxbow has an animal protein source in it... and not just a bunch of plant protein sources like Harlan's formulas. Again, like Tesumph said. With how hard Harlan is to get and the fact that it's "scientifically proven", I feel like many people are "assured" by this. But the thing is that lab rats need to be of _average_ health for studies and no more. 

Because, think about it. If they had a bunch of super-healthy rats from the get-go... they couldn't study many diseases on them, could they?


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## Blackthorn (May 14, 2007)

There are advantages and disadvantages for both.

Harlan:

Very economical, highly palatable, batches have to be consistent and carefully quality controlled due to its use for lab animals. Corn is a "bad" ingredient in dog and cat food, but for rats it's highly debatable. It has been developed by researchers to be exactly what rats need and has the proof behind it, researchers can't have variables due to food/nutrition affecting their results, billions of dollars can be at stake. The animals have to be as healthy as possible as baseline. Harlan 2014 does not contain soy, some feel that soy is a bad ingredient, particularly GMO soy. Does not contain animal proteins which appeals to some folks. I have noticed my rats' coats seem to look better on Harlan than Oxbow.

Oxbow: Extremely expensive if you have more than a few rats. The ingredients are considered to be higher quality than Harlan, but it is not perfect. There is not nearly as much scientific basis for the diet as being complete/balanced/nutritionally appropriate for rats. Fish meal is preserved with ethoxyquin by law for use in pet food and it is a dangerous preservative. Contains soy, which is debatable as far as health for rats. No corn, which appeals to some folks. Protein levels are too low for young rats (though they have that young rat formula now) but lower than the most commonly available type of Harlan, 2018. It used to be heavily disliked by most rats, but Oxbow reformulated it and now it is highly palatable.

The debate rages back and forth on various forums. I personally feel both foods are valid options and a good cut above other diets. I feed Harlan because I could not afford to feed Oxbow with the numbers of rats that come through rescue, and I'm not sold it's THAT much better to justify the huge cost increase it would be to switch. I'd prefer it didn't have fish meal as an ingredient, but Oxbow is an excellent food for the average pet owner and more easy to obtain, which is nice.


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## Pandorascaisse (Mar 12, 2014)

I have to ask... how cheap is Harlan? I've never seen it anywhere, ever. And you can get oxbow for like under $2/pound at 20 pounds at a time. 

I've never even seen harlan offered anywhere near me in the US. I've heard you have to buy it from laboratories at like $1,000 a batch and then they have to sell it off from smaller units from there o_o I don't know how true that is, but that's super difficult.


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## Blackthorn (May 14, 2007)

Depends where you get it, and how much you get at a time. It is not much different than Oxbow price wise to get it in very small quantities, particularly the more specialized formulas. However, when you're talking 200 pounds at a time like I order... well, I can get 200 pounds of Harlan for about the price of 40 pounds of Oxbow. Big difference.

A few places to get Harlan:

Mainely Rat Rescue
Wee Companions
TheCraftyrat.com
TheRatshop.com
Pet360.com
Petfooddirect.com
Amazon
Ebay


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## Tesumph (Aug 12, 2014)

Hmm. Well, too late now, I just ordered 20lb. I suppose I'll be spending the next fourish months comparing my rat's coats to before I switched, as well as how much they like it, eating behaviors, etc.. Which is just fine. I buy 5lb bags of harlan, which in the long run is slightly more expensive than 20lb of oxbow. But buying harlan in bulk would definitely be cheaper. Anyways, if I prefer harlan after 4 months, I'll switch again. Maybe with the smaller oxbow pieces the babes will stop fighting and "playing" tug of war with the blocks.


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## Pandorascaisse (Mar 12, 2014)

I'd love to know what happens, Tesumph! It might help make a switch over here too.


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## Blackthorn (May 14, 2007)

Well, let us know how it works for you!  Oxbow is an excellent food, it's not perfect, but if I only had a few rats I probably would feed it over Harlan. I like Oxbow as a company in general, so it's nice to support them, too.


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## inod3 (Jun 13, 2014)

Blackthorn said:


> well, I can get 200 pounds of Harlan for about the price of 40 pounds of Oxbow. Big difference.


That is a great price. Works out to about 37 cents a pound?


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## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

http://www.petfooddirect.com/native-earth-18-protein-4018-rodent-diet-40-lbs-9093

That is Harlan 2018. $20 for a 40lb bag (plus shipping). Still worked out to less than a dollar a pound, for me.


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## Vegn (Jan 2, 2014)

I get 100% why rescues or people with a lot of rats need to use something like Harlan because you can get large amounts for not much but anything less than about 10 rats, I would use Oxbow. Oxbow works out to about $2 per rat, per month if you get the big bag. $4-5 per rat in the small bag.


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## LilCritter (Feb 25, 2014)

For me, HT is easier even though I have to drive out of my way to get it. Oxbow comes in 3lbs or 20lbs. I have 3 rats and for $15/3lbs, it's not really worth. Whereas I can get HT for $1/lbs. To be honest, that made the difference for me. Maybe I'll go for the 20lbs sometime, but as of now, I don't really have space to store that much food for 3 little ones.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

I've got to say i wouldnt use either of them lol. I dont think that either one meets a rats full lifetime nutritional needs because at the end of the day a rat doesnt have static identical requirements through its whole life. A pregnant mum, a young growing rat or a nursing mum have requirements of some things in the region of 10 x as much as an adult. Old rats live longer healthier lives when you drop the amount of certain nutrients like protien and phospherous, rats with heart conditions need higher wholegrain and lower salt diets to do well, and so on.

Each rat is different too, they require slightly different amounts of different things, some do well on one level of protien, others need a bit more copper, some need more oil and so on. For lab rats at least who are bred to be highly genetically similar this isnt as much of an issue, but for our pet rats who either come from a situation where they have a moderate level of inbreeding at most (most breeders who inbreed dont do it nearly as heavily as lab strains) and in most situations are a really genetically diverse, bred together either accidentally or based on very little. This means our rats needs vary enourmously. A good example of this is a rat i had called Astreaus. He was from breeder lines i knew well and owned a number of rats from, at around 2 months old her started to rust, this is very early for him to be rusty. KNowing copper deficiency was one of the factors linked with rusting i upped his copper levels and his rusting vanished. I'd had many rats related to him and none of them needed as high levels as copper to be in good condition, it turned out his whole litter had this higher than normal copper requirement but were fine once you'd spotted it.

Thats ignoring the interest factor which is a mjor issue for me with lab block style foods. 

It also annoys me that neither food is perfect. Oxbow has better ingredients generally but has GMO soya in it, which whilst i dont think is as bad as the propaganda, i'd still rather have a choice. Harlan is mostly wheat, this is pretty high in phospherous which makes it not good for older rats, especially boys (who are prone to kidney degeneration), plus i dont like the overal quality of the ingredients, whole names things are generally better. Yet they are by far the best lab block diets out there and have reasonably good nutritional levels for the average rat.

Personally i think the best way to feed is a home made mix that is adjusted to the rat/group with an understanding of reading a rats condition. To be fair this takes some experience and practice, as well as a bit of research, but i do think if you develop a mix along the lines of a shunamite mix (perhaps with a few coverall suppliments), and know rats well enough to know when they are "right", then you can learn how to do this fairly easily. It might take several years to really get it right (its part art part science), and it is harder when you have larger groups but when you do it reall is the best way to feed. 

I will add that it is harder in the US as you dont seem to have good quality base mixtures like harrisons bannana brunch that we've got over here, but im sure with the right researhc and looking into other animal feeds it would be possible to make a cheap affordable mix. Theres also Cagedbirdsingings mixes which she makes up out of human quality ingredeints which could help.


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## inod3 (Jun 13, 2014)

Isamurat said:


> I've got to say i wouldnt use either of them lol. I dont think that either one meets a rats full lifetime nutritional needs because at the end of the day a rat doesnt have static identical requirements through its whole life. A pregnant mum, a young growing rat or a nursing mum have requirements of some things in the region of 10 x as much as an adult. Old rats live longer healthier lives when you drop the amount of certain nutrients like protien and phospherous, rats with heart conditions need higher wholegrain and lower salt diets to do well, and so on.


Well they pretty much all have a young rat formula of some kind. Harlan Teklad has something like 20+ rat diets, though there's only a half dozen or so that are regularly carried by rescues and such that sell it if you don't want to purchase the $1,000 minimum order to buy from them direct. There are options for pregnant moms and such - but obviously a block will never be as flexible as a home made mix.



> Each rat is different too, they require slightly different amounts of different things, some do well on one level of protien, others need a bit more copper, some need more oil and so on. For lab rats at least who are bred to be highly genetically similar this isnt as much of an issue, but for our pet rats who either come from a situation where they have a moderate level of inbreeding at most (most breeders who inbreed dont do it nearly as heavily as lab strains) and in most situations are a really genetically diverse, bred together either accidentally or based on very little. This means our rats needs vary enourmously.


Yes, which is what I see as a limiting factor to customized diets to some degree. If you have more than one rat and they have different needs it's near impossible to feed the rats different food short of individualized feedings with the other rats removed.



> A good example of this is a rat i had called Astreaus. He was from breeder lines i knew well and owned a number of rats from, at around 2 months old her started to rust, this is very early for him to be rusty. KNowing copper deficiency was one of the factors linked with rusting i upped his copper levels and his rusting vanished. I'd had many rats related to him and none of them needed as high levels as copper to be in good condition, it turned out his whole litter had this higher than normal copper requirement but were fine once you'd spotted it.





> Thats ignoring the interest factor which is a mjor issue for me with lab block style foods.


I think this is probably the best argument in favor of a mix, at least for me. A lot of people can't imagine eating the same food all day every day and don't want to subject their pets to that. (Oddly, I've observed this view with regards to rodents, birds, etc... by people who do exactly this for their cats and dogs though which I don't understand.)



> It also annoys me that neither food is perfect. Oxbow has better ingredients generally but has GMO soya in it, which whilst i dont think is as bad as the propaganda, i'd still rather have a choice. Harlan is mostly wheat, this is pretty high in phospherous which makes it not good for older rats, especially boys (who are prone to kidney degeneration), plus i dont like the overal quality of the ingredients, whole names things are generally better. Yet they are by far the best lab block diets out there and have reasonably good nutritional levels for the average rat.





> Personally i think the best way to feed is a home made mix that is adjusted to the rat/group with an understanding of reading a rats condition. To be fair this takes some experience and practice, as well as a bit of research, but i do think if you develop a mix along the lines of a shunamite mix (perhaps with a few coverall suppliments), and know rats well enough to know when they are "right", then you can learn how to do this fairly easily. It might take several years to really get it right (its part art part science), and it is harder when you have larger groups but when you do it reall is the best way to feed.


I would disagree here. I'm not saying it's impossible to read a rats condition to understand what nutrition is deficient or in excess but I don't think "you can learn how to do this fairly easily." I've got no idea what a phosphorus shortage looks like in rats or what an excess looks like. I've got no idea if there are nutrition issues that will only become apparent post-portem. I suppose that's the problem - I've got no idea. In fairness, you could be right about it being easy, I just am skeptical.

My history with rats goes back to 2006, but I've always fed blocks. If I had experimented with home made mixes and seen different kinds of malnutrition in my rats I would then maybe have the experience to recognize a nutrition issue vs. a health issue and maybe some of the likely causes for that issue. It seems like you'd have to have some trial and error. Someone who has pet rats for the first time wouldn't really know what nutrition issue is associated with what health issue. In fact, they probably wouldn't even recognize many health issues - they'd assume that's just the way rats are, since that's the way their rats are.

So for myself I wouldn't really trust myself on the nutrition. I could pick one of the existing recipes for a home made diet - but if I'm not going to vary it for the individualized rats needs the ability to do so isn't something I'd benefit from.



> I will add that it is harder in the US as you dont seem to have good quality base mixtures like harrisons bannana brunch that we've got over here, but im sure with the right researhc and looking into other animal feeds it would be possible to make a cheap affordable mix. Theres also Cagedbirdsingings mixes which she makes up out of human quality ingredeints which could help.


I think even with Harrison's Banana Brunch available I'd still choose the blocks. I see advantages and disadvantages both ways and don't see either choice as right or wrong for everyone. I worry that if I had a mix selective eating would be an issue, and while you can force a group of rats to eat everything in the bowl by not filling it you can't really force the rats in a group to all eat the ingredients equally. Rat one could consume all of ingredient #1 while rat #2 eats the rest. Without the confidence to modify the mix for individualized rat needs both types of diet would be targeted at average rats (whatever the nutritionists at the company producing the block feels is right, vs. whatever the person who made the recipe for the homemade mix feels is right.) And yeah, there's a simplicity to buying a bag of rat food vs. a bunch of ingredients and mixing it, and a low cost per pound of food on blocks.


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## CCoyle (Oct 1, 2014)

Interesting thread! I might be bringing home 2 young rats in the next few weeks and I'm curious what everyone's opinions are on the best food for them. It's probably going to be either Harlan or Oxbow, I believe they both have formulas for growing rats.


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## Tesumph (Aug 12, 2014)

I understand and respect those who feed homemade diets, but personally I just don't have the time to invest into that. I would likely end up doing more harm through trial and error than I am just feeding a premade diet. And though I have a little history with rats and animal diets and general, I just don't know where to start. That being said, the oxbow arrived today, just as I was on my last serving of harlan. In the past I've scatter fed, but I found they would squabble and fight while furiously stashing the blocks, then fight some more over eachothers stashes. So I'm attempting the "constant full bowl" method. I put the remaining harlan and oxbow in two bowls and let them have at it. At first they all grabbed the oxbow and started eating it, but when they noticed the harlan, war broke out. I tried my hardest to stop them from stashing it, but eventually gave up. In conclusion, they seemed to prefer harlan over oxbow, but definitely didn't dislike oxbow either. The Harlan was quickly stashed and protected, but they didn't try very hard to stash oxbow. I noticed it was harder for them to shove the smaller oxbow pieces into their mouth than it was to just grab a big harlan block and run. Since this was the last bit of harlan, I'll be interested to see how they react to just having oxbow in their bowls.


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## Blackthorn (May 14, 2007)

A homemade diet can be an option if done right, but the vast majority of people aren't able to do it right for various reasons. I found when I was suggesting a homemade diet as an option to people, many people were just throwing together a completely unhealthy mix full of sugary cereals (Froot loops for example), sugared/sulphured dried fruit, chex mix, low quality dog food like Beneful and Kibbles 'n Bits, and other low-quality crap and calling it good. :\ Many "modified" Suebee's diet (which I don't like much anyway as more than a treat) til it was utterly unrecognizable. Most rats that are surrendered to me who are fed "homemade" mixes basically means "whatever is cheap and around the house." I stopped suggesting it as an option because at least blocks are fairly idiot proof. I also don't think anyone feeds solely blocks, my kiddos get lots of fresh produce and other healthy supplements.


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## inod3 (Jun 13, 2014)

Blackthorn said:


> A homemade diet can be an option if done right, but the vast majority of people aren't able to do it right for various reasons. I found when I was suggesting a homemade diet as an option to people, many people were just throwing together a completely unhealthy mix full of sugary cereals (Froot loops for example), sugared/sulphured dried fruit, chex mix, low quality dog food like Beneful and Kibbles 'n Bits, and other low-quality crap and calling it good. :\ Many "modified" Suebee's diet (which I don't like much anyway as more than a treat) til it was utterly unrecognizable. Most rats that are surrendered to me who are fed "homemade" mixes basically means "whatever is cheap and around the house." I stopped suggesting it as an option because at least blocks are fairly idiot proof. I also don't think anyone feeds solely blocks, my kiddos get lots of fresh produce and other healthy supplements.


Yes, when people just mix whatever they have it does not work. It'd be a bit like someone who's never cooked trying to bake a cake by dumping whatever they think sounds good in a mixing bowl - the odds are not in their favor.


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## Tesumph (Aug 12, 2014)

Scratch the full bowl method. I came upstairs after a few hours to find that all of the food (a good 2-3 cups) had been piled into various houses and cubes. It's not that I want to discourage stashing, but the idea of them sleeping on their food, peeing on it, not being able to tell how much they have left... Ehhh. So, after a bit of math I worked out that the five of them should need 75g of food a day. I'll raise and lower the serving size as needed, but I think that's a good starting point. As for homemade mixes, I'm already struggling to find time to free range my guys whilst juggling "advanced" (eyeroll) high school classes, petsitting jobs, cliche white girl drama, and the fact that my body has decided it needs around 11 hours of sleep(?). I just can't spend hours working out the various levels of potassium or iron or whatever that my rats need. If I can buy a 20lb bag of a trusted rodent diet and throw in some leftover salad for them... Well, that's what I'm gonna do. For those who have the time and initiative, good on you, I'm jealous. On a side note, I tasted both harlan and oxbow for some reason. Harlan definitely has more flavor. The things I do for my animals...


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

i don't work out the exact amount of phosphorus or anything else though i did for a while and found it was actualy not doing my rats that much good. A bit like you wouldn't work it out for yourself for every meal. i feed a good balanced mix based on good guidelines. i understand what it's Weaknesses are and use fresh foods abs the odd vitamin suppliment to cover those. i think people get carried away with meeting the exact nutritional needs every day. Instead you should aim to meet the rats requirements over a few days, even a couple of weeks. 

i will say though i don't rate feeding rats anything in the cupboard, much like people shouldn't easy purely junk food. 

i think a level of home made mix is doable even for relatively new owners. i would start with a good quality complete food mixed 50 50 with a home made mix along the Shunamite lines with a bit of advice on the ingredients. You could even use a lab block. Best of both worlds. 

By the way Tesumph, you do know that rats easy there own feaces on occasions and use urine to identify food as safe for other rats to eat. Saying that i am very in favour of not feeding adlib, but i scatter feed so all there food is on the floor hidden around the cage.


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## fluffy470 (Feb 24, 2012)

Tesumph said:


> On a side note, I tasted both harlan and oxbow for some reason. Harlan definitely has more flavor. The things I do for my animals...


I found this way more amusing than I should have. 

After reading through the full thread though I'd like to put in my two cents. Over the course of my rat ownership I've fed 4 different diets. Harland Teklad, The SueBee Diet, My own mix, and Oxbow mouse and young rat. I fed the Harland Teklad for a long time untill I discovered the world of homemade diets and switched over to the Sue Bee diet which I still regret doing as they never ate the Total cereal and just picked out all the Cheerios and Rice Krispies. I saw no change physically in my rats between the two diets but they did enjoy the Sue Bee diet 2x more. So I did some research and ended up feeding a mostly seed and nut diet with flax, pumpkin seeds, cashews, walnuts, sunflower seeds, and a few other things along with fruit and veg and I found their coats to be way softer, the boys were much more active, and they went nuts over their food and actually ate everything in the bowl. I have to say I would like to go back to that diet at some point it's just very time consuming. I cycled between those three diets with my last three rats who have all passed away and now that I have babies, I wasn't sure if my homemade diet was nutritionally adequate for them so I started feeding oxbows mouse and young rat which they seem to enjoy. That gets supplemented with fruit and veg and 3 times a week they get small animal Missing Link and Chia seeds mixed into baby food which they eat within a matter of minuets. Their coats have noticeably improved since I've began supplementing it. I would like to say that it is way more expensive for me to feed Oxbow to my 3 rats than it ever was to feed my homemade diet. So whether or not you feed a homemade diet verses lab blocks really for me comes down to time or money, which am I willing to spend more of. The answer right now since I'm still in Highschool as well is money.


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## Tesumph (Aug 12, 2014)

Yea, I am aware of them marking their food. That's not what I meant. In the past, when I've given them more than they would eat in a day, they've stashed it in piles in their litter box, cubes, under fleece, etc.. That'd normally be fine, but they developed the habit of forgetting about it, not taking it out of the litter box, or finding it a week later but deciding it's too yucky to eat. As for eating their poop, my mom was in my room yesterday when Cave decided to munch on a little raisin that must've been extra nutritional. I pointed it out to my mother and explained why they do that, but she just stared at me and left without saying anything. It was pretty entertaining. Anyway, the 75g of food is working well. Bigby is showing an unusual amount of food aggression, to the point of puffing his fur and side stepping when someone gets close. Perhaps he really does like oxbow more. And yes, I do taste my animals food. Heck, if I'm scared of their food making me sick, why would I give it to them? With the exception of raw meat/sardines for the dogs, of course.


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