# Young rat food by Oxbow



## CleverRat (Mar 9, 2014)

So I was looking at the mice and young rat food by oxbow because I was thinking about feeding it to my rats when I get them. I was looking at the ingredients and now I don't think I will. Here are all the ingredients:

IngredientsGround Corn, Soybean Meal, Wheat Middlings, Soybean Hulls, Dried Whey, Cane Molasses, Soybean Oil, Sunflower Meal, Alfalfa Meal, Limestone, Flax Seed, Sodium Bentonite, Menhaden Fish Meal, Lignin Sulfonate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Natural Flavor, DL-Methionine, Salt, Magnesium Oxide, Choline Chloride, Yeast Culture, Hydrolyzed Yeast, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Ferrous Sulfate, Mixed Tocopherols, Vitamin E Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Monophosphate (Vitamin C), Zinc Oxide, Manganous Oxide, Niacin, Copper Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Biotin, Vitamin A Supplement, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Vitamin K), Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Calcium Iodate, Cobalt Carbonate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Rosemary Extract


As you can see, ground corn is the first ingredient and cane molasses is the 6th. Is this somehow okay for young rats? I was thinking of feeding normal oxbow and supplementing protein. Would this be okay?


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

How old are your rats?

Normal oxbow is better anyway. Young rats tend not to want to eat the young rat formula, and there are complaints that it makes the babes smelly.


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## CleverRat (Mar 9, 2014)

I am actually not getting rats until mid-July (I know I'm rushing into things, but I want to be prepared  ) But when I get them they will be 5 or 6 weeks.


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## Hey-Fay (Jul 8, 2013)

My feeder babies are on mouse and young rat food and they love it, probably because they were on a seed mix before i got them. I pair it with some of CagedBirdSinging's dry mix and a nightly salad. They get a bit of protein from a scrambled egg or liver bits every now and then but honestly I don't see anything too wrong with it. All my babies ate it till they graduated to adult oxbow.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Well, they'll only need additional protein for a bit. I would just go for the Oxbow adult. Lower protein levels are better (but not terribly low). I'd say 16% protein is best through 6mo as max, then 14%.


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## CleverRat (Mar 9, 2014)

Thanks! That's very helpful


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## LeStan82 (Dec 31, 2013)

My boys would not eat the young oxbow, they didnt like it, but they love the adult oxbow.


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## Leraine (Feb 21, 2014)

I would check out this resource: http://www.ratfanclub.org/diet.html written by a woman who has owned rats for many decades and has a background in animal nutrition and health care. She's also published quite a few books about rats. (Info about her can be found here: http://www.ratfanclub.org/ratlady.html)

She even has her own homemade, complete diet (but I will attest that it does require some work, and has a greater upfront cost) that includes blackstrap molasses. Molasses is a very high in calcium, iron, and magnesium, along with other nutrients such as manganese, potassium, vitamin B6, and selenium. There are different levels of molasses in terms of processing, and the molasses she puts in her mix is not very sweet, and is included to meet the nutritional requirements of rats.

She also mentions that she does not think Adult Oxbow should be fed to growing rats. She writes:
"When buying a commercial diet for your rats, I recommend one that has at least 18% protein for growing rats, and I don’t think 23% protein is too much for growing rats. Female rats tend to reach most of their physical growth at 6 months, but probably are not completely physically mature until 8 months of age, and male rats reach most of their adult growth at 8 months, but probably do not reach full physical maturity until one year of age. 
Please note that Oxbow has two different rat formulas, one for adult rats and one for mice and young rats. Unless they’ve changed it, the label on the adult formula says it’s okay to give it to rats over 4 months of age, but I do not agree. 
I think the Oxbow adult formula should not be given to rats who are still growing. (Females stop growing about 6-8 months, and males 8-10 months.) And I personally would not give unspayed females the Oxbow adult diet, because a diet higher in soybean meal helps to prevent mammary tumors. The Mouse & Young Rat formula is definitely higher in soybean meal than the adult formula, however, the first ingredient is corn, so it may not be as good as a brand that has soybean meal as the first ingredient, such as Mazuri rat blocks."

My rat enjoys both Oxbow and her Molasses Mix, but if offered side by side, she prefers the molasses mix. (I've tasted her mix and it is pretty good!). But Oxbow is much more convenient and cheaper in the short run (but possibly not in the long run).


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