# Dog Treats and Rats



## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

I've heard people talk about giving dog treats to their rats, so long as they don't have rawhide. However, I'm not exactly sure what has rawhide and what doesn't.

I have pup-peroni treats, I think they are like bacon flavored or something. Is that safe? I just thought they might appreciate a little meat in their life -- I'm a vegetarian, so they sometimes get fake chicken nuggets but that's that.


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## Mitsy (Apr 8, 2013)

That's a good question I would like to know to. Like the kinds of dog treats that are safe. I have no idea either I have heard this from other aswell.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Hopefully someone knows. I'm not trying to give them a dog bone to chew, but treats would be fun. A single pup-peroni treat could probably feed this mischief of 13 I have.


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## Mitsy (Apr 8, 2013)

Probably haha and me to I would love to know sense we have three dogs and they don't eat a lot of treats one box is bones lasts more then a month so they wouldn't miss two or three of them haha


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

I can't come up with a dog treat off the top of my head that isn't SAFE to feed, but there really isn't a reason to feed them. Rats are generally much better off with human-food treats, like scraps from our plates.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

I use dog treats quite a lot. The nice quality ones are a good way of introducing nutrients into there diet. Currently I've got some natural liver treats to up the lads copper intake. This is always a bit low on a home made style mix and human stuff is rarely enriched. I use bones quite a lot to and old dog or puppy treats, I do also make my own to. Some of the dried fish skin treats of there are particularly good for youngsters. 

I'm interested to know why raw hide is apparently bad


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## Mitsy (Apr 8, 2013)

Isamurat said:


> I use dog treats quite a lot. The nice quality ones are a good way of introducing nutrients into there diet. Currently I've got some natural liver treats to up the lads copper intake. This is always a bit low on a home made style mix and human stuff is rarely enriched. I use bones quite a lot to and old dog or puppy treats, I do also make my own to. Some of the dried fish skin treats of there are particularly good for youngsters.
> 
> I'm interested to know why raw hide is apparently bad


I have purina beneful baked delights dog snacks their called quacks their crispy dog snack crackers with cheese and hickory smoke flavours.
The ingredients are enriched wheat flour ( wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononItrate, riboflavin supplement, folic acid) vegetable oil, dried cheddar cheese powder, salt,natural hickory smoke flavour, dried whey, sodium bicarbonate, active dry yeast, sugar, lecithin, yellow 5, yellow 6, BHA would these be a good dog treat for the rats? 


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## JBird (May 23, 2013)

If a treat is rawhide, it will be labelled as such. Rawhides are considered unsafe by many (including myself) due to the chemical processing that they go through to become a dog chew and the extreme difficulty many dogs have digesting them. When not eaten properly, a swallowed chunk of rawhide will not break down easily in a dog's stomach and can cause a severe impaction, leading to costly and dangerous surgery or death. I've heard from a few vets that it is a very common problem they see in their clinics. The crunchy pressed rawhide sticks (third photo) are easy to break up and usually never cause health problems in dogs. Still too large and risky for rats. 
Treats don't typically "contain" rawhide; they just are or are not rawhide. Here, I'll link to a few examples of the most common looking rawhide treats: 
http://www.petco.com/assets/product_images/8/800443065143C.jpg
http://www.traderscity.com/board/userpix28/22983-100-rawhide-dog-chews-1.jpg
http://www.arcatapet.com/fullsize/6085.jpg



As far as whether or not they are safe for rats, I would go by the same rule as you would any other food you'd give them. If it is too rich, or riddled with dyes, artificial preservatives, artificial flavorings, etc, I'd steer clear of it. I wouldn't give that garbage to my dog, let alone my rats! I give my rats little tastes of dog treats all the time, though. They really enjoy it! Particularly jerkies and other dried meat treats. The more natural, the better. I like the Lamb-rounds from Natural balance. They break up easy, are healthy, and the girls go nuts for them! They just get a taste of whatever my dog has, and usually enjoy it.


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## PaigeRose (Apr 12, 2013)

My store only sells higher quality foods and treats for dogs and cats so I've tried quite a few dog treats on my girls. I try to keep the protein low but I have tried freeze tried chicken and beef liver treats. But my girls liked the Nutro Crunchy treats, Three Dog Bakery's Roll-over Rewards, and Charlee Bears.

Yeah, rawhide is not good for dogs AT ALL.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Mitsy, that treat has salt very high up the ingredients list so is probably not great. 

Jbird, if breaking up is an issue with raw hide and dogs then it won't be an issue with rats, in the same way that chicken bones are fine for rats but not for dogs. Rats grind up hard foods like that and so they are not going to have peices like dogs. 

The processing and cheap quality of the raw product is another thing but I don't think it's especially harmful, probably less so than your bog standard yoggy which is full of fat and sugar


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## SherylM (Jun 18, 2013)

I usually give a small bit of Natural Balance dog food roll (lamb or turkey) for a treat each night. Just a small piece each and my boys love it, it is their favorite treat

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/pr...goryID=21&category=Premium+Food+Roll+Formulas


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## Mitsy (Apr 8, 2013)

Isamurat ok thanks! I wasn't sure if it was healthy or not I noticed when I was typing the ingredients that the salt was in like the middle but I didn't think anything of it until I read your comment.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Its a handy top. It's standard practice to write the highest percentage ingredients first then the next and so on. Very useful when judging foods, as is the nutritional composition. With those 2 you can judge most foods. Add in understanding a few terms like animal derivatives vs somethingg more precise and how this represents quality then your sorted


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