# Cheaper to feed commercial food or homemade? Advice?



## Britastic Gremlin (Nov 19, 2015)

I'm currently looking to create a good homemade mix for my mischief of six boys, as its working out to be pretty expensive (and, at times, inconvenient) to feed them all each month on their current diet. At the moment they're working through a whole bag of Science Selective rat food a week! And that's with extras and treats on the side, too.

Anyways, this brings me to my question... to those who own several rats or more, do you find it works out cheaper and/or better in the long run to make your own homemade balanced rat mix, or to just provide a good commercial block? 

Any advice on this matter is greatly appreciated, so thanks in advance


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## 461537 (Nov 15, 2015)

Try just making your own mix for a week and price it out - if you have your own veggie garden, or have access to someone who does, then you can cover a good amount of the diet that way. Use your contacts - talk to commercial kitchens about what they do with their leftovers each night, if you have other pets then maybe consider using some of their food. Those bulk buy places that have bins full of dried fruit and nuts usually run a wide selection of rat friendly food for low cost, when you make food for yourself consider setting aside the vegetable ends or peelings, or just reducing your own portion size and using the extra for them. I live on absolutely nothing - I spend less than $30 a week on food for both myself and my pets due to having access to so many other sources through my own garden, friends in catering, and the farm next door. You can do it for cheap, you just have to think smart and not be afraid to ask people for things.


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

I have 17 rats currently, soon to add a few more lol

I think price has to play some role. But more importantly quality. It is true that you get what you pay for and cheap food is often not great. That doesn't mean you have to pay a fortune though either.

I prefer blocks, it gives a balanced nutrition for them. Creating your own mix can be a bit difficult to perfect and imo more expensive unless you can buy in bulk and shop for good deals.

It will depend alot on where you live though? 

A single rat on average eats about 1lb of food a month. It depends alot on the size, age, activity, and other foods given though. But oxbow is one of the more expensive foods and it works out to $2/month per rat going by that. I think that is a very acceptable price. Other blocks will be even cheaper.


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## lovethoseratties (Sep 10, 2015)

I have 5 girls and order the 20lb bag of Oxbow Regal Rat from drsfostersmith.com, this should last me about 5-7 months depending on how I mix it with dog food and pasta. It's $40 so really not too bad for 6 months worth of food! You may be able to get away cheaper with a homemade mix, I've actually been considering making one so I can supplement and make my oxbow last even longer while giving the girls more variety.


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## Britastic Gremlin (Nov 19, 2015)

Thanks for all your replies guys, I really appreciate it 

I unfortunately don't have access to any stores where you can bulk-buy grains, fruit and seeds from bins. If I want anything like that I have to buy small bags which usually work out to be very expensive. Fortunately there is a green grocers and a huge indoor marketplace where quality locally grown fruit and veggies can be bought for low prices, so that's an option I can explore.

My only alternative is purchasing my straight grains and goods from ratRations.com, which seems to sell everything at a reasonable price. If I were to buy everything from there, the start-up cost would probably cost me about £30 for about 7kg worth of stuff. After that I'd probably only have a spend only several quid a month on topping up some of the grains. I have no idea how long that much would last so I'd likely just buy a little bit first just to test the waters X3

I don't believe Oxbow or Mazuri foods are available in the UK unless ordered online and shipped, so Science Selective is the next best thing. Most pet shops only sell the muesli mixes for rats which I'm really not fond of, as in the past when feeding it my previous rats just used to leave a majority of the the ingredients.

Either way, I think I'm leaning into trying out my own mix, and providing a little bit of Selective in the cage at all times just in-case someone misses out. Or maybe they'll only get their homemade mix several times a week, so its more of a change than anything else. At least then my boys will get the best of both worlds without missing anything out.


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## mimsy (Jun 8, 2014)

it depends. I priced mine out one month and it was definately more expensive than blocks. But I use a lot of variety and mostly organic human grade foods. Our dry mix lasts a long time however since I also feed a lot of fresh food from our meals. Fresh raw greens and vegies, cooked starches=like sweet potato, pasta, rice ect, small amounts of meats, like chicken bones or a tiny piece of salmon. Treats are things like fruit mostly, but they do get some more naughty types from time to time too, like I made homemade blueberry muffins that they got. If you eat healthy yourself, it's easy to just share foods as well. If I am making something with a lot of sauces with salt/spicey stuff they dont' like or isn't good for them I will take some of the vegies/pasta ect out prior to adding the not so healthy stuff for them. I do the same for our birds and then the bunny who only gets the fresh raw greens.

It becomes habit, so even a quick and not so healthy meal can be shared. Such as sometimes I make ramen noodles and serve them over napa cabbage. For the birds and rats they just get the noodles without the seasoning packet over the napa cabbage.

We also do taco night often. They get some tortilla with a little cooked turkey, no seasoning, some avocado and lettuce (we usually have romaine or one of the mixed baby lettuce ones).


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## Kelsbels (Aug 12, 2015)

Phew a bag of Selective a week? What size bags are you getting? I was going to suggest the Ratrations, but I see that you've found it already.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Whne I was making my mixes entirely from RR stuff it probably came out around £4-5 per kg, with my group of 4-6 getting through about 3 kg in 2 months.

I now buy a fair few bits locally and top up on the interesting bits from rat rations about every 3 months. To help (as the postage is the most expensive thing) I either place orders to pick up at shows they attend or combine with some local rat owners which works well.

To be honest I'm not a big fan of science selective, its not the worst rat food you can buy here but its not great. If you want a cheaper mid way option I tend to recommend to all my pet homes to get the following;

50% Harrisons Bannana brunch (some pet shops can order this in for you, or RR stocks it), its a rabbit food that's rubbish for rabbits but pretty good for rats.
45% Rat rations no 7, 11a or 11b (basically one of there ready made home made mixes, alternatively you could make your own like I do for this bit)
5% Barley rings broken up a bit (these are high copper, higher oil foods, again available form RR, they help top up the weaknesses in the above)

You could add some science selective to this if you wanted.

This doesn't need much extras in terms of suppliments, in fact if you've got adults just giving them cooked bones about once every week or two, and a cod liver oil capsual between 2-4 every couple of weeks and you should cover everything. You can still supplement (my adults get daily essentials and calcivet in water once a week), and you need to do that 3-5 days a week for babies but its fairly easy.

If you want to make your own home made mix from scratch I would still mix 50:50 with a good rabbit food like HBB (or something like pasture mix, though getting that in small ammounts is pretty much impossible unless you know someone lol). It helps act as a coverall and keeps the rats in condition more easily. In terms of home made mix here's some ideas on both finding the cheaper options and where you may struggle. Note this is typical shunamite style mix

Minimally processed grains (50%); For large numbers of rats check out marshams mixed flakes and versa laga junior plus or dark plus pigeon food, for smaller numbers the RR base mixes are an easy option, try bulking out with some of the low wheat and sunflower pigeon foods you can often find in local farm shops, you can get the ones I mentioned in smallish bags but they last me about a year and I have 6 rats lol (I now share with a friend).

Processed grains (25%): nice and easy, hit your local supermarket value range, id go rice pops, cornflakes, and own brand mini shredded wheat type things, if you've got girls some oats can be handy. You can also add things like pearled barley etc from your local health food shop

Protein element (10%): I get this from a local pet shop in the main, you don't go through it fast so its worth getting good quality stuff, burns range is great as is fish for dogs, go for small bite kibble if you can and try to aim for fish if you've got older rats (and under about 25% protein). I also add some soya flakes from rat rations and dried seabugs, but you could add some mealworms to add a bit of variety and pick these up cheaper.

Dried herbs and veg: RR is great for this as they have such a good range but it does add up. You can dry your own very easily using either an oven on low with the door propped open, or even window sill and kitchen roll for drying herbs. I now own my own dehydrator so should be saving a bit. Also check out dried veg mixes sold for soup, these can work out cheap. 

Seeds: whilst the RR stuff is nice as they have pumpkin seeds in there shells you can just use a mix of omega seeds sold at supermarkets or health food shops. You can also look out for bird seed mixes but most are very full of sunflower or niger seeds which aren't ideal in larger amounts.


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## RatEmporiumToronto (Jun 10, 2015)

I would encourage adding mix to lab blocks but not feeding ratties home-made mix alone. Though you could have the proper dietary balance in your mix the ratties will pick out their favourite pieces and leave the rest. This is especially difficult to monitor with having 6 rats. I tried giving my rats a home-made mix and planned to give it to them for one week (I had 7 at the time) and they would all take out different parts of the mix. Duncan liked seeds, Iceburg liked Cereal, Wasp liked dried fruit etc. After 2 days I decided to put lab blocks back in instead because as much as the whole mix was proper and good for their diet they did not eat the entire mix to get all the nutrients they required. I now keep lab blocks in their homes at all times and give them what is now their "snack mix" every day, but it is more like a treat then a permanent food plan!


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

If you limit feeding you don't get issues with selective feeding. You do have to be strict though, feed too much and they will naturally pick out there fave bits, limit it to only what they need to keep a healthy weight and scatter feeding helps this.

To be honest even feeding a mix and lab blocks carries the same risk as feeding fully home made. You can easily unbalance a lab block based diet by feeding too much of something that's not balanced itself.


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## RatEmporiumToronto (Jun 10, 2015)

Isamurat said:


> If you limit feeding you don't get issues with selective feeding.


For territorial issues however it is best not to limit feeding whatsoever and have a constant supply of their food in the cage!


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

RatEmporiumToronto said:


> For territorial issues however it is best not to limit feeding whatsoever and have a constant supply of their food in the cage!


Actually there's plenty of research showing that periods with no food is beneficial to a rat health and lifespan (and incidentally humans too). The idea they need food available constantly is an internet myth. In reality wild rats go through long periods with no or very limited foods available, it would make no sense to have this cause them issues.

I've limited feeding for a long time now, they probably eat most of there food within an hour, then if they are prepared to work and search for it they can find the odd bits and bobs, but I don't find anything left by clean out time. Its standard practice in the UK and definitely beneficial to them.


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## artgecko (Nov 26, 2013)

I'm combing blocks (native earth, probably not available in the UK) with a homemade shumanite type mix. It is very hard to make a quality mix when buying in limited quantities. I probably spent about $30 to make 5 lbs of mix... Whereas I can get a 40lb bag of blocks for around $30. I currently have 16 rats. If you have access to ethnic markets that might carry some of the harder to find grains (barley, buckwheat, etc.) you might be able to make a good mix cheaper. I do blocks as my groups primary food and they also get a handful of mix scatter-fed in their cage daily. I only feed once a day and give them blocks, scattered grain mix, and typically fresh greens (kale, collards, etc.) every day or every other day.


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## Hazeltherattie (Jun 30, 2013)

When I had my five girls it was defiantly cheaper to make a homemade mix. (I used SueBees diet.) Plus, homemade mixes are usually healthier, which avoids vet bills.


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