# Won't eat their lab blocks!



## halfmoon (Mar 29, 2010)

Recently I switched the kind of lab blocks I feed my boys. For the first few days, they would go through their dish and eat all the bran flakes, then the oats, and down the line of their favorites until everything was finished. My youngest would even grab the lab blocks first and run to his bed to eat them. I was specifically watching them to make sure they made the transition without problem, and I did give some of their old food with the new food, and then less and less. My problem is that they have stopped eating their lab blocks completely. Even if I don't put any Suebee's mix in their dish, they are still more keen on using their lab blocks as nesting material than eating them.  I know they aren't eating them, because when cleaning day rolls around I find a TON of lab blocks buried in their bedding. Anyone else have this problem? Anything I can do to get them to eat?


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## ema-leigh (Jan 24, 2010)

What lab blocks are you using? I know alot of rats dont like Oxbow. I heard ALOT of rats love hamsters extrustion blocks! 

Suebees mix is pretty useless when you think about the ingredients... stop feeding them the suebees and just leave them the lab blocks. They wont let themselves starve. They are never going to try the lab blocks if they have a tastier food on offer.


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## halfmoon (Mar 29, 2010)

I'm using Harlan Teklad 8604. I did stop giving the grain mix, but they didn't eat anything. I get really nervous when they don't eat. I'll stop the suebees for a while. If they start eating the lab blocks, is it useful to give suebees as a treat every couple of days, as with fresh fruit and veggies?


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## ema-leigh (Jan 24, 2010)

You could crush up some of the lab blocks and mix it with soy milk to make a delicious healthy treat for them.

In all honesty the suebees diet holds little nutritional value for the rats. You would be much better off making your own sort of mix and maybe just giving them a small amount each evening. You could add things such as: Rolled oats, flaked oats, 7 grain Unsugared cereal, museli, dried fruit, soy nuts, millet, flax seed, puffed wheat/rice, bran flakes, post shreddies, whole grain cheerios, whole grain uncooked pasta, low protien dog kibble, split peas, lentils, barley, shredded coconut, soya beans, barley flakes, buckwheat groats, cracked wheat, pumpkin seeds, seaseme seeds, sunflower seeds, melba toast, unsalted broken crackers etc. If you get these ingredients in bulk from grocery stores it works out alot cheaper.


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## halfmoon (Mar 29, 2010)

I'm sure they'd love that. What consistency should that mixture be?

It's not _actually_ suebees. It's half of a grain mix I got from the site where I get my lab blocks, and half of my own mixture. It has a lot of what you listed. I think I'll start giving just a little of that with their evening veggies.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

halfmoon said:


> I'm sure they'd love that. What consistency should that mixture be?
> 
> It's not _actually_ suebees. It's half of a grain mix I got from the site where I get my lab blocks, and half of my own mixture. It has a lot of what you listed. I think I'll start giving just a little of that with their evening veggies.


Your rats have been given "chocolate" and now you are telling them they can only have bread. Its normal for rats to give you disgusted, "I am starving" looks when you are weaning them back onto a block only diet, but its much better for them overall. If you can get HT 8604, you should consider the better diets offered by Harlan, such as HT 2014 (my rats ultimate fav). 8604 just has too much protein.

YOU will have to be strong, and cut their mix back to only a few times a week, to only once a week, then to just a very occasional treat. In the end you will be glad you did. I had a wonderful chart on rats fed the grain mix diet and rats fed the block staple and the diferences in their weights...it was astounding. I would have to dig it up since my computer crashed and I lost all my good stuff last year, but I posted it on a forum, just need to find it again


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Found it!!!

I am quite unhappy with the weights of the majority of my Horde these days. It worries me that I am doing something wrong currently. I used to feed them Suebee’s freely since I didn’t have access to lab blocks at the time, and then I used to feed both. I didn’t quite understand that Suebee’s was not to be fed daily but as tri-weekly addition to the dog kibble 

Now my rats are fed strictly lab blocks (Mazuri previously, now HT 2104 for the last 6 months..thank you Elizabeth!) supplemented with veggies and occasional fruit, with “bad” treats like peanuts in the shell handed out one by one. 

I used Aura and Valora and Vesta as my comparison rats from the Horde of Old as they were normal-sized rats and very lean when I got them as babies. I had to use Dilbert as my comparison to my neutered boys.

Sadly Word doesn't translate well on here and it will be hard to read. I did put the difference in weights in blue for all to see... :roll:

Age / Name / Wt. / Old Horde Rat / Wt. at Same Age / Difference between Current and Old

15 / Kismet / 362 g / Valora/Vesta / 400 g/448 g / 38 g/86 g
15 / Tosca / 304 g / same / same / 96 g/144 g
15 / Cleo / 328 g / same / same / 72 g/120 g
16 / Megan / 318 g / same / 402 g/456 g / 84 g/138 g
16 / Angel / 335 g / same / same / 67 g/121 g
18+ / Faline / 417 g / Aura / 427 g / 10 g
6 / Suri / 343 g / Valora/Vesta / 327 g/346 g / -16 g/3 g
6 / Linny / 295 g / same / same / 32 g/51 g
20 / Bronwen / 395 g / Aura / 432 / 37 g
16 / Tucker / 562 g / Dilbert / 530 g / -32 g
16 / Bear / 481 g / same / same / 49 g
13 / Fayth / 366 g / Valora/Vesta / 411 g/412 g / 45 g/46 g
8 / Aki / 375 g / Valora/Vesta / 357 g/379 g / -18 g/4 g
8 / Lani / 353 g / same / same / 4 g/26 g

Things to remember. Suri is a big solid girl, Aki and Lani came to me at 5 months old so I didn’t feed them from the beginning, Faline came to me at 6 months old, Bronwen is a sweet chunky monkey who had at least one litter, and I have no idea why my neutered boys are following in each other’s footsteps :roll:

Does it look like I am on the right track for healthier weights?


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## ema-leigh (Jan 24, 2010)

I dont make mine with exact measurements and Im also making it for alot more rats.

I would use approx:
4 cups of flakes oats
4 cups of rolled oats.
3 cups of 7 grain cereal
1 cup of muesli 
2 cups of dried fruit
1 small handful of soy nuts (a little bit exra if you have girls)
1/2 cup of millet
1 handful of flax seeds (again extra if you have girls)
2 cups of puffed cereal (wheat/rice etc. Bear in mind the puffed rice doesnt have much nutritional value)
3 cups of post shreddies
1.5 cup of bran flakes
1.5 cup of wholegrain cereal (READ the boxes, the healthiest looking box actually contains more sugar, get the yelow box)
1/2 - 1 cup of wholegrain uncooked pasta (extra if you have underweight, less if overweight)
1 cup of low protien low fat senior dog food (I dont add this everytime I make the mix)
1 cup of cracked wheat + buckgroats
Sunflower/pumpkin and seasme seeds mixed together approx 1.5cups
1 cup of split peas + lentils
2 cups of barley
small handful of shredded coconut
small handful of soya beans

Then you can add thins to keep it interesting such as a bag of rat food, broken lab blocks, broken unsalted crackers and french melba toast.


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## halfmoon (Mar 29, 2010)

Apparently my boys overheard my frustrated conversation with their father and they're eating their lab blocks!  I'm amazed at how fast they started to eat them this time. I guess they _were_ hungry after all.


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