# food your rats DON'T like



## jellybeanqueen (Sep 6, 2007)

before i got my rats, i read a lot of stuff about them, most of which said that rats will basically enjoy eating anything.
but lo and behold, i am now the proud owner of two finicky eaters!

some stuff i've offered that caused them to turn up their cute pink noses are:

~carrots
~romaine lettuce
~tomato
~broccoli
~banana
~pear
~strawberries
~blueberries

the vegetables..okay, maybe not, but fruit? even _i _like fruit! :lol: 

so i'm basically stuck with a very limited supply of what veggies/fruit i can give them...*sigh* 
i'll continue hoping that they'll one day realize plant matter is just as good as eggs and all their beloved protein stuff. 

what do your ratties dislike? =o


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## DFW_Rat_Luvr (Aug 29, 2007)

the main thing that ALL of my ratties seem to HATE, is their lab blocks - bah!


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## jellybeanqueen (Sep 6, 2007)

haha, my rats pretty much despise the staple dog food part of suebee's as well. xD
i'm sure my girls would be quite content with eggs, grapes, and cheerios, but we can't have that!


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## A1APassion (Jul 29, 2007)

DFW_Rat_Luvr said:


> the main thing that ALL of my ratties seem to HATE, is their lab blocks - bah!


I hear ya on that


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## Mana (Apr 22, 2007)

None of my rats like fruit except Bella. She only likes grapes. I've tried every type of fruit that has come through this house. They all ate about one blueberry apiece before they seemed to unanimously decide to not like them anymore.

No one likes tomato except Coconut, but only the outside part and not the ***** squishy insides.

When whatever we have for dinner is something they can't eat, I give them a bit of canned cat food so they don't feel left out. They don't like chicken, turkey, or beef, but only like the seafood kinds.

Most veggies are loved though ^_^


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## CaptainFlow (May 16, 2007)

If I toss food in, the girls are all over it. The one thing is that since I have started tempting them back to their cage with the Suebee's grain mix, Belgie won't be tempted by the lab blocks, either! Sevilla's still game, though she just stashes, she doesn't bother actually eating anything.


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## Sparker (Jun 17, 2007)

Dried apricots and soy nuts.


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## Berks (May 15, 2007)

mine have formed a revolt against carrots. they actually toss them off their dinner plate.


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## Njal (Nov 2, 2007)

jellybeanqueen said:


> haha, my rats pretty much despise the staple dog food part of suebee's as well. xD
> i'm sure my girls would be quite content with eggs, grapes, and cheerios, but we can't have that!


My rats love their dog food part of their diet. One time I caught two fighting over a pellet, quite energetically, ON a pile of them. 

Kinda like my boys in that way......


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## Nightfallspy (Nov 5, 2007)

Mine are very picky, they love bananas and will sometime not even eat a yogie! *gasp*


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## allynpsych (Sep 12, 2007)

My rats like:
tomatoes (but not the skins)
peas (but not the skins)
corn (but not the skins)
blueberries (but not the skins... are we seeing a pattern here?)
green beans (just the little beans inside unless they've eaten ALL the other veggies and are left with chewed up green beans)
Apples (but not the skins, UNLESS, it's dried, curled up skin piece they find in the play area).
Green leafy veggies... they prefer romaine and butter to others but like the red leave kind too.
Broccoli & cauliflower have them leaping over each other.
Banana can result in missing fingers if you don't give it to them RIGHT NOW!
They will nibble grapes and strawberries.
They will gnaw on carrots and lick cucumbers.
They didn't snub the cooked squash or cooked potato, but didn't seemed wild about it.
They like cooked Basmati rice, but probably because we use chicken broth.

The LOVE chick peas, tuna, hardboiled egg, baked chicken, and puffed wheat.

They steal entire saltine crackers if one foolishly leaves one unattended.

They will enjoy crumbs of cheese and yogurt, but prefer to lick the yogurt from fingers, rather than off a dish.

They like pasts (cooked), but aren't exactly sure what I expect them to do with dry pasta.

They like cooled oatmeal with raisins.

SOMETIMES, they still act like lab blocks are treats even though that's what their staple diet is. Silly ratties.


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

Very surprised so many rats turn up their noses on carrots. I feed my rats baby carrots all the time and it's STILL their one of their favs! Hobbes goes wild over carrots, and does a little impatient dance for them (same dance he does for yoggies but we're not feeding those anymore since the doc equated them to a snicker bar)

They don't eat the outside of apples and wait quite a while to eat the outside of peas.

I think that is it really, I can't remember if there was ever anything I gave them that they didn't like. They aren't to crazy about sugar snap peas but will eat them eventually.

OH!! Medicine!! Specifically the herbal supplements. It's always hard to give those to them but I have found I can drop them on bread and all is good.

Yep, rats tend to hate their medicine unless you're trying to give it to their cagemate and not them, in which case they will try their hardest to get at it.


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## madeittothemoon (Nov 1, 2007)

My girls will eat just about anything... they aren't as fond of lettuce or cucumber, but they'll still eat it if it's sitting in their cage (they just won't go as nuts for it as they do for other stuff)


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## Brad (Nov 6, 2007)

I happen to have 4 adult females, 4 baby girls and five baby boys. None of them can stand the alfalfa pellets. They clean out everything else. The rat mix from Feeder supply, the oats, the dog food, the extra dried corn. Not to say I blame them that stuff tastes awful, ha ha.


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## glindella (Sep 9, 2007)

Brad said:


> I happen to have 4 adult females, 4 baby girls and five baby boys. None of them can stand the alfalfa pellets. They clean out everything else. The rat mix from Feeder supply, the oats, the dog food, the extra dried corn. Not to say I blame them that stuff tastes awful, ha ha.


That is horrible food, please read the rat diet sticky

just a quick run down:

-they can't digest alfalfa so there is no point in then eating or being served it

-dried corn is horrible and can potentially be deadly

-what kind of dog food? most dog foods have WAY to much protein/fat


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## Wench (Apr 5, 2007)

Brad said:


> I happen to have 4 adult females, 4 baby girls and five baby boys. None of them can stand the alfalfa pellets. They clean out everything else. The rat mix from Feeder supply, the oats, the dog food, the extra dried corn. Not to say I blame them that stuff tastes awful, ha ha.


I'm with Glindella on this one. It sounds like your rats are picky because they're not being fed the right diet.

Have you tried Suebee's mix? It's all I feed my girls, aside from a few additions of my own to it, which are basically the same ingredients in different shapes for more fun.

Their bodies can do nothing with *alfalfa*. They aren't able to digest it, so generally they won't eat it.

The dried corn can contain a type of mold which is harmful and/or deadly to rats.

If I remember correctly, the dog food should have a crude protein count of 16% or lower.

Why not try Suebee's? It's cheap and awesome. I've yet to have a rat turn it down, and I can get enough to feed them for several months for about $20.00. Now that's a deal!

My girls will eat pretty much anything they're given. I haven't had Peep and Parsnip for a long time so I don't know what their tastes are, but Pig is not picky.

Doris turns up her nose at *garlicky foods*, and she is not a fan of *carrot *or *green pepper*, but she will eat it if it's left with her for a while. I think she resents green pepper because when I was really poor...it's just about all I could afford to feed her sometimes.  We were both living on rice and green peppers. She's a trooper though, and now she gets to enjoy a balanced diet, even if I can't afford to eat the same way. :lol: 

The younger girls are shy about *mushy food* because they can't run away with it. They don't like eating out of a dish, so they dart forward, take a mouthful, and run away.

They all eat whatever is in their mix, which is:

*Low protein dog food
Organic dog biscuits
Roasted, unsalted soy nuts
Dry vegetable pasta
Muesli
Puffed wheat
Puffed rice
Wheat squares (kind of like weetabix?)
Bran flakes
Bran sticks
Roasted unsalted Hazelnuts
Roasted unsalted peanuts (very few)
Large unsalted sunflower seeds
Raisins
Sultanas
Whole oats*

They don't seem to really favour any one part of the mix. I watch them eat from time to time and they sort of just pick out whatever they're in the mood for, I guess. Every now and again they get some human food, a bit of whatever we happen to be eating. 

Ah! Doris LOVES *lettuce*. She likes *romaine *and *Boston Green leaf lettuce*, those are her favorites as far as I can gather. I would have assumed she would prefer more substantial veg, but she really, really loves lettuce. Probably because she doesn't get it a lot.

*Cucumber* is something I won't feed. I used to feed it to Doris and it gave her liquidy poos, so I stopped.

They all love *whole meal bread and toast*, especially with *margarine* on. They all also love *olive oil.*

(I've put food in bold for ease of reading, in case you don't want to read all of this and you're just skimming)


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## CaptainFlow (May 16, 2007)

Mmm, Suebees... I confess, I help myself to a handfull every now and again, it's so delicious looking. Yours sounds extra tastey, Wench. Though I'd personally skip the dog food and biscuits for myself...


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## lostbutnotforgot (Apr 19, 2007)

My girl is a pig I guess. She has always eaten everything I put in there (even the hot sauce to keep her from chewing on her wheel), except for some lab blocks, but she mostly eats those too and what she doesn't eat is just extra. Blueberries are her fav I think, along with her occasional treat of yogurt wrapped in romaine lettuce. She always grabs the biggest piece of food in the bowl, but that's mostly just to store it away before finding her favs and sitting down to eat them.


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## magickat (Oct 19, 2007)

I haven't had my girls for very long, but so far they* don't like these foods *even if I soften them up with a light steaming or as baby food:
Apple
Carrots
Broccoli
Cabbage
Kale
Cheese Yogies
Cranberries
Cherries
Cooked Basmati Rice
Mushrooms
*
They DO like:*
Banana
Berrie Yogies
Dried peas
Moistened Natural Balance Reduced Calorie dog food
Cooked Shrimp!!
Grapes
Yogurt
Almond Butter
Cashew Macademia Nut Butter!
Cooked Brown Rice
Pumpkin Seeds
Zucchini
Puffed Whole Grain Cereal
Peas
Chicken/Tomato Dinner baby food


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## sweet_dreams91 (Oct 19, 2007)

My rats hate Yogies but love their lab blocks? 

Ironic isn't it? Haha.


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