# Fish food for rats?



## Amelia (May 3, 2013)

Hi all. 

I have several tanks of tropical fish and while I was feeding them today I noticed my little dove hooded female (5 weeks old) was very interested in the food. Out of curiousity I gave her a pellet, which she went crazy for. This is the only thing I've found so far which she will go absolutely mad for -- she just can't get enough of the stuff. I also gave her a bit of freeze-dried brine shrimp (which I also feed to my fish) which she also LOVED.

So my question: is fish food safe for rats to eat? If it is I thought it would be very useful to use with training as the pellets are the perfect treat-size. I've often heard of cats loving fish food, as it's made primarily of fish, crustaceans and glutenous grains.

This was the food she was most interested in. Can anyone see anything in that ingredient list which shouldn't be in a rat's diet?
http://www.oscarfish.com/3-star-foods/224-hikari-cichlid-gold-ingredients-analysis.html


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## Laura (Apr 13, 2013)

What are you feeding primarily? It looks to me like that would be pretty high in protein for them. Does it have the protein levels on the container? I didn't see it on the link


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## Laura (Apr 13, 2013)

maybe because I'm blind lol. 32% protein is REALLY high even for a treat. That may throw the nutritional values of their normal diet way off


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## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

Brine shrimp are perfectly good treats. There's nothing dangerous in the ingredient list for the fish food but it's wickedly high in protein so don't give her too much or too many pellets a day or it will be very hard on her liver. As an occasional treat it should be perfectly fine, though. (To give you an idea, a baby rat is supposed to have about 18% protein content in their food, this food is 65%).


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## Poisoned (Nov 17, 2012)

Carnivore fish food will be too high in protein. Check out some veggie fish food/treats. Mine love the freeze dried brine shrimp, too. They make really great cheap treats.


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## Amelia (May 3, 2013)

Thanks guys, I did suspect it may have been a little high in protein. I have dozens of different varieties of fish food so I'll have a look at them all and see if there are any that aren't so rich. Until then she can have the freeze-dried brine shrimp. 

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