Food

Harlan Teklad Laboratory Rodent Diets

Our rats are fed a primary diet of Harlan Teklad Rodent Lab Block. Harlan's Rodent Diets are laboratory grade, natural-ingredient diets specifically formulated to provide rats complete and proper balance of nutrients in accordance with the requirements established by the National Research Council.

Adult rats are given 14% protein blocks. Pregnant/nursing does and youngsters from 4weeks to 3months are given 18% protein blocks. The Harlan blocks are designed to be free fed so are made available to our rats at all times for their munching needs.

Dry Mix...

We've recently discovered Harlan Teklad's Enrich Mix which is designed to complement a well-balanced diet. The Enrich Mix is made up of: Black-striped sunflower, split green peas, banana chips, dark and golden raisins, steam-flaked corn, extruded soybean and corn gluten meal protein, papaya, diced carrots, diced sweet potatoes, snow white pumpkin seeds, diced pineapple, grey-stripe sunflower, diced apples, coconut chips and diced apricots. These ingredients are unsweetened, unsalted, and irradiated to eliminate any bacteria, bugs or germs. The Enrich Mix makes up about 10-15% of their diet.

Fresh Foods...

Our rats love their veggies! They get Organic Spring Mix salad or frozen stir fry vegetable mix daily. The vegetables make up only 10% of their daily diets.

Special Dinners...

Though the blocks, mix and veggies make up the majority of their diet, they also enjoy a home cooked meal once in a while, usually just once a week or so.

Here are some of the more simple recipes. See the link below for more tasty ratty cuisine. Our Rats

Veggie Spaghetti ~~ Whole wheat spaghetti cooked with frozen peas and corn. Add about 1tsp olive oil.
Spinach Salad ~~ spinach leaves, sliced carrots, romaine lettuce, 1 boiled egg diced
Spinach Fettuccini ~~ spinach fettuccini noodles cooked with corn and sliced carrots
Eggs Benedict ~~ English muffin cut into ½ inch pieces, topped a with poached egg and crispy turkey (bake deli turkey slices till crisp and crumble on top)

Treats...

Rats love their treats... but like little kids with candy, they don't always know what's best for them so I give the treats out sparingly, usually once every couple of days they each get just one of the following ...

a single dark chocolate chip (good if rat is having breathing problems)
a single Reese's peanut butter chip (like used in baking)
a fruit flavored yogurt drop
a dried cranberry or blueberry

** A good way to judge portion sizes is to compare it to the size of their hand. Could you eat a meal 3 times the size of your hand? **

Contact: Sonja (at) HeartOfTexasRats (dot) com