Rat food for the Rats in the Rat Webshop!

You can order rat food quickly and easily at DRD Rodent Shop ^® the Rat Webshop for your Rat!

Rat food for your Rats can be purchased easily and quickly at DRD Rodent Shop. Do you want to spoil your Rats with healthy, balanced rat food? Then you have come to the right place! Choose from various brands and types of rat food for an attractive price. Little One, Mixerama, Versele-Laga, Witte Molen, Supreme etc. Ordering is always easy and fast in our Rat webshop.

What do rats eat?

The Rat is a small, omnivorous mammal. This means that the Rat is an omnivore; it feeds on a variety of foods. It belongs to the order of rodents and is very social. In the wild, it often lives in groups of up to 100 animals. The life expectancy is about 4 years and it reaches a body length of 28 cm and a weight of 270 to 400 g.

What do rats eat in the wild?

The modern black rat is descended from the brown rat. This originally lived on the mainland in southeastern Siberia, Mongolia and northeastern China. In the wild, the brown rat shows both territorial and colonial behaviour and typically occupies underground burrows. Today, the rat can be found almost all over the world. In the tropics and subtropics, it only lives in cities. In Europe and North America, it also often lives near people and buildings and feels particularly comfortable in partition walls or old drain pipes. Rats in the wild often live near water. The rat has its own nutritional needs.

What does the Rat's digestive system look like?

Apart from the lack of a gallbladder, the rat digestive tract resembles that of other omnivorous rodents in that the stomach contains both non-glandular and glandular regions, the small intestine is of moderate length, and the cecum is relatively well developed.

Can Rats tolerate fiber?

The addition of fiber (cellulose) to diets with natural ingredients reduces the digestibility of energy in rats. This means that rats are less able to extract nutrients from fiber. Although 15 to 60% of the fiber is digested.

Are rats omnivores by nature?

Rats are omnivores by nature. Characteristic of the rat's digestive system are the incisors that grow continuously throughout life, molars that do not grow, a relatively short appendix and a great need for easily digestible carbohydrates. The incisors are worn down because they always continue to grow. This wearing down occurs, among other things, by breaking open seeds or gnawing on larger food components. In addition, gnawing wood must always be offered.

Protein: Rats need animal proteins, which are essential for metabolism. The protein content in the diet should be between 12 and 15%. A protein deficiency in rats can have major consequences such as growth retardation, edema formation, muscle breakdown, weight loss and anemia.
Fiber: Rats have a fast metabolism and therefore need energy-rich food with easily digestible carbohydrates. The fiber content in Rat food should therefore not be too high.
Fat: The fat content in the diet should not exceed 5%. Rats often have a tendency to quickly develop overweight. However, fat is a very important part of the Rat's diet, because it provides essential fatty acids (EFA) and a concentrated source of energy, in addition fat helps with the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.
Calcium: The calcium:phosphorus ratio in a rat's diet should be between 1.1:1 and 1.5:1. Calcium is important for teeth and skeleton.
Incisors: These continue to grow, so the food must ensure the necessary tooth wear. Hardness, size and type of food are important.
Stomach: The stomach consists of one chamber and is separated by a mucous membrane into a glandless and a glandular part.
Small Cecum: Rats have a small cecum. As a result, they can only process crude fiber to a limited extent. Therefore, feed with a crude fiber content of less than 10% is optimal.
Animal proteins: Omnivorous animals need animal proteins. The valuable amino acids are important for cell renewal and various metabolic processes.
Increased energy requirements: The fast animals have a higher metabolism and therefore a special energy requirement.

Temperature, age and activity influence the energy needs of the rat.

Feeding rats with a twist

Rats are very intelligent animals and they love to be busy. We think of all sorts of things for them so that they don't get bored, but we often forget to include food in this! We call enriching food 'feeding with a twist' and we are happy to tell you how you can do that!

Rats are not only very intelligent, but also agile and social. This is reflected in their everyday behavior in the enclosure. They communicate with each other, play and sleep together. The animals develop a social structure and their enclosure is their playing domain.

The rat cage is transformed by many owners in a very creative way into a true play paradise, where enrichment is central. However, the food bowl often remains a boring part of the enclosure, always in the same place with the same contents. Here too you could easily provide enrichment, the Rats will certainly appreciate it!

Changing the location of the rat food bowl

We are certainly not saying that the food bowl should be thrown overboard immediately, but you could place it in different places in the enclosure. Sometimes on the top plateau, then again at the bottom of the enclosure and for the more advanced, perhaps even hide it behind a house. Let them search for their food. Make sure that you do not make it too difficult, they have to be able to find their food and it should not take too long.

Are snack balls and plates fun for Rats?

A fun variation on the food bowl is the snack ball or snack plate. This is actually a food bowl with a twist. The animals have to make an effort to get to their food. They have to get the ball moving and then in a certain way so that food comes out. We only recommend this way of feeding in addition to an existing food bowl, so that the animals get the right amount of food every day.

Although Rats are social animals, they do not always like to share a snack ball. So it is good to keep an eye on this when you give a snack ball to the animals for the first time. This is also a fun way to see how the animals behave in this situation, do they like to work together or every man for himself?

With a snack board, multiple animals can participate, this is a team effort because there is more space for multiple animals. Everyone tries out their own hatch. The motivation increases enormously as soon as one of the rats manages to get their piece and runs off with it. This shows the other rats that there really is something tasty hidden. Place a small amount of food in each hatch and let the animals work for their food.

Is it fun to hide food from Rats?

It is also fun to give food scattered throughout the enclosure. For example, put a little on top of a hammock, another little behind the house, again a little on a plateau or other nice places. Always make sure that you hide a standard amount, the animals do not have to get twice as much food at once.

The rules of the game

Take a standard amount of food that you would give to the animals in a day. Put a little in the food bowl and the rest in a snack ball, snack plate and hide a little bit in challenging places. It is important that the places where you put the food are clean, so not around the toilet or pee places. The animals must be able to reach it easily and be able to find it well. Check at the end of the day whether all the food has been found. If not, help the animals a little. Show them where it is, this will only strengthen the bond between you!

It is a huge reward for animals when they succeed in something. Their self-confidence and happiness rise to unprecedented heights, what more could you want?!

All Rat information at a glance

In the table below we have clearly presented all information about the Rats for you.

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