I always have ratties on the brain. I belong to a group on Facebook called The Rat Fan Club, and I haven’t owned rats for more than a year. People ask lots of questions, post tons of photos and always ask what your ratties are eating.

When I first started with my females, I have to admit that they weren’t near as spoiled as the boys were. I have always used Mazuri lab blocks. The girls were on Reggie Rat from time to time, and I think the other were Kaytee Supreme. I once tried them on Regal Rat, but that didn’t work out so the 20 lb bag I bought was given to a rescue. The girls were given snacks all the time of whatever I was eating, as they were usually out of their cage and walking across my lap to steal some. Favorites were chili and lasagna.

I had a much better plan with the boys. I pulled information from this source on SueBees rat mix and I made them a new batch of food every other month. I started them out in the mornings with a tablespoon or so of Greek Yogurt (lowfat when they were younger and the regular when they were 2 years old). It was like a morning coffee to them and they loved it.

The habit around my apartment was to keep old chicken bones, steak bones, corn cobs and rib bones in the freezer door in a zippy bag and give them out from time to time for snacks. No matter how clean you can get your bones while eating, there are always plenty of scraps still left on them for ratties, plus they love the marrow.

To this day I still have the SueBee recipes in my shopping list program on my phone. Whenever I need to make another batch, someday, it’s there waiting on me.