Nutrition question

Question
QUESTION: Hi. I just adopted 2 female baby rats. I am very concerned over feeding them correctly. I just ordered Harlan Teklad blocks for them. In the meantime, do you think I can feed them the same food that I feed my birds? I bake up a birdie bread from Pro Grow. The ingredients are: all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, soybean meal, proso millet, cornmeal, rice, sunflower meal, whole powdered egg, calcium, sweet potato flakes, concentrated vitamin complex, spirulina, baking powder and salt. Analysis: crude protein 17.3%, crude fat 4.9% crude fiber 2.9% ash 4.51%.
Thank you so much for your help with this!

ANSWER: Hi

The bird food has too much protein for rats. Rats protein should not exceed 14%.   If your waiting for the rat blocks to come, you can give them a little of the bird food but add vegetables to their daily diet as well.  In fact, you dont want to feed them nothing but the rat blocks. This gets boring for them, trust me.  Please see my website, Sandyscrittercity.com and the page on proper nutrition for more ideas.  You are definitely on the right track though!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for getting back to me. My rats are babies, maybe about 2 months old. The rat blocks I ordered (according to the description for the baby formula) have more protein than the birdie bread I mentioned. I'm not concerned about the amount of protein because babies need more protein than adults. I am starting with the Harlan Teklad 2018, which has 18% protein. When they are about 8 months old, then I was told to switch to the 14% protein formula. For now, I thought the bird bread, with 17.3% protein would suffice. My question to you is.....do you think there is anything unhealthy for rats in the birdie bread? (The ingredients are listed above in my original post.) They seem to love it and it is chock full of vitamins. What is your opinion on the ingredients, specifically the millet? Thank you!

Answer

The bird diet sounds just fine including the millet. However, do remember baby rats do well on 14% protein but to be honest, its ok to use the 18% till about 3 months.  8 months of age and 18% protein is a bit high. High protein can be very taxing on a rats kidneys which is one of the top causes of premature death in rats.  Rats on a low protein diet tend to live beyond the age of 3 years old. The lab blocks should also contain soy listed as one of the first three ingredients.