My rats stinky poops!

Question
Hello there.

I've had my rats for about 1year8months. They are both well taken care of,
quite active and have been on the same diet since they were slowly
introduced to new foods.

I have noticed a change in their poo. Now, I'm not 100& sure who's is who's.
I'm about 80% sure..some of them are quite normal, and some are really tiny
and dry. Now the ones that really concern me are the squishy stinky ones! I've
seen which rat takes those ones!!! But I've also seen him leave regular small
ones! Not so sure where the dry ones come from and some are suuuuuper
long! like 3 regular rat poops in 1!
SO! I will explain their diet to you and let you take over from there!

We(my boyfriend and I) keep a bowl of dry food that contains a whole bunch
of different seeds/dried veggies/those pellet things they never really eat
unless its the only thing left in the bowl; that we get from the pet store! We
usually refill it every 2-3 days depending on how fast they eat it.

Every other day we feed them a bowl of wet food. Which always consists of
peas and a few other items. Recently the menu consists of the peas, 2 cut up
baby carrots, some dog food, and a tiny bit of cheese on the top for a treat.
Other things we give them are nuts, almonds, grapes, bananas, cucumber,
apple..cant think of anything else.

We tend to give them small pieces of what we eat because they love the smell
of everything!!!!!! So just 1 or 2 pieces no bigger than an index finger nail.

Im wondering if there is something I can give them that will help with
digestion...since they are getting old! Like how we eat fiber for it...what can
they have?

Thanks for your time  

Answer
Hi Monica

If ever your rats have dried hard stools you can slip them a bit of baby food prunes. Rats adore baby food, stage 2 because stage 1 is watery and stage 2 is more like custard/pudding. A half a teaspoon to start so you dont cause explosive loose stools.  It may take 24 hours to see any change.

As for proper diet, you want to eliminate the cucumbers to just limited servings every once in a while. Cucumbers contain both nitrates and amines. In rats, when they are combined, they form nitrosamines in the stomach which are cancer causing.
Along with cucumbers, collards, celery, eggplant, beets, lettuce, radishes, spinach, and turnip greens and corn are all high in nitrates and should be fed with caution.

Also, ease up with nuts and almonds. They are entirely too high in protein and fats and as you know, fats can cause weight gain and heart disease leading to heart problems and even heart attack etc....and protein that is high for rats is very taxing on their kidneys, affecting the rats as they get older. The dog food may have super high protein depending on what your using.
Some are good to feed rats, such as Nutro Lite dog food.  
Rats daily protein should not exceed 15% daily intake.

As for the seed mixes your using, you can toss them out to the birds and squirrels. They have nothing to offer your rats as far as being nutritional. Just lots of fats and proteins too.

Is this the first time they have had cheese?


You can read about proper diet and also kidney disease on my website.  

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/ratsandahealthydiet.htm


Hope this helps ya out!