Am I feeding my rat the right food?

Question
I feed my rats the kaytee blocks (Forti-diet) because everyone at the pet stores, my vet, and many rat owners say to use it. But, my friend said that breeders say they are horrible for them. Which food should I use! Also, which pet is smarter? A rat or a bearded dragon? Can you maybe give me a web site or something? I think the rat is smarter though. I need to prove it to a bearded dragon owner. Thanks!

Answer
Kaytee blocks are low-end lab blocks and therefore not as good to feed as a higher quality block like Harlan Teklad. However, they're better to feed then the bagged "Fiesta" rat/mouse food forti-diet also puts out, and better than every seed mix out there unless it's a hand-mixed type you mix yourself. I prefer to feed block along with a modified Sueebee's diet.. you can find Suebee's recipe by googling Suebee's Rat Food.

As far as who is smarter.. that's like comparing apples and oranges. Reptiles are extremely intelligent and I've spent a great deal of time working specifically with beardies, so I find them very entertaining and I have my own appreciation for them. However, would a beardie ever be able to learn to dribble a miniature basket ball or play miniature-miniature golf? Probably not. Rats show the tendancy to think beyond what a typical rodent does, whereas beardies function on the concept of eat-sleep-survive. In the reptile world, they're very smart; but trying to compare the two is just not possible.