Home » Pets & Animals » Rodents » Rats

Favorite Pet Rat Treats

Ranked #5,271 in Pets & Animals, #132,240 overall | Donates to ASPCA

Favorite Treats for Pet Rats and Other Rodents

Meet my pet rat, Rascal!

Rascal and our other rats LOVE food. Below I've listed some of our favorite treats. Some are healthy, every-day treats and some are for eating once in a while. Some may even extend the life of your pet rat! (You can read about those below.)

Vote for your favorite treats or find great treat ideas for your pet rat. Then, suggest your own favorite pet rat treat. What do YOU think should be on this list and why? If you would like, grab the pet rat treats list as an RSS feed or widget for your own blog or Squidoo lens.

List of Favorite Rat Treats

Vote For Your Favorite Rat and Small Animal Treats

1

Vote Up

Dried fruit

3 points

2

Vote Up

MonaVie (M)mun juice

2 points

3

Vote Up

Le Bon Croissant Ratatouille Treats

2 points

4

Vote Up

Dried vegetable chips

1 point

5

Vote Up

Fresh fruit, organic, such as blueberries

1 point

6

Vote Up

Soy milk, organic, non-flavored

1 point

7

Vote Up

Ferret Bites Peanut Butter-Flavored Crunch Treats

1 point

8

Vote Up

Le Quiche Lorraine Ratatouille Treat

1 point

9

Vote Up

Brown's Extreme Fruit and Nut Small Animal Treat

1 point

10

Vote Up

Super Pet Nut Knot Nibbler

1 point

11

Vote Up

Kaytee Healthy Bits Bird Treats

1 point

12

Vote Up

Fresh veggies, organic, such as baby carrots

0 points

13

Vote Up

Brown rice, organic

0 points

14

Vote Up

Popcorn, stove-popped, lightly salted and unbuttered

0 points

15

Vote Up

Brown's Extreme Snack Mixes for Small Pets

0 points

16

Vote Up

Brown's Baked Gourmet Muffins for Small Animals

0 points

17

Vote Up

Kaytee Fiesta Treat Sticks for Small Animals

0 points

Try Some of These Favorites

for rats and other small pets

Loading

Can Soy Prevent Mammary Tumors?

and how to add soy to your rat's diet

Soy Products

According to rat experts, soy products help prevent mammary tumors and decrease pain perception.


Feed your rat lab blocks with soy protein or add it as a daily treat:

  • MISO - spoon a little into a treat bowl

  • EDAMAME - my rat Rascal and my two love birds LOVE edamame

  • SOY POWDER - make into a paste with water and spread on a favorite treat

  • SOY MILK - clip a ceramic dish onto the side on the cage and fill with some unflavored soy milk each day (vanilla and chocolate soy milk have a lot of extra sugar)

I can't guarantee that a rat won't develop mammary tumors by eating soy every day but from what I've read it sure seems like it can help.

Sources:
Rat Fan Club.org "Rat Health Food"
eZineArticles.com "Pet Rat Care--Mammary Tumors"
RatsRatsRats.com "Double Your Pet Rat's Life Span"

What Is Inositol?

the life-extending component of brown rice and how to add it to your rat's diet

Brown Rice

Inositol is a component found in high-fiber foods such as brown rice, wheat bran, and sesame seed that may be effective in extending the life of rats by helping prevent cancer and by promoting better health.



To add Inositol to your rat's diet:

  • Cook some brown rice and spoon a small bit into your rat's food or treat dish. Eat the rest or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

  • Give your rat a small hunk of whole-grain bread. No need for a dish, they'll snatch it and run!

  • Buy powdered Inositol at your local health food store and sprinkle it in your rat's water. It reportedly has a sweet taste that rats love.

Rats need iron to absorb this mineral so make sure they're getting enough iron in their daily feed or supplements. As always, I cannot guarantee these findings are true, but the info seems legit to me!

SOURCES:
RatsRatsRats.com "Double Your Pet Rat's Life Span"
eZineArticles.com "Recent Discovery By Cancer Researchers Can Double the Life Expectancy of You Pet Rat's Life Span"
American Cancer Society "Inositol Hexaphosphate"

Try Soy or Inositol

Loading

Baked Dried Fruit Treats

a relatively healthy treat recipe you can make at home

Printable Version

What are YOUR Favorite Pet Rat Treats?

1

Vote Up

soy yoghurt covered banana pieces

My rat LOVED these and they kept his fur looking a more...0 points

Don't Give THESE Foods to Your Rat!

foods toxic and unhealthy to pet rats

Some foods your should never give rats under any circumstances. While safe for humans these foods can be harmful, toxic, or even deadly for birds. Others are okay in very small amounts but should not be fed more than once or twice a week.

This list is not exclusive, but keep your rats away from these common foods:

  • Alcohol
    Some curious pets like to drink out of glasses--keep wine and other alcoholic beverages inaccessible. Alcohol depresses organ systems and can cause fatalities.
  • Bananas, green only
    Green bananas inhibit starch-digesting enzymes.
  • Beans, raw or dry
    Share well-cooked beans with your rat but never uncooked or dry beans. These contain hemaglutin, which is very toxic, anti-nutrients that destroy vitamin A and enzymes needed to digest protein and starches. This causes clumping of red blood cells.
  • Caffeine
    Keep caffeinated beverages such as soda and tea out of rat reach. Consumption can lead to cardiac malfunction, fast heartbeat, arrhythmia, and cardiac arrest.
  • Chocolate
    Chocolate act like a poison to rats causing first foaming at the mouth (rat's can't regurgitate) and diarrhea and then seizures and death.
  • Citrus, skin and juice only
    D-limonene, a coumpound in citrus skin that also contaminates the juice during squeezing, can cause kidney damage and kidney cancer in male rats. Clean citrus fruit after peeling it to remove remaining oil.
    Roland, a One-Year-Old Domestic Rat, is Held at the Mspca in Boston Thursday, May 26, 2005


    Buy at AllPosters.com

  • Carbonated beverages
    Rat's can't burp!
  • Corn, dried only
    Dried corn can contain high levels of fungal contaminates shown to cause liver cancer.
  • Fatty meats and foods
    Continuous excessive fat consumption can cause at best oily fur and at worst diarrhea, fatty liver disease, and death. Excess fat also interferes nutrient absorption including calcium..
  • Insects, wild
    Pet rats generally only get a hold of wild bugs if the bugs get inside the house. Wild insects may carry internal parasites and diseases.
  • Potato eyes, skin, and green potato
    Plants in the nightshade family have healthy fruits but toxic leaves and stems. Potatoes, as part of this family, are safe unless green appears near the skin. Always keep your rat from accessing potato eyes, potato skin, or potato that is green or located near this green color, as they contain the toxin solanine.
  • Sweet potato, raw
    Raw sweet potato contains compounds that form cyanide in the stomach.
  • Spoiled produce
    Spoiled produce, or even produce and other foods not visibly spoiled but still old, contain deadly toxins and can have unseen bacteria and mold spores, causing digestive upset and possibly death.
  • Sticky foods
    These can cause choking.
  • Water, fluorinated and/or chlorinated
    Fluorine can cause brain damage in rats, and chlorine is also toxic. Only use filtered tap water or non-fluorinated bottled water.

More on Rat Diets

Loading

Show Off Your Love of Pet Rats

Loading

Like This Page?

Share it with your friends.

Add this to your lens »

Bookmark and Share

Show This Lens Some Love

JOIN Squidoo now to "SquidLike" this lens or to CREATE your own lens on your favorite topic! And, if you really liked it, NOMINATE this lens for Squidoo's Lens of the Day!

This module only appears with actual data when viewed on a live lens. The favorite and lensroll options will appear on a live lens if the viewer is a member of Squidoo and logged in.

Add this to your lens »

Reader Tips and Thoughts

  • glutenallergy Apr 11, 2012 @ 9:24 pm | delete
    Our rats just adore cherry tomatoes. I love how they gently take them from me when I offer them. As for water, I was unaware of needing to use filtered water. We will do that from now on.
  • darciefrench Jan 3, 2012 @ 11:26 am | delete
    I'm finding your lenses on pet rat care to be very helpful. We love our little guy so much and any tips for extending his life and keeping him happy are most welcome.
  • Didijudy May 26, 2011 @ 7:28 am | delete
    They are cute and you don't have to walk them everyday!! Great lens!!!
  • tandemonimom Apr 21, 2011 @ 1:09 pm | delete
    Pet rats are the best! Lensrolled to my pet rat lenses.
  • GetSillyProductions Mar 28, 2011 @ 6:30 pm | delete
    When I had my second pet rat, there was a health food shop down in the town where I lived and I used to get my rats food exclusively from there. It had everything I needed, from staples like various nuts and seeds to the more yummy treats like dry fruit and soy yoghurt covered banana pieces.
  • Load More
Show All

About Me

Loading

by

ShandiGP

Shandi is the proud mother of two Peach Face Lovebirds and one Fancy Rat. She's also the owner of LuckyRatFengShui.com, has a business partnership with... more »

Feeling creative? Create a Lens!

Explore related pages

Other Lenses by ShandiGP 

Loading

Related Tags