Lou's Rat Diet

Lou Dux
From the RMCA web site, July 2003 (added October 2022)

Lou's Rat Diet
(Straight from Australia!)

Lou is located in Australia, so some of the names of the ingredients listed in the Porridge mix may vary from country to country. Substitutions made be made with products of similar kind.

Basic kibble provided on a daily basis

This is a work Horse Mix manufactured by Ridley AgriProducts (High Performance Animal Nutrition) from Victoria http://www.ridleyhorse.com.au/. Cost for 35kg bag approximately 80lbs per bag : AUD $28.50. Contains a vitamin and mineral premix from Kentucky Equine Research Incorporated, Australasia.
The Approximate Analysis is as follows:
Min Crude Protein 11.0%
Maximum Crude Fiber 13.0%
Minimum Crude Fat 2.5%
Maximum Salt (NaCl) 1.5%
Minimum Calcium 1.0%
Minimum Phosphorus 0.43%
Minimum Copper 30mg/kg
Minimum Selenium 0.5mg/kg
The manufacturer states this is a complete food and may be fed to mature horses and ponies as the only feed or diluted with hay, chaff or good quality pasture according to individual needs.
This basic dry mix also has molasses through it.

Vegetable-Fruit Supplement mix enough for 40 rats

Provided every two weeks

Raw salad

Once-a-week supplement

Cut up 2 apples, 2 pears, 1 piece broccoli, 1/2 cauliflower, 1/2 iceberg lettuce or other lettuce, 4 zucchini, 6 carrots, 1/2 a bunch of celery and 1 bunch or wom bok or bok choy or other Chinese green vegetables.
In addition any left over vegetables from our dinner.
Also when I make pasta once a week they get offered plain cooked noodles without sauce.

Vitamin Supplement

In winter months, a "children's" vitamin supplement is given once a month sprinkled over their food or given in drinking water.

Winter Favorite

Rat Porridge Recipe

1 packet of soup mix (In Australia this is pearl barley, lentils and dried slip peas both yellow and green) .
Soak soup mix overnight and in the morning boil it up with a couple of cups of stock. Any type of liquid stock, chicken, beef, or vegetable will do, or if you don't have pre-made liquid stock, use 1 cup of water to 1 stock cube and when all is cooked to soft, add rolled oats and cook on a low heat till all the moisture is absorbed and you have a lovely lumpy porridge.
Cool down and serve warm. Your rats will love this!

Treats

Lab blocks are given as treats.
Another treat given sparingly is Liver biscuits. Mince up in a blender: 1 cup of raw liver (beef or sheep), 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of any edible cooking oil (I use olive oil), and pour into a bowl. Mix in two cups of quick cooking rolled oats.
Press mixture into a flat biscuit tray, and bake in a moderate oven until brown. While still warm slice with a knife into small biscuit's, and let cool in tray. When biscuits are cooled they can be stored in freezer till required.
A tip when making liver biscuits: Cook the biscuits at night before you go to bed, as the house will smell like liver for a couple of hours.
*Note: The biscuits are very high in protein, but make for very good treats for animals recovering from illness and surgery.

Thanks go out to Lou for letting us share her rat diet and recipes.