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    Rat Diet: Ingredients And Making Up A Mix
    Rat Diet: Ingredients And Making Up A Mix
    Rat Diet: Ingredients And Making Up A Mix
    Ebook114 pages1 hour

    Rat Diet: Ingredients And Making Up A Mix

    By Alison Campbell

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    About this ebook

    "Rat Diet: Ingredients and making up a mix", is the third book in The Scuttling Gourmet Series. It takes you back to the principles of feeding rats a healthy diet. Rats are foragers and their natural diet can encompass almost anything edible – and I’m using the word “edible” loosely here! Faced with the extraordinary number of things that a rat will happily eat, fixing your rat a great diet can seem daunting.
    This books aims to demystify rat diet and help you to make good decisions for your pets. We’ll discuss good nutrition, a range of suitable ingredients in detail and wind up with a walk through of how to make up a mix.
    The text is referenced throughout and often links to further information and a variety of online shops where you can purchase ingredients. Everything you need to equip you to prepare quality, wholesome food for your rats.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAlison Campbell
    Release dateAug 27, 2016
    ISBN9781370928811
    Rat Diet: Ingredients And Making Up A Mix
    Author

    Alison Campbell

    I have three true passions in this life: I am an information sponge. I love to learn and - just as eagerly - love to grow. I am enchanted by words and have always written - even as a young child I was a poet. I want to help other people to expand themselves - nurturing is a big part of who I am. It's an inevitable then, that I should find myself after years of nursing, home educating and running a dog care business, considering ever-increasingly, that what I am, is an author. Inevitable also, that by far the majority of what I write is non-fiction expansion material. Currently this centres very much around rats, dogs and running a small business. I also - in my best moments - am still a poet. My life is currently very fluid. I do own a house in the UK, which is currently rented, and at the moment I live in my motorhome, usually somewhere in the North of England. I did this to escape the treadmill we all so easily slip onto in this busy life, and to apply the principles of minimalism and essentialism to my life. Although I still run the dog care business from wherever I am, and still do some hands-on work in that regard, most of my work time is now taken up with writing. If not writing, you might find me cooking, walking, enjoying the people I love, in an atmospheric pub drinking whisky or real ale, watching Liverpool play, listening to Audible or helping out on my sister's smallholding.

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      Book preview

      Rat Diet - Alison Campbell

      The Scuttling Gourmet Series 3

      Rat Diet: Ingredients and making up a mix

      Alison Campbell

      Copyright 2016 Alison Campbell

      All rights reserved

      Published by Shunamite Publishing

      Smashwords edition license notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favourite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Preface

      This ebook represents a new era for The Scuttling Gourmet, which was first published in 2003 and is now in its fourth edition. The book still offers a comprehensive guide to wholesome nutrition for rats, and at the moment (2016), is only available in hard copy.

      As part of my current regeneration of the old Shunamite Rats breeding site, into the new online home of The Scuttling Gourmet and all things pertinent to rat nutrition, enrichment and well-being, I have decided to create a series of ebooks. My intention is to digitalize the print version of the book, in order to make it more accessible abroad, and for those who simply prefer this format. The plan is for a series of 7 ebooks which will together encompass most of the material contained in The Scuttling Gourmet, plus added extras, such as links to extra information and suppliers. This is book three and the rest should be published throughout 2016.

      If you enjoy this book, please bookmark the website and sign up to our free e-newsletter to be the first to find out as new ebooks become available.

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Starting at the beginning

      Understanding major food groups

      Rat food versus grain mixes

      Cereal grains

      Pulses (edible legumes)

      Meat and meat substitutes

      Seeds and nuts

      Vegetables, fruit and herbs

      Making up a dry mix

      References

      About the author

      Making contact with the author

      Introduction

      Rat nutrition is a wide-ranging subject, with many opinions and ideas as to what is best to feed your rats. While the book – The Scuttling Gourmet – aims to offer an all embracing look at rat nutrition, here, we are focusing down on only one area of feeding rats – the general principles of good rat diet, suitable ingredients to use and how to make up a mix.

      With this in mind, there will be many natural gaps in the information given here, for instance, I don’t discuss what to feed growing rats, the elderly, or how to scatter feed. If you are keen to put the information in the book into a wider context, or come across a concept that you wish to expand, then I would encourage you to check out the growing archive of information on The Scuttling Gourmet website, and look out for the other ebooks in this series.

      If you need help or clarification while reading this book, please email me at mailto:alison@shunamiterats.co.uk and I will try to assist you.

      Starting at the beginning

      When it comes to considering the nutritional requirements of the pet rat, we need to realise that there is no ‘one size fits all’ response. Each rat is a unique individual, whose particular need for nutrients will be influenced by many factors that will vary throughout its life.

      These factors might include:

      Genetic differences

      Stage of life

      Reproductive status

      Environmental factors

      Activity levels

      Gender

      Illness

      Genetic differences

      Genetic differences

      Most of us have seen genetic differences at work. Sometimes, although a group receives the same diet, one rat will become obese, while the others remain slim and fit. This is probably the result of many factors, some of which are inherited differences.

      Stage of life and reproductive status

      The nutritional requirements of an individual rat will vary considerably throughout its life, depending on age, breeding status and health. Young, growing rats, breeding does and stud bucks will have higher requirements for many nutrients. Adult rats thrive on diets that are lower in protein, some micronutrients and calories, and as they age they may also benefit from a diet designed to protect kidney health.

      Environmental factors and activity levels

      Rats kept in low ambient temperatures require more energy (calories) to maintain their body temperature, while a warm environment often reduces food intake, as does social conflict and environmental stress. Varying levels of activity lead to differing energy requirements; a rat kept in a small tank or aquarium, with few climbing opportunities, will obviously use less energy than a fit rat kept in a large cage with lots of time free-ranging.

      Gender

      Males and females may have varying requirements and tolerate different levels of specific nutrients in their diet. For instance, does are generally more active and less likely to overfeed and become obese (though some will). Males do not tolerate high levels of protein as they age, due to their predisposition to kidney disease, while females are more likely to develop mammary lumps and pituitary tumours if overfed (or fed a high fat diet), because of hormonal factors and their general predisposition to these types of tumour.

      Illness

      Sick rats generally have high energy requirements, as they may be using up calories in laboured breathing, fighting infection or supporting a large tumour. Many nutrients may be needed in greater amounts, such as protein, vitamins and minerals. Surgery can increase nutritional needs for the period of recovery and healing, while neutering can lead to a rat putting on weight more easily and – if intake is not controlled – to obesity.

      Quantities

      One of the common questions asked by rat owners is how much they should feed their rats. Some sources quote a weight of dry mix in grams per rat, which I have seen range from 14g to one third of its body weight - so about 150g for an average 450g rat! The truth is that this question can only be answered by trial and error, for your own unique colony of rats and even then will vary over time. Try imagining how difficult it would be to answer the question, How much should a human eat? and you begin to comprehend the difficulties.

      How much? (in terms of volume or weight) is also affected by differences in the weight and volume of all of the many and varied foods that you might choose to feed your rats. For instance, if you feed lots of fresh food, then the overall volume of diet must be increased to account for the weight of water in the food. Likewise, you will need smaller volumes when a food is primarily comprised of small, dense grains and seeds. The working answer to this question isn’t even constant for a single group of rats, as it will vary with fluctuations in health, season, environment, age and activity levels.

      The following action plan, will help you to establish how much to feed your particular group, but remember that needs vary with time. This approach is not intended for very young rats (up to

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