When we initially acquired rats I didn’t know anything at all about their species dietary requirements at all. So, when it came to feeding them, we basically determined to share what we ourselves had been feeding on for pretty much 10 many years – a uncooked plant dependent diet plan. For the rats, this meant feeding them a good range of seasonal food items that included fruit, leafy and wild greens, veggies, some soaked/sprouted grains, legumes and a dry mix of wholegrains, seeds, berries and nuts.
The rats seemed to seriously appreciate the meals I was feeding them and they all seemed really healthful and grew into charming regular sized rats. They hardly ever wanted to visit a vet.
As I began to understand extra about rat diet, I began to insert in a number of items like reside mealworms and some fish. They never ever genuinely seemed quite very good right after ingesting these food items and just about every time they ate are living worms or insects, their behaviour would require some carpet tearing or biting! They also became much extra ‘wild’. This led me to conclude that given that they were domesticated rats residing in a domestic circumstance as pet rats, live meat or even dried meat wasn’t genuinely essential, giving their nutritional necessities were being getting achieved. When we didn’t feed meat, they had been constantly considerably a lot more tranquil, affectionate and contented minor ratties. And so, their food plan grew to become primarily raw vegan. Neither my husband or wife nor myself had taken dairy for a extended time for wellness motives and so that was also excluded from their food plan.
Now, all our rats enjoy a selection of food in time as we experience that this allows for a good variation of vitamins throughout the yr e.g. root veggies and pumpkin in the winter and much more fruit and greens in the summer time months. Of course, there are generally unique wants to take into consideration too. Every single rat is special as I am guaranteed you previously know!
Of course, I am often learning and I guess that will never prevent (fortunately!). As rat carers, we are all continuously seeking the finest for our rats and delivering them a healthier diet regime is at the top of our lists. Eating plan is also in no way a static thing. It is continually evolving as our rats wants alter from day to working day, time to year and throughout cycles of advancement, copy, throughout pregnancy and ageing.
I’m not advocating that you never ever feed meat or fish to your rats if that is what you want to do. I am simply stating that their dietary demands can be met on a vegan food plan if very good care is taken and I hope to be ready to support rat carers on that path if they so decide on it.
Then, there are the health and fitness and ethical things to consider that may perhaps guidance the tendency toward feeding vegan style. There have also been nutritional experiments (involving rats/mice) that show a calorie-restricted eating plan can assist boost wellbeing and enhance longevity.
Calorie restriction by natural means happens when on a uncooked vegan diet regime without the need of effort and hard work. This can aid to stay clear of weight problems that is typically connected with mammary lumps in girls.
I’m confident our rats could be residing significantly for a longer time with considerably less illness and lumps etcetera. I do not have enough facts as of still in my have groups, but I do know of a lady in Australia who has rats dwelling to be close to 4 decades or far more who are fed a substantial-raw vegan diet plan. She has rats with much less tumours and wellbeing challenges and they all seem to be healthier and nicely made. Of system, there can be genetic components involved much too. It would be great to have more people feeding their rats a vegan diet regime so that we can acquire the information in many years to come. If you are interested in accumulating details on feeding a vegan diet regime to your rats, make sure you get hold of me.
There is also so significantly to think about these times when it arrives to how to feed ourselves and our pets e.g. the agricultural market has been related to the progress in global warming and water shortages. And then there are our polluted seas in which our fish appear from. Element of why I decide on to be vegan myself is thanks to environmental criteria.
Just get a glimpse at these studies: –
*It usually takes about 300 gallons of water for each day to produce foods for a vegan, and extra than 4,000 gallons of water per day to make food stuff for a meat-eater.
*You conserve a lot more h2o by not ingesting a pound of beef than you do by not showering for an complete calendar year.
*Meals for a vegan can be made on only 1/6 of an acre of land, when it can take 3 1/4 acres of land to develop food items for a meat-eater.
*Vegans and vegetarians help save a lot more than 100 animals a calendar year for every particular person.
-Statistics borrowed from http://www.goveg.com.
Yet another motive why folks pick to be vegan or to feed a vegan food plan to their animals is down to how people today sense about the everyday living and treatment of animals reared for foodstuff.
My personalized nutritional decisions replicate my emotion for the correct to lifestyle for other animals.
I you should not want to consume products/food items that has associated the deliberate struggling of one more animal to feed both my animals or myself.
The reasoning behind me feeding my rats a vegan diet regime is this. If I can provide a nutritionally complete vegan eating plan for my rats that encourages health, longevity and well getting, and brings about no damage to animals in the approach, then why would I opt for normally?