Glutenfree Pets: Rats, Anyone With Experience?

[Blondie]

Wasn't quite sure where to post this, but here it goes.

So I have the cutest rat ever, everytime I see him I want to pick him up, but every time that notion hits me all I can think of is gluten, it must be everywhere in his fur :\

So I'm wondering does anyone have some experience with rats on a glutenfree diet? What do I replace his food with?

Obviously the bread is just replaced with glutenfree-bread, but what about his ratfood, which is the basis of his entire diet?

[ShayFL]

Rats are naturally scavengers. They live in sewers and eat whatever they can find. You could feed him gluten free dog food. Better nutrition there than they get in the wild. And supplment with fresh fruits and veggies now and again.

[JenPen]

Hello-

We do a bit of a variety act here. We have a bag mixed with raw peanuts, sunflower seeds (no shell), pumpkin seeds and cat food. I give them that and some Rice Chex. We also do the fresh fruits and veggies. As treats we give them a dried fruit mix. When we got the rats, the people at the store were concerned they might get too fat if we did our own diet, but ours are by no means overweight. Quite honestly, I think they'd eat pretty much anything you gave them.

Jennifer

[munchkinette]

I have rats. I may have to get rid of them because of my allergies to them, not the gluten. I would recommend checking out the Open Original Shared Link There is a wealth of knowledge on there. People KNOW what is in their rat food. I actually use low protein dried dog food. It has wheat in it, but I make sure to wash my hands each time I feed them.