Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All,

I had pork ribs for supper today and was thinking about throwing one in for the rats. I know the female will grab it right away and since she's weaning right now thought the protein would be good. (I usually save the last two bites of hamburg, steak or whatever is for supper then cut it up and put it in the cage, good idea?). I know chicken bones are sharp when broken and would never use those but what about pork or beef bones?

Thanks
Dave

>>Hi All,
>>
>>I had pork ribs for supper today and was thinking about throwing one in for the rats. I know the female will grab it right away and since she's weaning right now thought the protein would be good. (I usually save the last two bites of hamburg, steak or whatever is for supper then cut it up and put it in the cage, good idea?). I know chicken bones are sharp when broken and would never use those but what about pork or beef bones?
>>
>>Thanks
>>Dave

Actually, yeah, you can feed chicken bones too. Rats don't crunch them up like a dog would and so they don't get splintery and so are good too. I feed any and all bones as long as the meat was cooked all the way. Worse thing is you need to have loads of bones so the rats don't fight over them.
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Sonya

Thanks Sonya,

I know bones have alot of good stuff in them, plus it keeps them busy. Thanks for the info!!

Thanks
Dave

Funny that this thread should come at a time when exactly today was the day that I fed the rat that just came over to my house some bone.

What I mean is this: me and the neighbor are sharing some rats. They have been at his house. However, today I moved the babies and the pregnant (again) mom to my house.

I threw in some Korean barbeque rib. The mom and babies ate them up. The mom is also so good that she ate the marrow and the rib bone is now just a shell with no marrows.

I then threw chicken bone. They munched on that as well and chewed the bone (mom and babies all joined in). They love bones!!!

I am going to start saving table scraps and such for the rats. I am going to make sure that everythign is cooked thoroughly. I amgoing to start to bag stuff from our meals out and take them home to rats. I love rATS!!!

Everything that the rats eat will in turn be turn into snake muscles, bones and skin!!! Very cool when I think about all the nutrients going to the snakes!!!

I am happy I have rats. I love recycling the food and giving them to rats and then have the snake use the nutrients for engergy and growth.

Can you tell that I like raising my own feeders?

You give them a bunch of chicken bones (wings is a favorite here) or like the 'body' with back and ribs to finish up and then forget that you did and open the cage to a bunch of 'BONES'.....I used to scare the heck out of coworkers at a pet store....hehehe.
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Sonya

Should be fine. Wild rodents chew up bones for calcium on a regular basis.

How about dog bones? Or pig ears? I see these in the pet stores, but, is it safe to feed rats? Because it hought they had added stuff that might be bad for rats.
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irtBikeBoy50@aol.com" target="_blank">DirtBikeBoy50@aol.comMy pets: Savanna Monitor, 2 pictus geckos,hamster,cat,and 6 goldfish.

I don't see why you couldn't. Nothing in them bad for dogs, unlikely there's anything there bad for rats.

Pig ears might be too high fat.

DeMak

>>How about dog bones? Or pig ears? I see these in the pet stores, but, is it safe to feed rats? Because it hought they had added stuff that might be bad for rats.
>>-----
>>DirtBikeBoy50@aol.comMy pets: Savanna Monitor, 2 pictus geckos,hamster,cat,and 6 goldfish.

Dogs is one thing but rats are more sensitive to stuff that is bad for you as they are faster metabolism and all. I personally see no benefit from 'toy' bones or pig ears as they have all the nutrition cooked out of them.
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Sonya

Not only that, but you fill up a stomach on a small animal with something that is not very nutrtious and is meant only as a treat for an animal the size of a dog.

DeMak

I feed my rats chicken bones and other small beef bones from well cooked meat. I usually rinse in water if spices were used to flavore the meat so it is not too spiced for the rats. Never had a problem so far and they love the meat and marrow.