Q&A for How to Feed a Pet Rat

Make sure that there's always at least one piece of food per rat in the cage at all times. Still, try not to overfeed them either—rats tend to hoard food in their cage, and it may become rotten over time.

No, you don't need to do that. Your rat will take the food out and do what they want with it anyway. You can just put the food wherever you want in the cage and the rat will find it and get it.

If you have a young rat, you should give them higher protein, like around 18%. Then, as they get older, you want to reduce the protein. An adult rat should be given around 16% protein. For an older rat that's getting overweight, you can even reduce it to 14% protein, which will increase their lifespan.

There's been a lot of controversy about whether orange juice increases the risk of kidney cancer in rats. This stems from an American scientist Dr. Swenberg, who found male rats belonging to a certain strain were more likely to get kidney cancer if they have orange juice. Further research implicates substance D-limonene, found in the orange rind rather than the juice. However, the good news is D-limonene has no affect in the kidney of female rats or other mammalian species. It is fine to give orange juice to female rats, but best to avoid it with males.

For some of our domestic pets, such as dogs, chocolate is toxic; however, this is not the case for rats. While rats love chocolate and you can give it to them, it should only be given in tiny quantities. This is because the small size of rats means it's very easy to give them huge amounts of calories relative to their body weight and cause obesity. Also, rats don't brush their teeth, so the sugar content can predispose to dental disease.