Eating, Drinking, and Hoarding

The brown rat is omnivorous which means it can consume both plants and animals. The diet of a wild brown rat will largely depend on its environment but may consist of fruit and nuts, vegetables and seeds, snails and spiders, and even a spot of fishing for mussels. The brown rat's diet can vary enormously although they are drawn towards starchy and protein rich foods and also learn which food types contain the nutrients they may be lacking. This behaviour ensures that brown rats are actively seeking to meet their dietary requirements to keep them nutritionally fit and healthy.

The brown rat is always eager to test out new types of food, however, this can lead to a period of inner conflict as its motivation to eat is kept in check with a sense of caution for the unknown. Learning from other members of the colony helps a brown rat understand what is safe and unsafe to eat in that the scent of food on the fur or around the mouth of a healthy or unhealthy rat could be a sign of the food's content. Another safe guard involves scent marking. A safe food source that has been scent marked may be a sign that the food is safe for consumption. Brown rat kittens will also learn about safe food sources when suckling milk. The scent of what the mother rat has been eating passes through to the milk and will give the kittens a head start in food source selection. A brown rat that is unfortunate enough to experience the displeasure of food poisoning will remember what it ate even though it may have consumed the food some hours before. This leads to avoidance of the same type of food in the future.

The brown rat's water requirements will depend greatly on the type of food it consumes. A pet rat eating a dry diet can easily drink 25ml - 50ml a day and should always have access to an adequate volume of fresh water. I prefer to give my rats filtered water to ensure metals and other chemical additives are removed.

The brown rat's nutritional requirements have been well examined and documented due to their use in research science. As such, pet rat owners and rat food manufacturers are in a position of having a wealth of nutritional knowledge available. Pet rat food comes in the form of 'rat blocks' (nutritionally balanced food pellets) and specific rat mixes which are a combination of grains, seeds, dried fruit and vegetables, and possibly additional contents from an animal source. Many pet rat care sites recommend a diet that consists of a high proportion of rat blocks with supplementary fresh and dried food to provide a greater balance and range. Without getting into the specific nutritional requirements of a rat, the general consensus is for a high protein, low fat, low calorie, nutritionally varied diet. I feed my rats a pretty eclectic mix based on commercial, rat care, and scientific research sources.

Eating, Drinking, and Hoarding Process
A pet rat owner will undoubtedly see their pet rats consume their food and water frequently through the course of their daily interaction. Feeding time acts as a good bonding activity for owners and rats and will benefit both parties. The pet rats build trust and get a free feed while the owners build/acknowledge trust and can enjoy watching the feeding behaviour.

My pet rats quickly learn their own names through the reward of food and can even learn to associate different types of food by name. A pet rat will take food from the palm of your hand, fingers and thumb, or even from your lips. If you are giving a pet rat a new food type it will more readily take it if they see you as a trusted food source. The food exchange process typically follows the following pattern:

a) The pet rat locates a food source and may actively select from a range of differing items if more than one is available. The food is generally picked up with the front teeth but the rat will use its paws for longer reach if the food isn't readily accessible.

b) A lone pet rat may take the food from an owner's hand very gently and begin to consume the food at source but if it detects other rats around it or has had its food snatched away from it in the past it is likely to snatch the food and retreat to a hidden and more protected area.

c) If a pet rat is particularly hungry or enjoys/needs its treat it may consume it completely. However, selective breeding of pet rats hasn't removed the hoarding behaviour that their wild cousins use as a survival strategy. Pet rats may take their food to a 'store' and stock up for later. Such storage locations are typically in protected corners of a room, in the rats bedroom, or part of its cage, and in some other less visible locations. I'm not surprised to find a food stash in my bed or jacket and there are often occasions where the perpetrator is still snuggled up close by fast asleep. The hoarding instinct is further stimulated by the generous handouts given by owners. Pet rats soon learn that owners are often softies and there will be an abundance of food available in one sitting. A game of collect and stash may develop with the pat rat making multiple trips back and forth from the food source to a storage area. A pet rat will use its mouth as a shopping bag and in the large empty space between the front incisors and rear molars there is a place that can carry more than one morsel. My pet rats will take their time to select 4 or 5 small morsels and retreat with them all in their mouths. If they drop a piece while returning to their store they will stop to locate the piece and pick it up again. Nothing gets away.

d) The eating process sees the mouth and front paws working together. A morsel of food will be held in both paws close to the mouth while the top front teeth clamp the food in place and the bottom front teeth chisel small pieces which are transferred to the rear molars to be chewed and salivated. Inedible parts of food are filtered and discharged with the initial chiseling or via the side of the mouth if it gains entry. Brown rats are very messy eaters and will leave their crumbs and inedible parts scattered around their feeding area. These tell tale signs can be a first indication that there are rats in the vicinity.

e) Brown rats will get thirsty from eating dry food or from their general activities. In the wild, it is in the brown rat's interests to be near a water source where they can readily quench their thirst. A pet rat will be given a permanent water source in the form of a drip feeder bottle or some other water vessel. I prefer to use a bird water feeder as it doesn't have any noisy parts, is very easy to clean, and the low cost allows for regular replacements. A brown rat may lick directly from a water source, use a third party implement partially submerged in water to drink from, or lick water from its paws that will sponge up water.

Home