pet food i bought in germany

Hi,

(I just read your message in my guestbook, thanks for signing!)

gazz@... wrote:
> Anyway, at one pet shop in Memingen (south germany) i got a rat food
> that was differnet, it is all puffed corns (look like sugar puffs, but
> without the sugar coating) those green and red rough things.. think
> they are mineral extracts or something, but best of all, there's dried
> prawns, dried meats (ham and the like, with fat on, all dried) dried
> bananas and so on.

This sounds more like a treat mix than a food mix to me. I know JR Farm
sells all kinds of healthy dried treats, both sorted out seperately and in
mixed packages.

> He absolutely loves this food, he'll play with the dried prawns, pull
> the heads and legs off, then eat the insides, then the heads, and dump
> the empty shell in his toilet box (which is now called his prawn shell
> box, as he's never used it for it's origional purpous :)

I'm sure he does! Imagine yourself as a child, getting cakes and cookies for
dinner all the time. ;-) But like Joanne already said, a balanced meal would
really be better for Banden.

Good luck with Branden, and with touring Europe. :-) My rats rarely leave
the house, let alone tour all over the continent! (Have you been in my home
country The Netherlands yet?) By the way, if and when you get back home, do
consider getting Branden a mate as rats are very social animals (but I guess
you already know that).

- Tale

--
"Oh, Rats!"
http://www.taletn.com/rats/
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On 27 Oct, 11:11, "Tale" <t... DeleteThis @martinic.nl.earth> wrote:
<snips>
>
> I'm sure he does! Imagine yourself as a child, getting cakes and cookies for
> dinner all the time. ;-) But like Joanne already said, a balanced meal would
> really be better for Banden.
>
> Good luck with Branden, and with touring Europe. :-) My rats rarely leave
> the house, let alone tour all over the continent! (Have you been in my home
> country The Netherlands yet?) By the way, if and when you get back home, do
> consider getting Branden a mate as rats are very social animals (but I guess
> you already know that).

Hi there,

were in holland in august, (took my GF to the theme park that used to
be six flags, on flevoland for her birthday)

But we didnt have branden then, got him a couple of weeks later when
we were heading east, was going to go into poland, but decided against
it.

i never thought of the food not being balanced, logical really tho, he
does eat the corns and those green and red rough things all foods have
in them as well, i actually thought this food would be ok for him
because of the meat content, rats being carnivores and all that, but
of course the meat isnt fresh, it's all cured/dried stuff.

i've heard a lot about these rat blocks, but not seen them yet, or i
dont think i have, but it sounds like thats the feed i want to get him
to like, i dont want him to be a fat rat, so i'll have to persavere
with him throwing tantrums when he dosent get his favorite food, and
make sure toffee (the dog) eats all hers, as he's been known to nick
left overs of her food.

i am wondering about his weight, he was 110 grams when we got him,
30th of august. he turned 200 grams about the begining of the 1st week
in october, but then stayed there till i got him this new food about a
week ago, where he put on 15 grams in 3 days, (tho the scales i use
are different ones each time, the analouge ones i have in the van are
wildly unaccurate, so i... ahem... take him with me when i go
shopping, he has one of those fabric rat carriers, then in the salad
isle, when no ones around, i quickly whip him out of his carrier and
plonk him on the digital scales (i do put a paper towel down first,
and zero the scales to take the weight of the towel) i havent printed
a ticket out yet, should do then stick them into his weight book,
gotta think of a good fruit to describe him for the printed sticker :)

Anyway, should a 3 and a half month old male rat weigh 215 grams? or
is he small for his age?
i always had female rats before, last one i had was a good 10 years
ago now, and they grew to about the size branden is now, but i know
branden is still growing.

We are considering a mate for him (as in friend, not a female rat..
tho i'm sure he'd prefer a female :)
not sure if to get one now, or indeed wait till were back home, which
will be middle of december, i'd want to get one of a similar age to
him, and really want to go to a rat breeder/fancier, as he came from a
pet shop, no choice really as we were in a strange town, and he was a
spur of the moment purchace... we had been talking about geting a pet
rat for years tho,

The cage he has in the van is 54cm long, 28cm deep, and 35cm high, has
2 platforms, a hamster hammock at the top (which he fits just fine..
he has a towel wash mit thing for a sleeping bag too)
we really cant fit a larger cage in the van, tho he only really uses
the cage for sleepin in, he gets a good 4 to 6 hours play time a
night, and the top cage door is always open when were not traveling,
and he has the curtian pelmet to scarper accross from there,

at home we'll get him as big a cage as we can find, probably one of
the ferret tower cages, but the avery looks even better, were getting
rid of the Tv in our bedroom to put his cage in it's place, so 2 rats
will givve better performances when were watching the rat cage instead
of the TV :)

but when we get home he'll be even older, so harder to find a similar
aged ratty friend, but in the van if he dosent get on with a new rat,
were stuck,

are there any breeders in switzerland who'd let us allow branden to
choose a cage mate, i.e. put branden in a large area, and introduce
other rats, the one he gets on with the most, we get, or would that be
a bad idea?
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Rats are actually omnivores so eat animals and plants. :) My rats are
vegetarian, mainly because I don't eat meat.


As for Branden's weight, I wouldn't consider him small for his age.
He's either spot on or a tad heavier. Either way his weight seems
fine.


A rat from a rat rescue is another alternative. Either way I'm sure
he'd like a friend pretty soon. However, the ages of the rats don't
have to be that similar. BTW, how do Branden and your dog get along?

Sounds like you're having a great holiday. I'm really jealous!

Dewi
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Dewi wrote:

<snip>

> As for Branden's weight, I wouldn't consider him small for his age.
> He's either spot on or a tad heavier. Either way his weight seems
> fine.

This is why I'm worried about my two little beggars being 335g and 355g
when they're only two weeks old! They're already bigger than the females we
used to keep, and growing constantly.

<snip>

Rosemary
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Rosemary wrote:
> Dewi wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>> As for Branden's weight, I wouldn't consider him small for his age.
>> He's either spot on or a tad heavier. Either way his weight seems
>> fine.
>
> This is why I'm worried about my two little beggars being 335g and 355g
> when they're only two weeks old! They're already bigger than the females we
> used to keep, and growing constantly.
>
> <snip>
>
> Rosemary

You mean ten weeks right? It does seem rather big but they could be
longer and larger then your average rat.

--
Joanne
The Rat Shack
www.jorats.com
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On Oct 28, 11:18 am, Rosemary <mentally_subnor....DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Dewi wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> > As for Branden's weight, I wouldn't consider him small for his age.
> > He's either spot on or a tad heavier. Either way his weight seems
> > fine.
>
> This is why I'm worried about my two little beggars being 335g and 355g
> when they're only two weeks old! They're already bigger than the females we
> used to keep, and growing constantly.
>
> <snip>
>
> Rosemary


The breeder may be able to tell you if your rats are unusually heavy
and how big her rats get. The other things is that they could just be
going through a growth spurt.

Dewi
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On 28 Oct, 13:07, Rosemary <mentally_subnor....RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Dewi wrote:
> > Rosemary wrote:
> >> Dewi wrote:

> >> This is why I'm worried about my two little beggars being 335g and
> >> 355g when they're only two weeks old! They're already bigger than the
> >> females we used to keep, and growing constantly.


wow, maybe they're crossed with cats :)

Branden is 225 grams today, weighed on my little plastic scales in the
van (dont think any shops open on sundays here, so can't go and weigh
him the usual way, and we are having a lazy day in the van today,
making it more adventurous for branden)

He's outgrown both toilet roll inners and kitchen roll inners, i have
a couple of plastic peanut cans he fits just right, cut bottom out and
he's going in and out of them now, and got a couple of 1.5 litre pop
bottles for big tubes up on the pelmet he runs along from the top of
his cage
(his cage is mounted on a shelf on the wall, so it's at eye height
for us, and i can fit under it when sitting on the sofa... sam lays
under it in bed, which is fine untill he decides to play the 'throw
all the food/floor covering/toys out and try to get them into sams
snoring mouth game :)

Think i'll get some good photo's of him and put a new part to my
website up whilst i've got net access today.
 >> Stay informed about: pet food i bought in germany 

Joanne wrote:
> Rosemary wrote:
>> Dewi wrote:
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>>> As for Branden's weight, I wouldn't consider him small for his age.
>>> He's either spot on or a tad heavier. Either way his weight seems
>>> fine.
>>
>> This is why I'm worried about my two little beggars being 335g and
>> 355g when they're only two weeks old! They're already bigger than the
>> females we used to keep, and growing constantly.
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>> Rosemary
>
> You mean ten weeks right? It does seem rather big but they could be
> longer and larger then your average rat.

Yes, I mean ten weeks! Thanks for pointing that out :-) Sometimes my
fingers just start auto-typing a word and if I don't go back to check I
get all kinds of weird words in my posts.

They are rather big - at full stretch, from nose to rump they're nine
inches long, and their tails are eight inches long. I never know quite
how to measure body length, cause there's such a difference between their
length when they're stretching and when they're sitting eating a piece of
food. They're just huge. I wonder how big they'll get!

Rosemary
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Dewi wrote:
> Rosemary wrote:
>> Dewi wrote:
>>
>> > As for Branden's weight, I wouldn't consider him small for his age.
>> > He's either spot on or a tad heavier. Either way his weight seems
>> > fine.
>>
>> This is why I'm worried about my two little beggars being 335g and
>> 355g when they're only two weeks old! They're already bigger than the
>> females we used to keep, and growing constantly.
>
> The breeder may be able to tell you if your rats are unusually heavy
> and how big her rats get. The other things is that they could just be
> going through a growth spurt.

Thanks. I did get in touch with the breeder to ask if they were too big,
and if I should put them on a restricted diet, but she said that they
didn't need to have their food intake restricted, and I should just feed
them every day with the amount they'll eat in 24 hours. She didn't seem
shocked when I said how big they were, so maybe it's just a family thing,
like you said. I'm not sure if it is a growth spurt; they seem to be
consistently putting on an ounce a week now. They did go through a phase
for about a week where they had podgy tummies on them, and I worried they
were getting too fat and thought maybe I should put them on a diet, but
they lost their tummies and turned the fat into muscle.

By the way, you probably guessed, but I meant ten weeks, not two weeks
:-) They look to me like fully grown rats already, but then of course I'm
used to females.

These are the parents, apparently. They don't look that big, but I'm
assuming they were quite young when these photos were taken.

http://www.carregrats.co.uk/seren.html

http://www.carregrats.co.uk/khrysomallos.html

Rosemary
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gazz DeleteThis @kampenwagen.co.uk wrote:
> Rosemary wrote:
>> Dewi wrote:
>> > Rosemary wrote:
>
>> >> This is why I'm worried about my two little beggars being 335g and
>> >> 355g when they're only [ten] weeks old! They're already bigger
>> >> than the females we used to keep, and growing constantly.
>
>
> wow, maybe they're crossed with cats :)

Now _that_'s a scary thought! I'm coming to the conclusion that they're
just inherently immense, I think. :-)

> Branden is 225 grams today, weighed on my little plastic scales in the
> van (dont think any shops open on sundays here, so can't go and weigh
> him the usual way, and we are having a lazy day in the van today,
> making it more adventurous for branden)

I've forgotten what you said he weight last time; I take it he's slowly
growing bigger?

> He's outgrown both toilet roll inners and kitchen roll inners, i have
> a couple of plastic peanut cans he fits just right, cut bottom out and
> he's going in and out of them now, and got a couple of 1.5 litre pop
> bottles for big tubes up on the pelmet he runs along from the top of
> his cage (his cage is mounted on a shelf on the wall, so it's at eye
> height for us, and i can fit under it when sitting on the sofa... sam
> lays under it in bed, which is fine untill he decides to play the
> 'throw all the food/floor covering/toys out and try to get them into
> sams snoring mouth game :)

Ha! That's brilliant :-) Ours are particularly keen on the slide-down-
the-chest-and-stomach game (underneath clothing, of course!) so I have
lots of vertical scratches on me at the moment. It oesn't seem to matter
how often I clip their claws, they just sharpen them again - and of
course cutting their claws just makes them scrabble more :-)

> Think i'll get some good photo's of him and put a new part to my
> website up whilst i've got net access today.

Yay, rat pics!

Rosemary
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On Oct 28, 11:07 pm, Rosemary <mentally_subnor... RemoveThis @hotmail.com>
I'm not sure if it is a growth spurt; they seem to be
> consistently putting on an ounce a week now.

I've weighed the boys fairly consistently from about 8 weeks old, and
it seems that they put on an ounce a week (4grams a day) for quite a
few weeks.

This is what they weighed at 10 weeks.
Apollo - 325gms, 11.5 oz
Samson - 325gms, 11.5oz
Zeus - 300gms, 10.75oz
Hercules - 290 or so 10.25><
Atlas - 275gms, 9.75oz

By 13 weeks they were:-
Apollo - 400gms ^75
Samson - 400gms ^75
Zeus - 350gms ^50
Hercules - 325gms ^35
Atlas - 350gms ^75

Between 13 and 19 weeks, the weight gain slowed down.

19weeks
Apollo - 425 (-25)
Samson - 425 (+15)
Zeus - 325 (-50)
Altas - 400 (+40)
Hercules - 375 steady

Must be about time to weigh them all again. :s

cheers,
M&m
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perigrine wrote:
> Rosemary wrote:
>
>> I'm not sure if it is a growth spurt; they seem to be
>> consistently putting on an ounce a week now.
>
> I've weighed the boys fairly consistently from about 8 weeks old, and
> it seems that they put on an ounce a week (4grams a day) for quite a
> few weeks.
>
> This is what they weighed at 10 weeks.
> Apollo - 325gms, 11.5 oz
> Samson - 325gms, 11.5oz
> Zeus - 300gms, 10.75oz
> Hercules - 290 or so 10.25><
> Atlas - 275gms, 9.75oz
>
> By 13 weeks they were:-
> Apollo - 400gms ^75
> Samson - 400gms ^75
> Zeus - 350gms ^50
> Hercules - 325gms ^35
> Atlas - 350gms ^75
>
> Between 13 and 19 weeks, the weight gain slowed down.
>
> 19weeks
> Apollo - 425 (-25)
> Samson - 425 (+15)
> Zeus - 325 (-50)
> Altas - 400 (+40)
> Hercules - 375 steady
>
> Must be about time to weigh them all again. :s

Brilliant, thanks for those figures! I guess my boys aren't freakishly
abnormal, then - they only weigh 10g and 30g more than your Samson and
Apollo did at the same age. :-)

Love the names, by the way - my family's pets when I was a kid were
called things like Persephone, Apollo, Hercules, Megara, Ptolemy, and,
er, Punk.

Rosemary
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<gazz.DeleteThis@kampenwagen.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1193436910.784562.136880@50g2000hsm.googlegroups.com...
>I got my rat whilst we were (and still are) touring europe in our
> motorhome, he's a husky rat called Branden (he came from Brandenburg,
> just outside Berlin)
>
> I got the same food he was fed at the shop i got him from, he didnt
> eat much of it, i give him fresh veggies every other day, and also
> some puppy welping food whilst he was growing the most (he's about 3
> and a half months old now, and weighing in at 215 gramms)
>
> i got all the rat foods i came accross in the many pet shops we came
> accross whilst traveling around Germany, even found Reggie Rat in one
> shop... he didnt like that much... just like my last rats didnt.
>
> Appart from one 'total' rat food which was pellets, they all contain
> mostly small grains and seeds, not the things rats eat, proving these
> foods are just generic rabbit mixes with different labels.
>
> Anyway, at one pet shop in Memingen (south germany) i got a rat food
> that was differnet, it is all puffed corns (look like sugar puffs, but
> without the sugar coating) those green and red rough things.. think
> they are mineral extracts or something, but best of all, there's dried
> prawns, dried meats (ham and the like, with fat on, all dried) dried
> bananas and so on.
>
> He absolutely loves this food, he'll play with the dried prawns, pull
> the heads and legs off, then eat the insides, then the heads, and dump
> the empty shell in his toilet box (which is now called his prawn shell
> box, as he's never used it for it's origional purpous :)
>
> he roots out all the dried meat chunks, takes some dried banana to bed
> with him for a midnight snack, and even eats the puffed corn things.
>
> Problem is, we are now in switzerland, and heading south, and when i
> opened the bag of food, it ripped (those silly crunchy plastic
> wrappers that do that) i put the contents into a normal plastic bag,
> and threw out the origional.
>
> Now i've found a rat food he loves, i dont know it's name to see where
> i can get some more.
>
> Does anyone on here know the food i'm talking about?
>
> It might have been the pet stores own mix, (can't recall the pet shops
> name either, something like dietrichs zoo mart, it was just opposite
> the motorhome stellplatz we were parked on) but i'm sure it was a pre-
> packaged product, and it was cheaper than the other 'brand' name rat
> food that is sold everywhere (about 3 euro's for a kilo and a half)
>
> Cheers,
> Gazz... And Branden will thank you if you can put a name to the food
> he loves too :)
>

Just poking my nose into this thread to say what a wonderful holiday touring
around Europe in a motorhome! I'd love to do the same one day, touring
Canada and America.

Happy travels :o)

Tracey
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