Pellets can be boring, but they are tasty and should be fully balanced to provide rats with what they need. Unfortunately, some foods do not always directly market their dangerous formulas.
*Note that you can find mouse and rat diets that are lower in protein (mice need a higher protein content than rats) and fats, but avoid things marketed for other animas like gerbils or hamsters. They have quite different dietary necessities.
How to Feed Pellets:
Do not feed pellets from a bowl, this is even more boring. They can also get obese easily this way, as they will just shove as much as they can into their mouth. Scatter feeding in the substrate is the best option. You should only be feeding about 12-15 grams per rat per day. You can divide this in half into two daily feedings but measuring is vital, studies show rats fed an ad-libitum diet can be more prone to tumours, specifically mammary and pituitary tumours (Rat Guide sources support this fact).
Information About Popular Pellets:
Science Selective (UK and US/Canada)
This is an adored food, and highly recommended. However, it isn’t widely known that this food is a vegetarian formula. This arguably does not give omnivorous animals (like rats) the things they need in a complete diet. To use this properly, you will need so supplement B-12. In my opinion a pellet should be completely balanced.
Protein: 14%
Fat: 4%
Burgess/Pets at Home Nuggets (UK)
This is a very poor choice, many breeders have actually concluded that feeding Burgess nuggets significantly increased the number of tumours their rats developed. This has a low quality meat alternative, and overall isn’t the best option.
Protein: 14%
Fat: 4.5%
Here is another opinion on that:
Oxbow Adult Rat
Oxbow adult rat food is probably the best food, this also comes in a young rat recipe but it’s better to feed the adult formula and supplement protein in their fresh foods (give them chicken or egg once or twice a week to help growth for rats under six months). Oxbow is a formal designed truly for omnivores, this has a great protein percentage for healthy adult rats.
Protein: 15%
Fat: 4%
Mazuri
Mazuri rodent breeder 6f is a suitable diet, a relatively good crude analysis. However, Mazuri rat and mouse is not a good feed. Mazuri rat and mouse is also a vegetarian formula, just like Science Selective. This does not meet the needs of omnivorous animals. To use this properly, you will need so supplement B-12. In my opinion a pellet should be completely balanced.
Rat and Mouse
Protein: 23%
Fat: 6%
Rodent Breeder 6f
Protein; 18%
Fats; 6%
Other Pellets
These include feeds like the Full Cheeks and Kaytee pellets, these companies seem to focus on quantity rather than quality, therefore these formulas usually are not the best. Either packed with protein or fats. The ideal diet for rats contains a protein content between 14-18%, and a fat content of 8% or less, though some are a bit higher/lower in protein (Do not go over 8% fat, this can have affects on many things, organs especially.) which is fine, so long as you are staying within a range of 12-20%. Any higher or lower and it could have affects not the rats. Foods like Full Cheeks/All Living Things, and Kaytee are best avoided.