Martin's Food

[LA]

Has anyone heard about this food. My pet store gave me a sample and my girls liked it. It looks like cat food (small pieces). I don't have specifics on it yet as they don't have it in to sell, but they will in two weeks.

 

[Melissa]

Martins sells bunny and guinea pig food. I wasn't aware they sold rat food.

 

[LA]

Finally I found it, thanks Melissa I looked up Martins Rabbit Food and found their info about the rat food on the site. Here's the link

http://www.martinmills.com/littleMouseRat.htm

Here's the stats
Crude Protein (Min)20.0%
Crude Fat (Min) 7.0 %
Crude Fibre (Min) 4.0%
Moisture (Max)10.0%
Calcium (Act.) 0.9%
Phosphorus (Act.) 0.65%
Sodium (Act.) 0.2%
Vitamin A (Min) 17600 iu/kg
Vitamin D3(Min) 2200 iu/kg
Vitamin E (Min) 55 iu/kg

Um is that good that the Protein is that high in something you would have everyday. I have blocks that are 16% Protein.

Maybe I need some assistance to do a proper diet. Right now they have seed mixture which I am not completely happy with but it's ok for now.

 

[jorats]

The protein and fat levels are quite high. What are the ingredients?

 

[LA]

They gave me a sample in a little bag to try. I didn't have that much. But before I went and bought it I wanted to find out what the contents and such were. Here are the INGREDIENTS

Ground corn, ground wheat, soybeans, poultry meal, beet pulp, herring meal, brewers dried yeast, poultry fat, molasses, ground oats, Mono-calcium Di-calcium phosphate, limestone, ammonium lignosulfonate, salt, L-lysine, DL-methionine, Mannan OligoSaccharide, yucca shidigera extract, Vitamin C phosphate, rice hulls, choline chloride, iron sulfate, zinc oxide, manganese sulfate, Vitamin E, Niacin, copper sulfate, folic acid, Calcium d-pantothenate, Vitamin B12, Vitamin A, Biotin, sodium selenite, menadione sodium bisulphite complex, riboflavin, Vitamin D3, pyridoxine, thiamine mononitrate, calcium iodate, cobalt sulfate..

Also I do have a question, is it true you should feed your rats meat? If so what about meat byproducts

 

[Melissa's ZOO]

Meat byproducts are not good. It is the leftovers after they make the hamburger. EWWWW. I have even heard that it can include road kill and shelter pets. Whether that is true or not just the thought is gross enough.

I feed my girls cooked white meat chicken and oysters. once maybe twice a week.

I make sure that my dog food has no corn and no animal byproducts. My dogs eat Diamond.

I do the same for my rats.

 

[Melissa]

Hmm, is corn bad as a first ingredient?

 

[Melissa's ZOO]

From what I have read corn is bad if it is in the first three ingredients.

Lots of filler with no nutritional value. Plus it is hard to digest.

 

[LA]

Also there are a lot of things on that list I can pronounce, I know that in people food, that's not good so I would say it can't be good in rat food either.

I don't think I am liking this stuff so much.

 

[Moon]

I was at the All about Pets show in TO in the spring and they were just releasing the stuff... I had a lengthy chat with them about the protein levels and whatnot. There's so much argument about protein levels, though, that I wasn't able to sway them much. But, they did say that on all their packaging they do recommend that you supplement with fresh fruit and veg, which is good. As for corn in food, I was always taught that it was not a highly digestible ingredient. But, again, one of those things with differing opinions.

As for not being able to pronounce the ingredients, well, you're going to get that in almost any processed foods. But, I'm sure there are some you totally don't want, where as others are ok.

It's probably better than a seed mix.

 

[jorats]

Corn is a filler but it does too have nutritional value and it's also a good energy source. Only the casing is not digestible because it's cellulose, same as in humans, we pass the casing but digest the rest.