Rodent Feeding Kits

We stock everything you need to keep your rodents tummies in top health! Feeding rodents

Your little rodents may be teeny but they still require a balanced diet - just in miniature! Knowing the requirements of your rats or whether you need a hamster feeder can be confusing. Helpfully, we stock a robust range of foods from reliable brands, in our online shop, so you can be assured you are hitting all their nutrition targets.

A balanced diet

Each of our wonderful rodent species has a slightly different diet requirement to keep healthy. The true rodents  - mice, rats, hamsters, and gerbils  - are wonderfully unfussy and are happy to eat veggies, seeds, or animal material. Specialised rodents  - guinea pigs, chinchillas, and degus - are strictly vegetarian and need a main diet of fibrous foods like grass and hay. 

A healthy rodent diet contains:

• Balanced protein and carbohydrates and fats

• Hard texture to wear down teeth 

• Vitamins and minerals to prevent deficiencies 

• High fiber for a healthy gut 

• Minimal high sugar or processed foods  to avoid weight issues and teeth or hormonal disease

• Avoid toxic foods

Why is diet important?

Food is digested by our rodents' bodies and then the components are used to grow and repair the body. A balanced diet gives sufficient building blocks to build the following:

• Sleek and abundant coat 

• Soft smooth skin 

• Bright healthy eyes 

• Strong gnawing teeth 

• A digestive system that digests efficiently 

• Strong bones and strong supple muscles and ligaments 

Your healthy rodent

• Eats well

• looks sleek and gloss

• Is playful, incredibly curious, and content

• Passes regular urine and well-formed poo

• Avoid and recovers from disease faster 

• Lives longer 

A balanced diet - species differences

Some important species differences will help you understand how to feed your rodent the right foods

Rats' respiratory needs

While all rodents need hard food to wear down their teeth, rats, mice, and guinea pigs are prone to respiratory infections so a suitable rat feeder pellet food is hard and dust-free and hay or straw is dust extracted.

Ahoy me.. erm..guinea pigs?

Guinea pigs cannot make their own vitamin c, so like human sailors, they can get scurvy if they don’t get enough from their diet! Scurvy causes sickly guinea pigs with teeth, skin, and eye issues. To avoid this feed a guinea pig-specific food from a high-quality brand alongside their hay or grass-based diet. 

Sweet degus

Degus are very prone to diabetes so they must avoid high-sugar foods including fruits like grapes and oranges as well as food with added honey, molasses, or glucose. Feed a low-sugar balanced food alongside their low-fat diet. 

Poop munching

While true rodents love to nibble on the odd boiled egg, guinea pigs, chinchillas and degus have a unique habit of eating their droppings to re-digest their food efficiently. This is perfectly normal, aids digestion, and keeps their essential gut bacteria topped up.

Chinchilla feeders:

To keep hay clean and tasty you can use a chinchilla feeder to hold it, or a hay rack for guinea pigs.

Foods to avoid

For mice, rats, hamsters, and gerbils; grapes or raisins, chocolate, avocado, garlic, onion, rhubarb, coffee, tea, alcohol, walnuts, and raw potatoes are toxic. Human foods and seeds are generally unsuitable for guinea pigs, chinchillas, and degus. Like true rodents avocados, onions, and potatoes can be toxic, as well as some common garden plants such as daffodils, buttercups, and foxgloves.

For all rodents, high-fat or high-sugar foods (even fruits!) can cause problems with their teeth, weight, and diabetes.  However, little furry benefits from fresh leafy veg, fruit, and veg such as broccoli and herbs like parsley which enhance their diet, encourage natural foraging, and give essential vitamins and minerals. 

Rodent feeder kits

For emergencies, the Mikki Mothering kit is designed for hand rearing although this is extremely tricky. You’ll need the advice of your veterinarian and expert guidance from veterinary staff and associates who have experience.