Suebee's Recipe Please!

[BabyBlue]

I've been trying to get Suebee's recipe from online, but it won't let me! I was going to go shopping for the stuff but after hours of trying and trying and trying... well here I am.

Can someone get me another link perhaps? Or just a copy of the recipe?

Thank you!

[Kristen]

It's working for me, so I posted it here:

1 lb. dry rolled oats
Quaker is fine, but may be more expensive; I buy mine in the bulk bin at the supermarket.

1 lb. puffed wheat cereal
Malt-O-Meal or Kashi, which is available in natural food stores. Cheerios are also a viable alternative, if the other two are not available. My supermarket discontinuted Malt-O-Meal, so I now use the store brand.

1 lb. puffed rice cereal
I used to use and liked the Malt-O-Meal brand, but Rice Krispies are OK, too. My supermarket discontinuted Malt-O-Meal, so I now use the store brand.

1 small box Total Cereal
Highly recommended by The Rat Fan Club and my veterinarian for its exceptional nutritional content, due to added vitamins and minerals. It's only available in the United States. If you can't get Total, you can add a children's vitamin/mineral tablet to their diet, or use small animal vitamins.

1/4 to 1/2 lb. roasted, unsalted soy nuts
These are somewhat high in protein, but contain valuable cancer-preventing agents, so they are a good addition to the mix. Not all rats like them. May also be called roasted soy beans -- I think the "nuts" thing is a marketing ploy for humans! ;~D If you can't find them, you can work soy into their diet in other ways, such as soy milk, tofu, soy crumbles and soy yogurt.

1/2 lb dried fruits
I have recently switched from a fat-free mix to just getting bananas and cranberries. The bananas offer potassium, and cranberries are good for the urinary tract. If you don't want to include the fruit, you don't have to. I know some people prefer to give their rats fresh fruits, instead. I do this when I can, but we don't always have fruit in the house. :~)

1/2 lb dry pasta
The tri-colored spirals, with spinach and tomato flavor. Nice and crunchy for the teeth, and a good source of carbohydrates, which helps balance the protein in the soy nuts.

1/4 lb sunflower seeds
My supermarket sells them shelled and unsalted in bulk, so that is what I have been buying. The large sunflower seeds for birds (the black and white ones) are good, too.

1/4 lb muesli (optional)
Sometimes (especially in winter), I have a hard time getting the rolled oats in bulk. I found a mix called "muesli" in the bulk department that had a lot of interesting items in it that the rats really like, including rolled oats, granola, pumpkin seeds and raisins. It offers a nice variety, but I would use it sparingly due to sugar content.

Mix everything together in a huge bowl (or divide ingredients in half and make two batches if you don't have a bowl big enough for everything -- I actually end up doing three batches!). Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. This makes quite a lot of mix, and will last you quite a while if you only have a few rats -- I usually don't have more than four rats.

Then you mix it with an equal amount of nutro natural choice lite.

[BabyBlue]

Thank you so much! Hope I can find everything.

*Running out the door to go to supermarket*

[autumnglory]

La LAAAAA lalala LAAAA la la LA la...  :cutelaugh:

You know what that is?  That's me singing Suebee's praises for providing us with a healthy, incredibly inexpensive diet for our ratties... my dog eats Nutro Natural Lite anyway, huzzah, and we eat everything else on the list (including the Total - the boys have been sharing my Total Corn Flakes since I got them... I actually used them to get the meds down; I dribbled the meds on a few big flakes and SCARF they went down!)

Gosh, I love Suebee's rat recipe... and you should be able to find everything in your local supermarket.

[Kristen]

Oh I love it too..I've not heard anybody who uses it say they don't like it. It cost me $25 for the entire thing, and it'll last for ages!! Go Suebee!!  

[BabyBlue]

Could someone please tell me if I bought everything right?

Store brand Crispy Rice cereal
Store brand Toasted Oats cereal (instead of cheerios)
Whole Grain Total cereal (should I have bought corn flake?)
Tri color pasta
Sun-Maid Tropical Medley dried fruits (this just looked most yummy. This has pineapple, papaya, raisins, apricots, and mangoes. Any of these bad for the rattie?)
Dry rolled oats

Will be going to the petshop tomorrow to buy Nutro Light and sunflower seeds. Is Nutro Max the same as Nutro Natural Choice?

What I couldn't find is the roasted unsalted soy nuts. I've heard many people having trouble finding these, and I looked all over the supermarket but no such luck. Where can I get them? Can I use something else instead of this?

Thank you so much for the help, and yeah I already feel much better about my ratties diet than that commercial food I've been feeding them. Thanks Suebee in advance!

[Kristen]

What I couldn't find is the roasted unsalted soy nuts. I've heard many people having trouble finding these, and I looked all over the supermarket but no such luck. Where can I get them? Can I use something else instead of this?

I couldn't find soy nuts either. However, I did find soy BEANS, which are the same thing. Check in a health food store if you still can't find them. If you really can't find them anywhere, give them cooked tofu once in awhile. Here's a previous thread on alternatives to soy nuts: http://www.goosemoose.com/rfc/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=1322

[kim]

nutro max is another version of the food from the same company---
you want nutro lite because it has the lower protein levels. i personally dont use this food, but its definitely higher quality than most of the other foods in the stores.

[Elaken]

The soy beans/nuts I got at a place called Wild Oats..not sure if they are located everywhere, but actually I got alot of the stuff there...

[Suebee]

Standard Disclaimer:

My diet is NOT endorsed by the club, and that is why it is not easily accessible from this board. Because it is not endorsed by the club, I would prefer it if people who are looking for it would contact me personally instead of publicly on the board. Thanks.

[DragonTamer]

right now I make the same exact diet that debbie has on the rat fan club page, but with nutro lite, and fruits, veggies, mealies, and treats...  since I'm a vegetarian ANYway, and I eat tofu, and need b12, calcium, etc... it's easier.  

although they wind up getting whatever I'm eating anyway, whether it's pasta, or boca burgers, or whatnot.  they get a wide variety, and my vet really discourages it, LOL.  she finally approved of the diet when I wrote it down.. but over and over again she keeps asking me "why on earth aren't you feeding them lab blocks?"  because I cannot find a good quality lab block that doesn't consist of corn, or have harmful preservatives in it!  that's why.  

[ratgirl30]

As much as my boys love Nuto Nat. Lite, I've finally "cut them off".  Without fail, most of them get red itchy eyes within two days of eating it.  Of course, one can be allergic to anything (I'm not saying this brand is not "rat-worthy").  Interestingly, my females have never had a problem with it.  

[BabyBlue]

Standard Disclaimer:

My diet is NOT endorsed by the club, and that is why it is not easily accessible from this board. Because it is not endorsed by the club, I would prefer it if people who are looking for it would contact me personally instead of publicly on the board. Thanks.

Oh sorry! I just got a bit desperate as days passed and I still couldn't get to the website (and running low on their commercial food).

As for contacting you directly... that never occured to me. Duh

Thanks everybody!

[Suebee]

That's OK. I was out of the country, anyway.

[Louise]

How do you store this diet?  Is it ok in an airtight container or should it be frozen?  I'm thinking of making a batch up for Mr. H. and the girls, it sounds like it would be a lot more fun to eat than Nutro!

[Suebee]

I store it in plastic bags... it keeps well, because it's all dry. Airtight is fine -- just so it doesn't get stale.

[Melanie]

I use the mix, but have modified it to my rats' tastes.  They get tired of the puffed rice and don't like the dried fruit, and I add a bit of Kaytee's rainbow rodent diet and some granola cereal.  I have it down to a science now.  

[Yresim]

I would try to avoid anything that Kaytee makes.  Kaytee puts ethoxyquin in their foods.  

The funny thing is that even Kaytee admits they haven't done testing on rats... or any other mammals for that matter.  They have only done testing on birds!  :shocked:

Ethoxyquin is widely thought to have negative side-effects.  Even the people that don't think it has negative side-effects on humans agree that it has negative side-effects on rats!  

[Suebee]

The simple fact that ethoxyquin is NOT approved for human consumption is enough for me to avoid it completely. If it's not deemed safe for us to eat, then it can't possibly be safe for our pets.

[Elaken]

I *always* prefer to err on the side of caution when it comes to feeding my babies or giving them anything to play with!