ok i have seen that some people feed there rats wet cat food.  well my dad buys his cats the 9lives wet food in a can could i give this to my rats sometimes as a treat or a little every day as a treat

9 Lives is a pretty terrible cat food.  Your family should really look into Chicken Soup, Innova, Wellness, and other high-quality premium foods.

Wet cat food is way too high in protein to be fed to rats even has a treat, unless they're sickly/need to put on some weight, or are pregnant/nursing.

Gotta say, you can get the GOOD foods at groceries as well.

I fed my guys a can of wet cat food once..  they went crazy over it.

But I only did it because I was inna food bind.  Whenever I travel with my boyfriend, I hafta take my rattie boys.  I had only brought enough suebee mix and lab blocks for 2 weeks & we ended up staying at his place for 2 and half weeks.  So after trying to make the last bit I had last longer & two nights of roteressi chicken leftover, I had to get a can of wet cat food from the grocery store.

I really dunno what brand I bought, as when I looked at the ingredients, they all looked the same.  Overly processed meat & vitamins.  But it filled their bellies for the night & we could make the 3.5 hour trip home the next day w/o them crying mutiny.

I have yet to find one vet that says wet catfood is betetr than dry. My oldest cat will be 16 this year and has never eaten wet cat food. Her teeth are perfect and she has almost zero tartar build up.

I would use wet dog food for a rat before I gave them wet catfood and even then its a stretch.

***Edited because I realized it had nothin to do with topic ***

Sorry Jules, I realized I put more about my and my vets opinion about why its bad for dogs and cats and really didn't answer the question. I agree with you in ways but others disagree--my opinion tho no offense I hope.

Feeding cat food to a rat (particularly not so good brands)

You probablly shouldn't. It's not good. And probaly has no benifit.

I'll leave it at that. 

The problem with going by what a vet says (as knowledgeable as they CAN and SHOULD be) is that not all vets are equal. There are wonderful vets out there, but there are also some not-so-great vets out there. The real issue however, comes that most vets are NOT trained nutritionists. They may have the basics down, but that doesn't mean their word on nutrition is the gospel truth. Unfortunately a lot of misconceptions are still very common, and very unfortunately a lot of big-name food brand companies "buy" vets to sell their food. I have seen MANY veterinarians selling foods like "Iams" and "Eukanuba" (two brands made by the same company, and if you compare ingredients they are practically identical, yet "Eukanuba" is advertised as "better" with a much higher price tag) and "Science Diet". I have had veterinarians and vet technicians actually recommend these foods for my cats and dogs. Yet when you do a little research and really look at the ingredients, these brands are NOT good. I feed my cats "Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul" brand. Last year I adopted an abandoned stray cat. He had MANY health issues as a result of his predicament. He ended up going to the vet with a bladder infection. Several months later, after he got well, he started terrorizing my older cat, forcing her to avoid the litter box. Although I had my suspicions that the problem was just stress, I took her to the vet anyways. Vet didn't bother to run a urinalysis (like she did with my boy cat), but just said based on the "symptoms" it was probably a UTI. The vet technician later told me I should switch foods. When I told her what food I feed (which IS a very good food) she said she'd never even heard of it and should definately switch because that foods is probably causing all these UTI's I'm having (keeping in mind it's only been one tested and proven UTI from a cat who probably came with it). I didn't bother switching (for one thing she was recommending Science Diet, which I REFUSE to feed ANY of my animals), instead went online to ask others who are very knowledgeable about cat health and nutrition if they have had or heard of anyone who has had problems with UTI's while feeding "Chicken Soup" brand foods. Quite the opposite: not one single person I spoke to had a problem, and some have actually had cats who were prone to UTI's get better. So I definately didn't switch. Changed a couple things around so my older cat wouldn't be as stressed, and guess what, the problem went away "magically"!

Now this is not to say that we shouldn't trust our vets. If we have a good vet that we DO trust, keep one trusting them, for medical issues at least! Nutrition however, tends to be one thing veterinarians are not always trained on, or not always trained well for. Often those vets that do receive nutritional training is sponsored by some big-name company, and often is along the lines of "our food is the best food in the world, so recommend it to all your customers!". If you have a nutritional issue with one of your animals, try to find a animal nutritionists to help you. An animal nutritionist would be trained specifically in nutrition, and if they are any good are not trained by any specific food company, and should be current and up-to-date on all recent findings.

Alright, getting off my tangent now.   

OT still, but I guess I should have pointed out that my cats vet specializes in feline medicine. She does see other animals, but her passion is cats and always has been. She is a lso a very small breeder of some of the most beautiful persians I have ever seen in my life, simply stunning.

Oookay, so you probably got rid of a food allergy. How is this evidence that dry food is better than wet? And anecdotal evidence about your specific cat doesn't prove anything, either. The fact that your cat pukes when she eats wet food, most likely because for some reason she has a sensitive stomach that can't handle rich foods with a higher fat content, doesn't suggest that feeding every cat dry is better. It means dry is better for her.

OK then.
 I posted my opinion on it and what I have seen in my experience in the vet practice because someone made a few comments about wet/vs dry feeding cats.

And yes. I did post my opinion about my experience with MY cat. Did I tell everyone to go out and buy MY brand of cat food?? I really don't think I did.... I think I just posted it to say that's why my cat needs dry only. And I'm also sure every cat does not have the same needs as every other cat. Dealing with allergies and dry skin/hair loss issues (which you had stated dry cat food was a major cause of SKIN ISSUES and dehydration) I did find a dry food that corrected my cats problems.

What we gather here on the forums is from other peoples personal experiences and knowledge base. Thats why its here. Not to badger each other when we do post them.

You have a different experience. As does EVERYONE ELSE. They are Opinions. I am just under the assumption here that you do not own a labratory and have already done the copious amount of testing here to set the opinions straight.

The topic is  SHOULD I FEED MY RAT WET CAT FOOD.  The poster basing it on using a lower quality brand of wet cat food.

I think (again this is an opinion) anything else about wet/vs dry cat food FOR CATS should be posted in another forum.

End. I'm done. 

taking this to the cat forum is a good idea, but everybody remember to play nice!!