I've seen too many reports of the Oxbow being rejected by the rats.  I'd feed Mazuri.  I'll leave my personal opinion on Oxbow out of this.

Oxbow is the highest quality, but some rats lose weight on it so you should supplement with Suebee's or something else.  Mazuri has some really terrible ingredients, I would never feed it.

I second scubbs and jorats.

I recommend OXbow for rabbits and guinea pigs, but I am one of the ones that tell rat people to avoid it my experience was so bad.

I personally would go for the Mazuri hands down.

My rats absolutely HATED Regal Rat and wouldn't eat it.  So I bought Mazuri from Petsmart and have had better luck with that.  I also include some of the Suebee mix too, and give them fresh vegetables, fruit, baby food, baby cereal and other healthy yummies for variety.

Deb

I tried Oxbow. My rats hated it. Absolutely refused to touch the stuff. When I initially bought it, they ate it. But a week or so after that...they wouldn't touch the stuff. I switched to Mazuri, and that's what they've been on for a while now.

Yeah. That confused me too.
Like they ate it, and I was like "Yay", and then they stopped eating it and refused to touch the stuff.

Before we jump up and down on the corn issue.

Soy itself isn't the best either.  There is enough evidence out there that it may cause cancer also.

So, no, no food is perfect.  If your rats eat the food and do well on it, feed the lab block of your choice. 

It's news to me. 

But that dog food isn't a complete diet for ratties is it?

Pet food can be a scary thing.. especially with meat ingredients. The downer cows that are unfit for human consumption end up in most pet food, along with scraps. I was talking to someone today who visited their friend's farm a few years back and saw a dead cow out in the field in 100 degree heat. She asked hours later what they planned to do with it. They said they sell them to the pet food companies and there would be a truck to pick it up later that day or the next.. at this point there were flies all over the thing and who knows what killed it in the first place. The rationalization behind it was that the pet food meats are cooked at such high temperatures, it's virtually supposed to kill anything that may be harmful.. but does that make me feel comfortable feeding it to my pet? No.

It seems with food (pet and human) it's a matter of picking the seemingly least harmful (which is ridiculous).

 However as far as rats eating Oxbow for a while then not touching it, I think part of that is that they crave variety. They get bored with the same old thing. And I've noticed this with EVERY block or dog food I've tried. Also, I think many people think their rats aren't eating enough if they slow down on blocks, but the fact is they are 1lb animals that don't require tons of food a day and when they are eating such a concentrated, balanced diet, they shouldn't NEED to eat a lot daily. MOST rats, especially males, are overweight. They overeat. The most fit male rat I've ever seen eats exclusively Oxbow. He's also healthy at 3 or 4 years of age. I don't agree with feeding just one thing because I feel it does a lot mentally for a rat to forage and have a variety, but the fact is they tend to go more for the junky things, just like people. They don't always WANT to eat what's best for them...

well i didn't say it was a complete diet. I use this dog food in a mix.
I don't feed my rats anything I myself wouldn't eat. I loot at the ingredients in lab blocks and any food formulated for rats and say pretty much yuck, I would never eat that. I look at the ingredients for foods like Karma and Timberwolf, and it's all stuff I could actually eat if I wanted to without barfing. And I've actually been tempted with Timberwolf because it smells really good. I want my babies to eat the best and healthiest diet, something they'll enjoy.