feeding your pets an apropriate diet

Inspired by my friend Nadia who feeds her dog a canine prey-model raw diet, I thought I should take a closer look at what I've been feeding my rats.  My pet rats are domesticated versions of the Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus) which even themselves have been long since urbanized.  Brown rats are true omnivores, with the main portion of their diet ideally coming from cereal grains.  Over 100s of years co-existing with humans, they have adapted their tastes to garbage as their main food source!  According to one study, the brown rats' favourite foods are (in order) scrambled eggs, macaroni and cheese, and cooked corn kernels so I feed mine those as treats :)

For their main diet, I started with the most popular diet online: suebee's rat diet and adapted it using this study.  At each feeding I mix 1/2 dog food and 1/2 grain mix.  All the ingredients are from Bulk Barn!  For additional treats I just feed them scraps of whatever I'm having.  Generally if its healthy for you its healthy for rats!

Staple base diet: Lamb & Rice Dog Food or Super Premium Puppy Food (depends on age)

                                         Grain mix:

1 cup dry rolled oats
1/2 cup cheerios
1/2 cup rice krispies
3/4 cup vector
1/4 cup soybeans
1/2 cup dried fruit
1/2 cup dried pasta
2/3 cup raw sunflower seeds