Why the Shunamite Diet?

There are many diets available in pet shops, for rats, so it can be hard to understand why it's better to buy (or make) a home-made diet. Shop bought diets are easier to get, a little cheaper and generally do their job, so why bother?

The problem with shop bought diets is that they are made to satisfy the basic requirements of a rat's diet, at the cheapest possible price - after all these diets are sold in shops and so the importance is laid on profit margins, not on the quality of food. The manufacturers make the diets cheaply, but the contents and quality of those mixes suffer badly as a result of tight profit margins

For instance, on the back of most commercial rat diets, the ingredients will include words like 'derivatives of a vegetable/animal origin', 'poultry meat meal', 'EC permitted colours' and similar vague terms. These terms are often a good way of covering the poor quality ingredients of the mix.

Most commercial rat diets state they contain meat - the quality of this meat is generally very poor. Even in the best brands of commercial mix it is unlikely they will contain quality meat - usually the 'meat' is actually the scrapings from the beak, feet and carcass of chickens - the proper meat usually goes elsewhere. The same goes for vegetables - 'derivatives of a vegetable origin' generally means the cores, the skins and other parts that humans wouldn't eat. Generally speaking, most commercial diets are the Turkey Twizzlers of the rat world.

Even if you ignore the meat quality of a commercial diet, most commercial diets also contain fillers, to bulk up the amout of food you get in a bag and to help the rats feel full. These are usually in the form of alfalfa or straw pellets, which are of no use to rats nutritionally - they cannot digest alfalfa, so the food just passes through them - gaining no nutrition, and just filling the rat up for a while. Many rats will even leave these pellets, so not even gaining the filling quality of them.

Most commercially made mixes also include sizeable amounts of additives; Colourants to make them look attractive to humans (but which make rats hyperactive) and preservatives to ensure that the products can be kept on store shelves as long as possible.

Mixes are often not even that nutritionally balanced - some are too high in protein, some are too high in fat - if you then take into account that rats will often pick and choose which bits of the mix to eat, and may leave any or all of it, the diet becomes even more unbalanced. The unbalancing can lead to upset stomachs, skin problems, weight loss/obesity and poor general body and coat quality. In order to try and avoid this selective feeding, lab block diets were created, with 'complete' nuggets of food, but these diets are incredibly boring and monotonous, and rats often choose to eat less, or even ignore them completely.

So why is the Shunamite Diet better?

The Shunamite Diet is one of a few home-made diets that have been formulated for rats. The original home-made diet was the SueBee Rat Diet, formulated by an American rat breeder, and from that, the Shunamite Diet was formed. Alison Campbell, a well known breeder (and human nurse) took SueBee's idea of a home mixed diet and adapted it in ways she felt made the diet more suitable for use in the UK. Over the years the diet has continued to be refined particularly to improve the quality of the animal protein and reduce fat levels.

The main benefit of any home-made diet, Shunamite or not, is the control it gives over the diet of the rat - everything that goes into the diet is hand picked, and allows for more choice. Instead of having to make do with the poor ingredients of a commercial mix, you are able to choose to use good quality ingredients - even organic if you would prefer.

Our Shunamite Diet mix comprises of good quality, alfalfa-free rabbit food, a well-respected dog food that contains high quality meat, human grade cereals and human grade pasta.

Because of the high standard of the ingredients, the rats tend to enjoy eating all of it, and do not leave bits, meaning the diet is balanced. The fact that the mix is made up by hand also means that the ingredients can be varied often to make the mix more interesting on a long term basis.The mix can also be easily adapted to suit every age, from baby through to old age, so ensuring that the diet meets every need of your rats.

To read more about the Shunamite Diet, click here to go to Alison Campbell's website.