Ratrations.com

[moletteuk]

I'm probably going to order some stuff from ratrations.com, and there is such a variety I was writing out a list of possible stuff to order, so I thought I'd share it with you, as there are some great ideas there, in particular loads of interesting seeds. Second number is price in pounds, all products are available in various size packs that get cheaper the bigger the pack.

Plus, if anyone has any particular recommendations for me, that would be great

whole barley 500g 0.39
bran (wheat) 500g 0.44
whole oats 500g 0.39
canary seed 500g 0.77
carrot seeds 500g 1.38
red dari 500g 0.44
white dari 500g 0.72
linseed 500g 0.66
grass seed 500g 1.38
mixed millet 500g 0.66
perilla white 100g 0.81

barley flaked 500g 0.39
buckwheat flaked 250g 2.12
mixed puffs 250g 2.36
quinoa flakes 250g 3.81
rye flakes 250g 0.61
spelt puffs 250g 2.33

ajwan (celery) seeds 100g 1.52
blue maw 100g 1.04
burdock roots 100g 2.40
calendula/ marigold 250g 2.88
caraway seed 100g 0.88
celery seed 100g 0.81
chamomile flowers 100g 1.99
chicory seed 100g 0.61
dill seed 100g 0.97
fennel seed 100g 0.76
milk thistle seed 100g 1.32
rose petals 100g 4.14
sesame 100g 0.61

wild meadow seeds fine 500g 2.28
wild meadow seeds coarse 500g 1.08

green pepper 250g 3.75
red pepper 250g 3.75
tomato flakes 250g 4.63

[abirose]

Haha I recommend everything I love ratrations! And so do Frankie, Sammy, Deano and Rhubarb ;D
The only thing to watch is the postage which can be pretty high, so I tend to order when I need a lot of stuff. They do a good selection of bedding as well.

[abirose]

They do a seed mixture which I like the look of but I think its probably to fatty it has hemp, linseed, milk thistle, pumpkin and fennel.

[deguconvert]

WOW!! That is a great list of things you can get there!! Goes a long ways to filling out a natural diet!

[jessiebelle]

What would be good to buy to make a good natural mix from there?

[alrm198]

I love ratrations. I buy my rat food from them and did think that somethings must be good for the Degus too but never knew where to start really. as jessiebelle has asked, I second, what would be a good (but relatively cheap) mix for Degus?

[davx]

Oh, that sounds good.
It seems to be a good source for degu food enrichment .

[moletteuk]

I think a reasonable mix is everything (or a good range) from the first list, except carrot seeds that I don't have nutrition info for, and perilla which seems more expensive.

And to that add celery seed and fennel to boost the calcium, and then add in a few more from that list like sesame, chicory, dill, or the carrot or perilla, and perhaps vary these. Some of these more exotic seeds may turn out to be tiny, so some might be more suitable than others.

Burdock root and the flowers (calendula, chomomile, rose) should make good treats. The grain puffs also make good treats. Green peppers and tomatos are the best of the dried veg on offer.

I'll let you know how the meadow mix seeds look. There are some ready made base rat mixes, I think the no 5 mums & babies basic is the best of these as it's low protein, my only quibble with it really is the 15% maize, not the best grain as it's low in nutrition and fibre and 10% peas, which might be OK, but is probably more than I would choose.

For more info on seeds etc and to help you decide what to buy see these nutrition charts

[moletteuk]

OMG, I finally got round to putting my order in......I spent £55 on nearly 20kg of food!!!

I only have 3 degus, I think I just bought a lifetimes supply of food, I bought 30 different things! To be fair, I did order extra for the wild birds....and I was economising by buying a lot in one go because the postage was nearly £10 Yep, definitely saving money by spending more

[deguconvert]

!!!!! It IS a rather strange concept, isn't?? However, the mixes you can make with what you have obtained may stretch out a long way, which would be GREAT for you!! Can't wait to hear what you think of them once they arrive!

[saddlers]

Cast you r memory back, how did you get on with the list of ingredients and how did your goos respond to them. I tried a few bits from Ratrations and will order again, but I wanted to see how they reacted to the different ingredients. Bizarrely my lot were not keen on the marigolds but love the rose petals and ginko. They were also really into the smaller seeds which I thought would not be as popular. The celery and fennel seeds they really like, but I would like to know what other ingredients people have found popular. I didn't try any of the flaked food last time...might be worth a go this time. I star rated mine based on the reaction I got when trying them I will have to feed back on this thread

[ntg]

Were the marigolds mainly petals saddlers? As the JR Farm dandelion has proper marigold flower heads mixed in and my lot go mad for them, they aren't so keen on the marigold petals though. Degus are just weird

[saddlers]

In fairness it is a really good mix with plenty of flower heads, but only one of ours took a shine to them.

Results from our 7 degus were:

Rose petals 7/7
Ginko 5/7
Spearmint 3/7
Blackberry leaf 3/7
Blackcurrant leaf 2/7
White dead nettle 0/7
Peppermint 2/7
Raspberry leaf 2/7
Lemon balm 3/7
Dandelion leaf chopped 2/7 (interestingly all will eat full dried dandelion leaves)
Dandelion root 4/7
Celery seeds 7/7
Fennel seeds 7/7
Linseed 7/7
Chamomile flowers 3/7
Green bell pepper flakes 5/7
Tomato flakes 1/7
Flaked peas 7/7

[ntg]

It's odd, but they always do seem to prefer bigger pieces from small ones, maybe they see it as being worth more of their time?

[moletteuk]

I just looked up this thread to save me looking up the names of all the seeds, you might want to have a look at the pics to see the relative sizes of some of the seeds: deguworld.proboards.com/thread/16214/treat-boxes

Chicory, sesame, hemp, celery, milk thistle, caraway, coarse wild meadow mix, niger, fennel, linseed, sunflower, safflower, buckwheat, grass, dill, carrot, pumpkin, canary seeds.

Two of my three will eat anything if it's got calories in it, Molly is a slightly harder crowd to please though, so she's my best guide to general popularity. Basically they like everything except all 3 aren't bothered about celery seed, partly due to the small size I think, all 3 aren't bothered about carrot seed, Molly doesn't really like dill. They don't get excited about grass seed, but it's very light and presumably low calorie for effort to find. BTW I scatter feed nearly all the seeds on the floor of the playpen. All other seeds were a hit, they like the 'coarse meadow mix' and there have been no ill effects from it (it's not very clear exactly what is in it!). They don't mind eating quite a lot of fennel seed (good Ca:P).

All 3 love dandelion root, all three like burdock root, which is quite good size pieces for treats, but Molly is less keen, so might not be a hit with all goos.

They are quite fussy about flowers. Not keen on marigolds, roses, half heartedly keen on JRF chin flower garden, like cactus flowers and mallow flowers & hibiscus (zooplus).

The flakes and puffs are all starchy grains, so aren't so healthy, although I did buy some and they are well liked, excepy Molly isn't so keen on the puffs (rice or buckwheat), the puffs aren't bad for the odd treat as they are so light for something you can fit between your fingers and offer individually, and might take calcium powder.

Veg I got was green peppers, which are loved by all and tomato flakes which they all like but Molly is less keen.

I didn't buy any of their herbs as they all seemed to be small pieces. I think they could be put off with the effort for calories ratio of herbs in small pieces, but also I suspect they dry out and lose more flavour being in such small pieces, just less satisfying to eat, no structure or crunch. But I generally find they prefer hand picked and home dried leaves to bought ones anyway.

I'm going to order the rest of the seeds from the top of the seed chart that I don't have yet soon, I'll report back.

I picked some dead nettle last week and my goos agree with yours in not liking it!

[ntg]

I completely forgot to say, at the mention of cactus flowers, an ebay seller "shelled warriors" sells opuntia flowers in bulk (up to 1kg packs) as mine were particularly keen on them out of the Mucki packs.

[moletteuk]

Another nice find with that seller, they sell lots of wild plant seeds too, good for grow your own, I've added them to the internet food seller link thread.

[ntg]

I swear I'll get with the programme one of these days, I see things and promptly forget about them until it's brought up again

The internet is a marvellous place isn't it? Maybe not for your wallet though

[moletteuk]

Why? what have you forgotton?

Did you order the seeds for growing from galensgarden (or wherever it was)?

Internet is a complete black hole for my time AND wallet!!!

[ntg]

Just things like sites I've seen, and put to the back of my mind! It gets dredged up eventually but it tends to be when I don't need it lol!

I haven't yet, the postage it a lot so I need to buy some other things to make it worthwhile, and at the moment I'd rather get their seed mix and hard feed sorted beforemy exams, then there's the cage build. So I'll get that done and then do more seed growing when I have the time! For now pottering round the garden and dried herbs will do!