[Engel]

Originally Posted by AmityvilleHams

Unfortunately they are, it makes me sad though since I've always loved black animals in general and have found black cats in particular to bring good luck rather than bad luck. There's really no reason to fear them but sadly people let superstition cloud their judgement at times!

For their diet, they're luckily not on a pelleted food. I know a lot of people say Oxbow foods are great in the US but from years of hamster knowledge something in my brain has always felt horribly wrong with the idea of any species with such a diverse diet eating such boring food as pellets. Their current food does have some pellets in but it's a mix. In the future a homemade diet might be more of an option, but right now with the pandemic and other issues going on I'd prefer to stick with a reliable premade option.

They actually do have two food bowls though, one of which came with the cage and the other I bought before I knew I was getting the cage since I was working on a DIY cage at the time while still thinking I was going to have to wait for this cage and that I was getting male rats. I might eventually take one bowl out though and reserve it for things like wet foods and fresh veggies, as well as trying to incorporate more foraging and scatter feeding.

Speaking of fresh veggies though they haven't been lucky enough to try any just yet, but I will definitely post on their reactions whenever I'm able to try any out(as well as fresh fruit etc - maybe even just food related reactions in general)!

That's fair enough. What food are you currently feeding? I think oxbow (and mazuri) rat foods are too high in protein for rats anyway. Honestly I'd ditch the bowls, they don't need them. Mine have never had a bowl for dry mix or veggies, just cat food (I feed my own mix). I forgot to ask how old they are.