# Urgent!!! Rat and Mice got cheesy hamburger helpper



## Mouse Queen 96

Hello.

Please i wasn't home and my sibling fed my rat and mice cheesy hamburger helpper because she wanted to give them a treat while i was gone. She said it was only cheesy hamburger and no noodles (She ate them all :lol: ) But will it hurt them. I freaked and went to take it away but it is all gone ((They ate it)). She gave the mice about a spoon full and the rat a deodent lid full (It was his snack dish).

Please answer quickly.
Thanks!


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## moustress

It probbly won't hurt them; watch to see if they get the runs or don't go. Otherwise, not a good item to feed routinely, but probably not fatal. I hope.


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## Mouse Queen 96

They're my babies. I only have my favorites left. I'm sure they'll be fine. Everyone's acting normal. Than again they ate it about 30 min ago. No one looks stressed or in pain.


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## mousery_girl

lmao i give my mice pancakes... rice.. chocolate cheese and cider. in small amounts :lol: doesn't hurt, i find it entertaining to watch them eat human food... ahhhh


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## Laigaie

:shock: Even as treats these things can be dangerous. Theobromine, in chocolate, is a vasodilator (widens blood vessels), diuretic (makes them pee), and a cardiac stimulant (fast pulse). The last thing you want is dehydrated or heart-attacked mice. When a wildie got into our stash of Hershey's Special Dark in the garage, he didn't make it through but maybe a teaspoon of chocolate before he keeled over right there next to the chocolate bar. Darker chocolate has more theobromine, and is therefore more dangerous. Rodents can also be afflicted with alcohol poisoning. A small amount of champagne left in the cage of a pair of rats I'd sold was enough (in combination with a small amount of chocolate cake) to kill them both overnight. Suffice to say, I now advise pet owners to lock their rodents away during parties. Though cheese is often portrayed in cartoons as a mouse food, it's really high in fat and often rather salty, neither of which is great as a mouse treat. Remember that "small amounts" for you may be huge amounts to a mouse, and what's a really tasty treat for humans can be a deadly poison for mice.


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## Mouse Queen 96

The cheesy hamburger didn't affect them. Everyone is still alive. No problems with poop. Everyone is still very active and happy. I looked at their bottoms to see if red or anything from liquid poops but everyones looked fine. No symtoms of disress or pain. All bright eyes, eating well today, and all look/act healthy. I think i am safe to say everyone will be ok. They must have liked it alot to say they ate it all very quickly seeing i was only gone a half hour. :lol:


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## moustress

Still, it's distressing; nothing to laugh about :roll: ...I think I speak for most of us when I say this.

Seriously, you are responsible for your mousies' health and safety. It really bugs me to see the laffy face in your last post. Be a little more thoughtful both of how your posts affect other members and how what you do (or don't do) affects your pets.


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## Mouse Queen 96

I know that isn't nothing to laugh about, i was laughing about them liking it. I am not stupid with the treats i give my mice, my 10 year old sister didn't know. Normally they eat chicken as a treat, i've also gave them slices of a apple in the summer. But usually i don't give my mice treats.


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## MoonfallTheFox

I'm glad they are okay!

I do want to correct one thing though- rats can have a very small amount of chocolate. A piece about the size of a chocolate chip is good, and can help them to breathe if they are ill with a URI and waiting for vet care. Some people feed a single chocolate chip per rat each week.

That aside, my mice have a fairly restricted diet. I feed them mainly "natural" treats, like a little bit of oatmeal or a piece of dog food, as well as the occasional fresh fruit. My rats, on the other hand, have a some food sometimes that I'm sure I'd be berated for. Ha. I call them the garbage guts. When I eat with them they eat what I'm eating. If they don't get some, they steal it as a game. They got into some salt and vinegar chips once. I caught them and they were fine, they had only had a nibble, but I was a bit worried.

I'd worry most about fatty foods, high sugar or salt foods, and very greasy or dry foods. Peanut butter is strictly avoided for the rats and mice due to choking hazards.


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## Frizzle

^^
I've heard about the (Dark) chocolate being used to help with URIs in rats. I do like to mix in peanut butter in with oatmeal during the cooking process for the mice and rats though. My understanding is that the choking hazard is mainly due to them taking a big bite or solid peanut butter, which they then can't chew, which then gets lodged in the throat. Mixing with the oatmeal doesn't really change the consistency, while providing extra protein that drives them to love it so much.

Its kinda interesting, at the Natural resource college I go to, we baited all the Sherman (live) traps with peanut butter. During the entire summer that we spent trapping rodents for class, there wasn't any rodent fatalities (that I know of.) We caught squirrels, chipmunks, ground squirrels, voles, and some other kinda random things. You'd think that these things would have a similar problem with the peanut butter, but not that I observed. The animals caught generally become "trap happy" because of the free meal, and we'd catch the same ones over and over and over.


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## MoonfallTheFox

It is due to how sticky/dry it is, so if I give it to my rats it's watered down or mixed with a liquidy food, like applesauce. I don't want to loose one!


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## Mouse Queen 96

Peanutbutter isn't given very often when i do about the amount of a Qtip tip is all.

Chicken i grind it up and give it to both mouseys and rats on ocations they love it.

Can i give mice and rats white rice ocationally? It would be nice when i make chicken and rice to give them both. 

Still no issues with the mice. I contacted a vet at about 5 today and she said that hamburger wouldn't hurt the mice and rat. She said the cheese sause *might* upset their stomach but nothing to worry about. I don't think it did. I had them all out a lot last night and everyone acted normal.


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## Laigaie

Nothing should be problematic with white rice, so long as you're not leaving it out for more than a half-hour or so. White rice grows stuff like crazy. Also, peanut butter a choking hazard? Every rat I owned was treated with natural peanut butter, and more than a few of my mice have had it, too. It's fatty, and the not-natural stuff is worse, with sugar and salt, but that's why you give it very rarely, and in very small amounts.

Glad the mice did well!


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## MoonfallTheFox

I've unfortunatly heard of deaths involving peanutbutter.  So yes, it is in fact a danger. Not too bad for most rats, but I prefer to be very careful with mine.


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## mousery_girl

peanuts are poisonous to many animals... including mice


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## SarahY

> peanuts are poisonous to many animals... including mice


 :lol: No, they're not! Mine have peanuts every day, they're in the wild bird mix I use


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## Viry

mousery_girl said:


> peanuts are poisonous to many animals... including mice





SarahY said:


> peanuts are poisonous to many animals... including mice
> 
> 
> 
> :lol: No, they're not! Mine have peanuts every day, they're in the wild bird mix I use
Click to expand...

As Sarah said, they're really not.  Mine have them every so often as treats. My stepbrother who occasionally visits is allergic to them, so it's not a daily thing for us, but they're fine and they have always been just fine when/after eating the peanuts.


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## Laigaie

This sounds like a case where some sick mouse got a treat of peanut butter, happened to die, and since they had peanut butter on their face still, the peanut butter was blamed. That said, I suppose peanuts do sometimes (1 in a million or something) have aflatoxin from mold, and this could be the basis for the "peanuts are poison" bit. Don't feed moldy food, kids.


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## SarahY

> Don't feed moldy food, kids


 :thumbuo


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## mousery_girl

peanuts are on the list of things mice shouldn't have in books....


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## Wight Isle Stud

Just Call your Mice Mac and Donald, they will be fine.


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## moustress

The peanuts in commercial pet food mixes are very low quality and tend to be rancid if not out and out moldy. When I fed my meeces peanuts I always got them unsalted bulk peanuts meant for human use.


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