{"topic_id":"exotic_nutrition_rat_mouse","category":"exotic-pet-nutrition","context":"---\ntopic_id: exotic_nutrition_rat_mouse\ncategory: exotic-pet-nutrition\ntitle: \"Nutrition of rats and mice (Merck): omnivorous diet, obesity risk, coprophagy\"\nlang: en\nsource: \"Merck Veterinary Manual — Mice and Rats as Pets (first-hand server-rendered HTML, stripped to text; retrieved 2026-07-29 via curl -A Mozilla/5.0)\"\nsource_file: pdf-raw/merck/rodents_rats_mice.txt\nsource_type: veterinary_reference\ndate_parsed: 2026-07-29\ntokens_estimated: 220\nverification: C1_substring_match\nclaims: 4\nsource_document: \"Merck Veterinary Manual, Mice and Rats as Pets\"\ncitation:\n  authority: \"Merck Veterinary Manual\"\n  title: \"Nutrition of rats and mice (Merck): omnivorous diet, obesity risk, coprophagy\"\n  url: \"https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/rodents/mice-and-rats-as-pets\"\n  retrieved: \"2026-07-29\"\n  ref: \"Merck Veterinary Manual (first-hand HTML, stripped to .txt)\"\n  doc_type: \"professional veterinary reference (first-hand English text)\"\n  needs_review: false\n---\n\n# Nutrition of rats and mice (Merck): omnivorous diet, obesity risk, coprophagy\nSource: Merck Veterinary Manual article \"Mice and Rats as Pets\" (first-hand, retrieved 2026-07-29 via curl, HTML stripped to plain text). All bullets are exact verbatim substrings of the cited source_file and C1-substring verified.\n\n## Diet for pet rats and mice\n- `Rats and mice are omnivores , eating foods of both plant and animal origin.`\n- `Formulated pelleted diets for laboratory rodents are convenient and nutritionally balanced diets for early life and reproduction. However, laboratory rodent diets are relatively high in fat and low in fiber, and when provided ad libitum, they cause obesity.`\n- `Owners should supplement their pet’s diet with feeds high in fiber such as vegetables, limited amounts of fruit, and occasional treats.`\n- `Coprophagy is a normal behavior in rats and mice.`\n","sources":["exotic-pet-nutrition — Nutrition of rats and mice (Merck): omnivorous diet, obesity risk, coprophagy (retrieved 2026-07-29)"],"source":{"authority":"exotic-pet-nutrition","title":"Nutrition of rats and mice (Merck): omnivorous diet, obesity risk, coprophagy","url":"https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/rodents/mice-and-rats-as-pets","retrieved":"2026-07-29","ref":"","doc_type":"official PDF","source_document":"Merck Veterinary Manual, Mice and Rats as Pets","verification_file":"pdf-raw/merck/rodents_rats_mice.txt"},"source_document":"Merck Veterinary Manual, Mice and Rats as Pets","source_file":"pdf-raw/merck/rodents_rats_mice.txt","tokens_estimated":220,"generated_at":null,"tip":"Use /api/v1/topics to discover more topics. /api/v1/nutrient for precise single-point queries. /api/v1/cross_compare for 2-3 standard comparisons."}