I've had Sadie on Harlan Teklad 2014 for a while now, and she's doing wonderfully with it. I couldn't be happier that she took to it so readily and I am thankful that I was provided such thorough information through this forum as to why she needed to be on rodent block.
However, I am a member of another forum with a rat section that I visit frequently even though I no longer have pet rats (but hope to someday in the future own them again when the time is right). Sometimes it seems like no one over there agrees on anything and will argue just for the pleasure of arguing. I stumbled across a thread about why don't more people feed their rats Harlan Teklad formula 2014? 2018 seems to be the preferred over there when people buy Harlan at all. As there will always be, there are scuffles over what brand of food is best, whether a raw diet is best, or whether homemade foods are best. Then there's the whole soy is good/soy is bad debate. And of course, the ethoxyquin subject has been brought up more than once.
My real problem is when someone stated that basically she thought NO ONE should feed Harlan, especially 2014 because it's just too low in grade and has nothing but grain byproducts and added vitamins.
Now, I know Sadie isn't a rat (unless you count a tree rat!), but rats and squirrels ARE rodents and I just want to double check with people who know their stuff on this board. It was recommended to me by several people on here, so I assume it's at least not going to kill her. I apologize, 4skwerlz, as I know you posted about this subject for me before when I was first looking at getting Sadie the "right" rodent block. I know you told me before that no block was perfect and you said that the blocks are "feed grade" and all that good stuff. I was okay with it when I posed questions about it before. I think I've just worked myself into a tizzy over the differences in opinions over there, but actually, I'd probably believe you before anyone else! I just need to know that I'm really not depriving her of needed "enzymes and antioxidants" that the poster on the other site said Harlan doesn't contain.
I apologize if I sound really dumb. I'm no nutritionist and frankly I don't watch what I eat nearly as close as what I feed to Sadie. Is Harlan really that poor in quality, or is this just another one of those opinions that have no basis behind it?