What kind of lab block do you feed?

What brand of food you feed your rats, and why you chose that brand. Also, do you give them anything else to eat other than the lab blocks like dog food, bread, carrots, etc...?

I'm feeding my trio Mazuri 9F block. I think that's the one more for mice. They are not breeding at all off this feed. I have had them since 12/6/10 and I haven't seen anything...

My ratties get Mazuri 6F- which is designed more for rats rather than mice. Harlan is good too, I believe most use the 2018. They get plenty of other things, too, superworms (one per rat, per week), good dog food (taste of the wild, nutrisource- whatever my dogs are eating), fruits, veggies, chicken, seeds, cereal- I could go on forever. Rodents are natural scavengers, so a big variety in food will stimulate their little brains nicely. All these things come on top of the lab block though, because that should always be their staple.

I might go out and buy a bag of 9F. I have heard people saying that it works good. I used to feed them half a carrot every 3days but, stopped after 4 weeks of not seeing anything.

Were do you buy your block from?

The little petstore near my house carries it, but Petsmart does as well. Most places will order it for you, if they don't carry it. Try getting some superworms or crickets too, if you don't mind them. They're 2 or 3 dollars for a decent size container of live ones. The rats love to chase them around (prior to eating them). Chicken can be given to them cooked or raw, either way is fine.

I use 16% hog feed

Mazuri 6F is for breeder rats. I feed this exclusively since 2008.

I buy it from the Feed Store (sells farm and horse stuff) a few miles from my house.

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Originally Posted by llovelace

I use 16% hog feed

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I red a sticky about how to save lots of money on breeding asf'sand thats what the person who posted the sticky said to use. I think im going to try it out.

I used Mazuri 9f for my breeding colonies and grow ups and had great results. It always took a new group a few months to really get going and for the first girl to become pregnant so be patient, they will start. Once they do its amazing how many babies they'll produce.

The trick for me was to remove the babies as soon as they were weaned so the mom cold put her efforts into the next litter.



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Quote:

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Originally Posted by jsmorphs2

I used Mazuri 9f for my breeding colonies and grow ups and had great results. It always took a new group a few months to really get going and for the first girl to become pregnant so be patient, they will start. Once they do its amazing how many babies they'll produce.

The trick for me was to remove the babies as soon as they were weaned so the mom cold put her efforts into the next litter.



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I have had the same trio in with eachother since 12/6/10. Well see what happens tho.

Thanx

Do you know how old these rats are? They also slow down/stop breeding at a certain age- usually 10 months to a year old, it begins to be much more difficult for them to successfully reproduce.