starting up breeding mice again..What do you feed your breeders?

In the past I kept the mice in our shed and fed them a mix of dog food and chicken layer pellets(its high calcium and I think helped with any cannibalism), anyway they were baby making machines.
I also threw in fresh veggies once a week(carrots,greens, whatever).

I cant get lab block unless I order online. Im just curious what everyone else feeds?

Lots of people have success with many different foods.

Me personally, I feed Mazuri 6F. It simply works the best for me of all the things I have tried. I also feed a custom grain mix of my own making every other day. I get lots of big, healthy babies and rarely have problems with cannibalism or moms not producing enough milk. My babies grow quickly and wean easily.

Gale

Custom mixes are one of the best options, as is pre-made lab quality rodent block.

I feed Purina brand sow and piglet food, and supplement with grains and treats when I have them. I have no problems with it, other than they bury a lot of it, but I think that happens with most foods.

Rhasputin, where do you get your feed? I used to feed Harlan brand food but I can only get it from reptile shows. Due to my busy work schedule I haven't been able to go and get more food from shows so I've been feeding vegetarian dog food (Nature's Recipe Vegetarian). It has a protein content of 21%. I've tried homemade mixes in the past but the mice would just bury most of it and I was wasting a lot of food (They would eat what they liked and buried the rest and I threw tons of it away when I cleaned the cages). I only have a few mice right now as I'm trying to get into breeding them for feeders again.

Not mice, but my rats and asf's get the mazuri 6f. They also get some grains and greens as treats but I won't do a lot of anything that won't stay in a wire feed container of some sort. Way to much waste when they start hoarding it.

I might try the hog feed. We have a pretty nice farm and ranch store here and they are super reasonable on the prices.
I looked up mazuri distributors and there are none within 50 miles here.
I seem to remember supplementing with sunflower seeds in winter too,seemed helped to keep them breeding when the temps dropped.

The sow and piglet food comes from tractor supply store, it comes in a big green 40-50lb bag. Make sure you get the sow and piglet food, because the protein levels are higher than the regular hog food, and it's mush closer to a mouse diet than the normal stuff. :)

Thanks! I'll go look for it this weekend. :-)

Most places will also be able to order in mouse and rat food. Tractor supply won't do it, but any other feed store will (literally every other store, lol).

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Originally Posted by Rhasputin

Custom mixes are one of the best options, as is pre-made lab quality rodent block.

I feed Purina brand sow and piglet food, and supplement with grains and treats when I have them. I have no problems with it, other than they bury a lot of it, but I think that happens with most foods.

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Hi, KC! :rolleye2:

I second using pig food, I use the same brand.

I also find my mice enjoy some millet spray, dried or rolled oats, and sometimes rice or whole grain pasta as treats.