used the lab blocks and the dogg food , the lab blocks work better but they hard to get in my area too, and I usually haveto preorder it in advancce as well. ( but only a week or so) teh hog feed was too smelly for my liking. I use cheap dog food and other odds and ends and seem to do ok not a 100% living rat but with only 21 snakes and 2 rat colonies and a single asf colony I doing ok .