What do you feed your mice

I use Sand Valley Rodent lab block. $21/40lbs.. I'd love to find a lower cost option that they'd still do good on, as I use about 50lbs. a week.

my mice get rabbit food, as its the cheapest thing here.. the rats get the same rabbit food, but also half a slice of bread per rat aswell, and any eadable leftovers from dinner etc. they often end up with a lot of veggies

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Originally Posted by cornmorphs

my mice get rabbit food, as its the cheapest thing here.. the rats get the same rabbit food, but also half a slice of bread per rat aswell, and any eadable leftovers from dinner etc. they often end up with a lot of veggies

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The problem with that is that rabbit food usually contains a great deal of alfalfa which rats can not digest very well.

I would have also thought rabbit food would be much too low in protein, as rabbits are strict herbivores, and rats and mice are omnivores.

By the way, I found the copper stats on lab block, and discovered it's already as high as it is in most pig feeds. That puts pig feed back on the table as a good alternative.

Both my mice and my rats receive an assortment of goodies. Their staple consists of Forti-Diet, mixed with a general "rodent" blend of loops, seeds and dried fruit. On top of this I give them all fresh pieces of fruits and vegetables (just be careful not to give Legume heavy items or things that could cause gas troubles). I find that bananas, peaches and apples are great fruit sources. Carrots, cabbage, lettuce...even cucumbers are great vegetable sources. I also feed them a decent amount of protein, such as peanut butter, pieces of cooked chicken or pork chops. As stated earlier, mice and rats are omnivorous, so a good balanced selection of foods really makes for healthier happier rodents. ;)

Sow cubes...

I'm learning more by reading this thread, had no idea I could feed dog food to these breeders! Now, that goes for both mice AND rats?

I have Purina Dog Chow for our dog, who also gets table scraps every so often.

But, I bought this bag of Rabbit, Gerbil and Other Small Animals with alfalfa hay but it seems like mice just ground it up and make a dust pile out of it, the rats won't even touch it so they've been stickin' to scraps?

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Originally Posted by revxus

I'm learning more by reading this thread, had no idea I could feed dog food to these breeders! Now, that goes for both mice AND rats?

I have Purina Dog Chow for our dog, who also gets table scraps every so often.

But, I bought this bag of Rabbit, Gerbil and Other Small Animals with alfalfa hay but it seems like mice just ground it up and make a dust pile out of it, the rats won't even touch it so they've been stickin' to scraps?

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Mice/rats don't need roughage like alfalfa. You basically wasted your money. Rabbits have different food needs than gerbils/rats/mice/hamsters. I just buy my mice gerbil/hamster food. They do quite well on it. I get an average of 5 or six mouse pups per litter.

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Originally Posted by Raptor

Mice/rats don't need roughage like alfalfa. You basically wasted your money. Rabbits have different food needs than gerbils/rats/mice/hamsters. I just buy my mice gerbil/hamster food. They do quite well on it. I get an average of 5 or six mouse pups per litter.

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I take that back, it's actually a Western Timothy Hay Essentials bag, 3lb bought at Walmart, and Petco employees said it was ok as long as it said "small animals" anyway, I think they're wrong just as much as I am. They're just grinding up the food and sleeping on it?

hi! i feed a mixture of small seeds (about 30 components, i have no idea what they are called in english :oops:), fresh and dried herbs/blossoms/vegetables, living and dried insects, cat or ferret food,...

my basic mix for ASFs
http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/u...ausels-086.jpg
...and for mice.
http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/u...h_weisse37.jpg