Mazuri rat food is not what I expected.

So I decided to switch to Mazuri rat food (the food meant specifically for breeding). Mazuri said that food is healthy and nutritious and would increase the size of rat litters. Well, I've been using it for maybe 4 months now, and it hasn't done anything. Actually, I've noticed my production go down a few notches. And when I do have a litter, the babies don't look good and plump like they usually do, and the litters are much, much smaller (my average was about 15 babies per litter and now I'm down to an average of about 6 per litter). I had healthier, bigger litters when I was using dog food with timothy hay. My females aren't old either (about a year old).

Anyone know what the problem could be?

your genetics ...

We've used mazuri for years and wouldn't use anything else unless we had to.
We average 13 to 15 kits per litter on most of our females, when they produce less than 10 they are done unless it's their first litter.

My rats are doing great on Mazuri.

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I'm curious why you switched if you were already having big, healthy litters?

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Originally Posted by Bellabob

My females aren't old either (about a year old).

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Your females are done. Time to replace them.

Works great for my rats. Had a litter of 22 a few weeks ago

Your girls sound like they need to retire. Its an age factor. Not a food one.

Mazuri has always been good to my rats with no issue.

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So should I just euthanize them? They aren't really of use if they aren't producing enough.

You can feed them off, euthanize them, or sell them.

I've decided I'm going to sell them. I already have one dude who wants to buy them. Thanks everyone for the answers.

There's almost always a demand for really large rats which means retired breeders generally.

I agree, production does drop on the females pretty quickly, but we have to remember the lifespan of a rat is short to begin with.

Replacing breeders every 6 months or so is what I try to keep them at. After that, the litter sizes will go down statistically. A year old is too old, and it's not your food causing the decline.

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

There's almost always a demand for really large rats which means retired breeders generally.

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You would think but in my area I can't give them away for free.

So get a bigger snake!! Lol

Yeah 1 year is definitely time to retire them.

Our rats are producing very well. And we have been using mazuri. I like it a lot. And our rats are very healthy. Our litters are from 10-17. So I think it's doing a good job.


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I feed mazuri and my rats are fat and sassy. There is no comparison between my rats and the ones at the pet store which leads me to believe they're breeders must feed dog food or something similar.

1.1 pastels, 1.0 lesser, 0.1 het blurry, 0.1 spider, 1.1 norm. 0.1 dinker,