Opinions on these hog feeds?

Hi guys,
After doing some digging, I found out my local TSC carries purina hog feeds. I wanted your opinion on these to see which would be the best for maintaining non breeding and breeding rats. I don't know prices yet, but am sure that they are cheaper than the native earth I've been getting. All of these have corn and some have corn gluten meal (which I didn't think rats could digest) so I'm curious what the effects would be. The "complete sow oval" claims to be large sized, so I'm wondering if that would be easier to feed through wire and one of them (the grower finisher) claims to reduce the odor of waste, etc.).

Nature's Match (purina) sow and pig complete
Nature's Match complete sow oval
Nature's match grower-finisher

Complete sow oval is too low in protein, so that's out.

The other two... One is corn and soybean, and the other is wheat and soybean. But other than that, there seems to be only very minute differences, that as far as I know won't affect the mice any differently

If it makes any difference, I was planning on trying this with rats. I don't keep mice yet (although I'm considering it).

I'd go with sow and pig complete, out of those three choices, because I am partial to wheat over corn. Corn has a tendency to produce a lot of unnecessary sugars. There doesn't look to be any vitamin K in that diet though? You can supplement that by adding a few boxes of Total cereal to your mix.

Other notes
Calcium is low.
Phosphorus is low.
Contains phytate from the dehulled soybean meal, lowering phosphorus absorption.
No information on the level of magnesium. Phytate decreases magnesium absorption.
Sodium looks alright.
Appears to be lacking in Vitamin D. Will have to supplement if your rats are never in direct sunlight.
Zinc looks adequate.
No information: potassium, copper, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, etc. (several more but this is quite a list)

I'd message the company and ask for a comprehensive vitamin and mineral panel. I'm not the most educated person on this subject, I would look up some books on nutritional requirements of laboratory rats and do some comparisons.

If there is anything I can do to help, just send me a PM. :]

Thanks! I'll email them and see what they say. I haven't checked the price on this stuff yet, so if it is not much cheaper, then I may stay with native earth. If it is a much better deal, then I'd be willing to do a mix to supplement with.

Your main issue here will be your protein content I would not recommend lower than 16% unless you are planning on supplementing with protein.

As for corn and corn gluten meal it is found in rodent breeder food made for breeder rats and mice such as Mazuri.

I think your best bet is to mix the hog food with your lab block. The pig food is about $15 a bag, and I think the lab block is sometimes double that. So it'll bring cost down greatly and still give them a good diet.

Thanks for the advice! You might be on to something Rhasputin... That would reduce my expenses while not making me worry about nutritional content.

I ended up going with the sow and pig complete. (the green bag) because it was the only alternative they had other than regular hog feed. I will take a look at the label and post any different ingredients / percentages that may be listed on it. It has 16% protein.. But also contains corn (I think as the first ingredient). TSC said that they couldn't order mazuri unless it was on their ordering sheet, but I am going to check with other feed stores in town.

The sow/pig feed cost $13, so $7 less than I pay for the NE now. I am considering mixing the hog feed 50/50 with the NE for my males, but keeping my females on NE only, if you think that would make a difference in their health or ability to produce litters successfully. If the hog feed is just as good, then I can use a 50/50 mix for both genders.

The feed is in smaller pieces than the lab blocks. Will this effect the rats ability to grind down their teeth? I provide them with a lot of cardboard to munch on and wood toys as well, so I wasn't sure about that aspect of it.

Thanks again everyone for your help!

The small pieces don't matter, rodents eat way smaller stuff in the wild. But why just feed it to your males? If you were going to pick one sex, I would do females only. But I would just go ahead and feed the mix to both, lol.

But I had perfectly fine luck on just hog feed (except with my freakin spiny mice, they won't breed for nothin' lol).

Thanks! I didn't know if the females would benefit from the additional protein in the NE (18%) verses 16% in the hog feed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by artgecko

TSC said that they couldn't order mazuri unless it was on their ordering sheet, but I am going to check with other feed stores in town.

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This info might be too basic, but in my search for Mazuri Rodent food, I found TSC doesn't have access to it (but sell about 6 other animal foods), BUT .... find a feed store that orders Purina products and they likely will order it....even if
you just buy 1 bag at a time ( at least where I am). That being said.... since price is a factor in your buying hog food.... you might stick with that considering the Mazuri rodent is about $27.00/bag.

Thanks! They've been on a 50/50 mix of the hog feed and the NE for about a week now. So far the results seem to be that they prefer the lab blocks and they *might* be gaining weight (fat) which isn't necessarily a good thing... Of course, I could just be overreacting. I am going to limit their food portion size a little and see if that solves the weight issue.

Wanted to give another update.

I've decided to switch back to all lab blocks. A few reasons why I've made this choice:

- Rats GREATLY prefer the blocks, some to the point of holding out for blocks and not eating the hog feed
- Weight gain of half of the rats (fat, not muscle)
- Increase in amount of poo and slightly loose stools at times
- Possible allergy issues (2 of the 6 rats have started to loose some hair, not positive it is the food, but it might be).

I found a way to order the blocks online in larger bulk (5 bags at a time) for less cost, so although they will be more expensive than the hog feed, I feel that it is a better option nutritionally.

I have found that I have fatter babies with lab block only, and less on hog feed. But other than that I have not noticed any significant differences. My spiny mice, do not like the lab blocks though, and prefer the hog food. Strange.