What is the most affordable ONLINE per lb lab block?

[wolfy-hound]

I tried Doggy Bag and my rats started having issues eating each other, the litter size dropped and the amount of feeder sized rats I was getting per bin plummeted.

I've thought about it, since other people have no issues with Doggy bag. Perhaps my colony has been geared towards a certain food and the ones that do best on it(and not best on Doggy Bag) are the ones I've kept. Perhaps there's something else at play.

At any rate, I used up the one bag of Doggy Bag and moved back to the rodent feeds. I buy it local.

[Marrissa]

Wolfy- I feel that does make some sense. You could then select the healthiest to hold back and essentially over time groom your to thrive on the product.

I used to order NE from petfooddirect/pet360. When they had their crazy $1lb price hike (even when they run free shipping occasionally) I stopped ordering. I now load up on DB from the local tractor supply. Everyone gets DB in their hoppers/over the hardware cloth 24/7 but I have a grain mix they get a big scoop of every 3 days or so. I based it around the Camrattery diet but tailored it to suit my needs.

[wolfy-hound]

I'm considering getting the doggy bag and doing a half/half mix with the other food to see how they do with the mix.

[Aceboas]

The doggy bag your production will go down and odor up. I can get Mazuri 6f at $17 a bag but I buy a ton at a time. I have way more rodents than most . If just breeding for a small collection I'm sure doggie bag will suffice.

[Black Swamp]

I feed my rats Purina's Nature's Match sow pig complete feed to my rats instead of doggy bag. My mice get a blend of mazuri and doggy bag. The mice waste too much pig feed because the pellets are small, or they'd get that, too. TSC carries the pig feed, and the price is comparable to doggy bag. A little better actually, because it's a 50# bag instead of 40#. I just put it in heavy crocks inside the tubs. If I let the crock get empty before refilling, they waste less.

When I fed my rats doggy bag, I noticed a decrease in productivity, the rat pups weren't as fat/chunky, and moms took longer to regain condition, with a little more time in between litters. Pig feed is better. My mice don't seem to care, but that might be because they're still getting mazuri in the blend. They do eat their mazuri before they eat the doggy bag.

[cchardwick]

I buy all my from the feed store, some is less than ten bucks for 50 pounds. My rats have litters of 16 pups and gain weight super fast, and look better than any rodents I've ever seen. I use whole corn, cracked corn, corn oats barley (COB), pig pellets, sunflower seeds and a bird food that is almost all nuts. I go heavy on the nutty bird food even though it's about a dollar a pound, seems to pack on the weight and make them grow like a rocket. I have many cases of mason jars that I store it all in, then buy a new bag of something different and fill the empty jars as I go. I wouldn't use dog food myself. I change out the food dishes every other day. I stopped buying the lab blocks, too expensive and the pet store uses them them and their rodents look sickly compared to mine.