Rat food

[JoshJP7]

I currently feed my rats Mazuri rodent feed and was looking to see if this is good enough for them 24/7/365? Should I be tossing in some other stuff now and then or will they be fine with just the Mazuri?

[lillyorchid]

Mazuri is good for them to eat all of the time, you shouldn't have to supplement them with anything else.

[littleindiangirl]

If you have scraps and left overs and what not, they love em! I always bring home a doggy bag and split it up amongst the colony. They love chicken bones, cereal crumbs, pasta, all kinds of left over things.

Other than that, they get their Mazuri 24/7 and I have some pretty big healthy rats with large chubby litters.

[JoshJP7]

Thank you Allison and Connie... My rats are getting nice and fat and I weighed them all last week... Most of my females are right around 230-240 so 250+ should be achieved by the end of the month. Itll be sooooo nice to finally breed my own food rather than pay 175$ every 4 months for F/T and 20-30$ a week for live.

The mazuri has actually lasted quite a bit of time which was a surprise to me. I bought 3-50lb bags about a month and a half ago and used 1 1/2 bags to fill up the feeding troughs of my ARS rack. I thought I was going to have to 1 bag a month so its been a pleasant surprise to find out that 1 bag will feed 28 rats for more than a month.

I never thought I'd be into rats but some of the ones I have are so darn cute!!! It's going to be hard to feed the cute babies off when they start poppin em out. Thanks again for the help.

[crsaz]

how much does a 50lb bag cost? and how many groups of 1.4 would you suggest to get 70-100+ rats a month?

[littleindiangirl]

You'll need approximately 10 females having a litter each month, so... I'd shoot for between 24 and 30 females, with 2 females birthing each week. (Assuming they all have approx 10 in each litter)

I'd get 3 or 4 males to breed the girls.

I buy Mazuri 6F from a feed store for 25$ for 50lb bag.

[LarryPetty]

You'll need approximately 10 females having a litter each month, so... I'd shoot for between 24 and 30 females, with 2 females birthing each week. (Assuming they all have approx 10 in each litter)

I'd get 3 or 4 males to breed the girls.

I buy Mazuri 6F from a feed store for 25$ for 50lb bag.

Wow... I was complaining about the price today. Just last year we were paying $13.50 per bag of Mazuri. Then this spring it went to $15.50. So I switched to FRM for $12. Well, I started having production problems with FRM because the protein was too low. FRM makes a higher protein version for breeders but it is $17 a bag. So today my wife went to buy Mazuri and it went up to $18 a bag. I couldn't believe it... However, I guess I cannot complain!

[reaxion07]

I would like to switch my rats over to Mazuri. Should I get them the Rat/Mouse mix, or is the 6f okay? On their website, it says the 6f is for Rats that are going to be breeders. I have no intentions of breeding my guys with anything, I just want them to get the best food possible Plus, the bag size of the 6f is much bigger then the Rat/Mouse formula.

[littleindiangirl]

Wow... I was complaining about the price today. Just last year we were paying $13.50 per bag of Mazuri. Then this spring it went to $15.50. So I switched to FRM for $12. Well, I started having production problems with FRM because the protein was too low. FRM makes a higher protein version for breeders but it is $17 a bag. So today my wife went to buy Mazuri and it went up to $18 a bag. I couldn't believe it... However, I guess I cannot complain!

There are a few different Mazuri formulas. Is that 6F your buying down there or one of the generic lab blocks?



Reaxion, I've always fed my animals 6F and they have done very good on it. I've never used the rat/mouse diet.

I also feed Harlan Teklad 2018 to nursing females and the ASF's.