Feeding Rats Dog Food?

[bad-one]

I feed dog food right now and I have had 4 great litters (11, 12, 13, & 13 babies).

However, I do notice their fur is greasier and their poop stinks WAY more. I'm going to switch over to a better diet asap!

[PythonKaa]

just google the dyes and rats or rodents and typically you com up with stuff like this:
heres red dye number 40 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6636206
some others on other legal ppl food addititives http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/0...e-aware-of.htm
this also
http://www.feingold.org/Research/dye.html

We have been breeding rats now for about 6 months we dont have access to a bunch of Mazuri in AK and shipping is expinsive. So to save money we bought Old Roy Dog rounds, all the rats seemed to do great on that but it runs almost .75/ lb so we were like well lets try something else and we tried this other Old Roy (bigger bag and roughly the same price) we use a half Mazuri and half dog food mix. We got this new bag about 3 weeks ago. At that time our rats were healthy, fat, and doing great! Last week when we cleaned our tubs all together we had 98 baby rats and good looking mamas. Today we cleaned again and only 58 of those babies are alive and about 6 of our growing breeders died and 3 of our breeding stock are so skinny it is sick! All of them have the sneezes! I was worried about what was going on not only because it is costing us money but because I am not fond of picking hundreds of dead rats out of the bins! When I read this I went to look at the ingredients of this dog food and guess what??? Red-40 and a few other dyes!
So thank you very much I hope that this is what is causing the problem and it will soon be fixed!

[nixer]

We have been breeding rats now for about 6 months we dont have access to a bunch of Mazuri in AK and shipping is expinsive. So to save money we bought Old Roy Dog rounds, all the rats seemed to do great on that but it runs almost .75/ lb so we were like well lets try something else and we tried this other Old Roy (bigger bag and roughly the same price) we use a half Mazuri and half dog food mix. We got this new bag about 3 weeks ago. At that time our rats were healthy, fat, and doing great! Last week when we cleaned our tubs all together we had 98 baby rats and good looking mamas. Today we cleaned again and only 58 of those babies are alive and about 6 of our growing breeders died and 3 of our breeding stock are so skinny it is sick! All of them have the sneezes! I was worried about what was going on not only because it is costing us money but because I am not fond of picking hundreds of dead rats out of the bins! When I read this I went to look at the ingredients of this dog food and guess what??? Red-40 and a few other dyes!
So thank you very much I hope that this is what is causing the problem and it will soon be fixed!

im sorry to hear that, but im really glad that you came across this thread. its hard to find dog food without dyes in it, but currently i have been using sportmix. wheres a link they also have a dealer search on their site
http://www.sportmix.com/dog/originalBiteSize.tpl

[snakesRkewl]

I found that my rats poop dries up like they are constipated on dog food.
I give dog food for an additive now and then, and when I run out of Mazuri,
but otherwise I believe my rats are much healthier on mazuri than dog food.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Hm, Sportmix is the same price as lab block...why bother?

I may give Doggy Bag a try, though, since some folks are reporting increased production with it. Maybe half and half with the lab block. It'll save me some money too, if it works. I can live with oilier rats if they are having more babies and their survivability is good.

[nixer]

Hm, Sportmix is the same price as lab block...why bother?

I may give Doggy Bag a try, though, since some folks are reporting increased production with it. Maybe half and half with the lab block. It'll save me some money too, if it works. I can live with oilier rats if they are having more babies and their survivability is good.

i pay less than what i would with lab block
i do switch it up to keep some verity in the diet

[WingedWolfPsion]

I get lab block for $20 for a 50 pound bag, though, so any alternative is gonna have to do better than that.
I can't find swine feed locally. This should not be surprising, I guess, apparently people in Omaha do not raise pigs. <lol>

[filly77]

Well I've been feeding doggy bag for a while due to the fact that no matter what store I call, no one can order me any lab blocks, well one can but the cost is extremely high..

Lately what I've noticed is my litters are MUCH smaller. I'm getting on average 6 babies each litter and this isn't good! I have mouths to feed lol I'm not sure what's causing it. Which is why Im posting this in this thread, is it the doggy bag food or another factor?

Do rats slow down w/ breeding during certain times of the year?

Are smaller litters due to genetics? (mom has smaller litter=her daughters have smaller litters?) I think I read this somewhere but Im not 100% certain? My breeding females aren't that old, I have younger females who also give me smaller litters, so I dont think my issue is age related. but I do plan on retiring some of them soon and replacing them with new females.


I added a new girl recently. she's such a lil CUTIE & friendly and a dumbo. I wanted to buy the mom, she had a HUGE litter in the tank but the pet store said no way, she's their breeder. The lil girl is still too young for breeding but Im hoping new blood will help. It's hard to find fresh blood around here as 2 out of the 3 pet stores within decent driving distance breed their own rats (same blood as what I have) and the 3rd orders them, so who knows if their distributor is the same as the other pet stores who are now breeding their own? But I got the new lil female from one of the ones who breeds, i figure even if there is some of the same blood in the new girl, it would have to be a very small amount. I plan on checking out other pet stores further away from my area in hopes of getting more breeding stock with better baby giving skills lol.


Also.. about the Doggy Bag food, It's VERY crumbly. I go through about 40 lbs a month give/take. Maybe thats a normal amount for the amount of rats I have? Not sure? lol but someone else mentioned it goes fast too.. I wonder if its because of how crumbly it is, maybe a lot of it gets wasted? I literally have to shake out every scoop before I put it in the hoppers, to knock off all the crumbs, I dont want them getting in to my rats eyes! Is it possible that 40 lbs of lab block lasts longer than 40 lbs of the dog food?

I just called some of the stores again today and asked yet again if they can order me some rat food, I figure its worth trying again.. One store said he'd give my info to the owner and she would have to call me back, another (Tractor Supply) said I need to call back and speak with the woman who places the orders. TS usually tells me they dont do special orders, soooo Im hoping one of these 2 pan out!

All in all, I wouldnt recommend doggy bag, its ok if you cant find anything else but I personally dont like it and wish I could find something better for my rats.

PS
whats this swine food about? is it any good and is it better than the doggy bag? Im sure I could find some of that somewhere around here.

*edit*
I've even been cruising CL in search of more females but I havent found any close enough

[filly77]

ughhhh one place I just called can get 25lbs of Kaytee mouse & rat, she didnt know for certain if it was lab blocks or not and woulda found out for me but once I heard the price, I said ty anyway.. It woulda been 30 bucks

[Fallguy]

I have not been able to find any good hog feed anywhere around here, in western SD. I have also been looking for something that I can fit into the 1/2" food hoppers also. I did find this stuff though. Let me know what you think about the ingredients list, and % stats. I can get 50 Lbs for $8.50.