A blessing to my rat colony

[John1982]

They even tell me their snakes can tell the difference and many will only eat my animals and will fast if offered rodents from another source. My snakes are the same way. Once or twice in the last few months I've had to buy a few feeders when my stock was low, but I learned the hard way my snakes won't touch feeders from someone else. I ended up making breeding stock of a few feeders I bought, and having to give away the rest.

That's crazy. Is it to the point where you feel responsible to warn customers interested in your snakes that they may need to buy their feeders from you as well?

[PghBall]

They even tell me their snakes can tell the difference and many will only eat my animals and will fast if offered rodents from another source. My snakes are the same way. Once or twice in the last few months I've had to buy a few feeders when my stock was low, but I learned the hard way my snakes won't touch feeders from someone else. I ended up making breeding stock of a few feeders I bought, and having to give away the rest.

That's crazy. Is it to the point where you feel responsible to warn customers interested in your snakes that they may need to buy their feeders from you as well?

I have a hard time believing that, I've had to get feeders that were not from my colony when running low and never had snakes flat out refuse because they were not from my colony. Did every one of your snakes refuse? Not trying to sound sarcastic or anything like that, just that I've never heard or come across this. I have heard of mousers and African soft fur only snakes, but never one that was picky about which rat it would eat.

[wolfy-hound]

I feed Mazuri and rarely ever have seen tumors until the rat is old. Even then, it's only a handful of rats out of probably up to a couple thousand a year. Add in that rats and mice are predispose towards tumors to begin with(why they use them in cancer studies), and I don't buy the "corn causes tumors". I've had rats pop up with tumors(when they're old) on whole food diets before I went with Mazuri.

My local feed store orders mine for me. They're great in that they will order me one bag or fifty. I usually order two bags at a time and I ended up with a surplus built up, and none of it went bad except ONE bag, that got damp. All the rest have been pristine when opened.

I've tried dog food and hog foods and a few other rodent diets. The dog food made my colony stink, the fur looked greasy and the rats were not plump. I tried hog food and had cannibalism issues and the rats were not plump and just didn't like it. The mazuri means no cannibalism, nice fat ratties(even nursing females normally don't get thin) and fat well grown babies.

I have seen people feed dog food and hog food and get what they said were good results. I'm not nay-saying anyone's personal experiences, but with my colony/pets, Mazuri has been the best by far.

[shadowsnakes]

I also don't agree that feeding Mazuri automatically means you will give your rodents tumors. I have a two year old male and two yearling females who have never eaten anything besides Mazuri Rat Breeder feed and they are amazingly healthy. Soft coats, bright eyes, lots of energy, no tumors. I supplement with fresh fruits and veggies on occasion but mostly as treats for good behavior.

[angllady2]

I know how it sounds, but it is true. Now, I learned over time and with experience that most people who breed feeders around me feed whatever is cheap. Dog food, Hog feed, monkey biscuits, cat food, they don't care. Their rats and mice look different, smell different, feel different, and my snakes won't touch them. Hence why I raise my own food. I can't be buying feeders all the time that make snakes won't eat, live or not.

A dear friend of mine buys mice from me every week for his snakes. He does sometimes have to buy from elsewhere, but he tells me certain ones of his animals will not eat mice from anyone but me. Any time I have enough mice to bring extras to a show, I always sell out before the show even opens. People line up to get stock from me, even though there are others selling mice at the show. I almost never have issues with cannibalism even in super crowded grow out tubs. My females grow quickly, have big litters and the babies wean quickly and grow fast. Perhaps other people have the same results or even better than me with a certain brand of dog food or other inexpensive food, but my personal experience keeps me feeding Mazuri.

Gale

[Expensive hobby]

Dang, virtually every breeder I know uses mazuri 6f or 9f. Better tell them all that their rats will get cancer!

I feed mazuri and none in my colony have tumors, at least none that are apparent.

Plus doesn't EVERYTHING give you cancer now-a-days? Everything short of walking into a nuclear reactor I don't buy it lol.


I like my Dubstep to go Wop Wop Wop Wop

[Kodieh]

Without quality feed, you'll actually see a loss in production too. So, those that feed dog food for example, will go through breeders faster and produce a lower quantity.

Quality food is the key, especially when you start giving them to snakes. Lol.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk