Another rodent food question?

[Muskrat24]

So I havn't breed mice/rats/asfs in a long time as I have been outt've the hobby for about 3 years. I've finally gotten to a point where I'm starting to slowly get back into the herp hobby now with a little more time and money. I'm already working on an set of mice and rat racks. But my question is about the choice of food. The last time a bred rats I fed them an cheaper dog food. I don't remember the name but picked it up at the local Dollar General. Now I have a black lab and I got to looking at the food I feed her which is Diamond Brand High Energy Sporting Dog Food. I know I should look at Mazuri rodent breeder but since I buy the Diamond Brand anyways I figured it might work. Here is the break down.


Diamond Brand:

Crude Protein- 24.0%
Crude Fat- 20.0%
Crude Fiber- 5.0%%

Ingredients:
Chicken by-product meal, ground corn, wheat flour, rice bran, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), corn gluten meal, dried plain beet pulp, millet, fish meal, natural chicken flavor, meat meal, salt, potassium chloride, choline chloride, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B2 supplement, riboflavin, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

Caloric Content:
3,820 kcal/kg (394 kcal

Where the Mazuri Rodent Breeder has:

Guaranteed Analysis

Crude protein- 16.0%
Crude fat- 6.0%
Crude fiber- 6.0%

Ground Corn, Dehulled Soybean Meal, Porcine Animal Fat Preserved with BHA, Cane Molasses, Wheat Middlings, Calcium Carbonate, Ground Oats, Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal, Dicalcium Phosphate, Ground Wheat, Ground Soybean Hulls, Fish Meal, Salt, Brewers Dried Yeast, Dried Beet Pulp, Wheat Germ, Corn Gluten Meal, Choline Chloride, DL-Methionine, L-Lysine, Soybean Oil, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Dried Yucca Shidigera Extract, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex, Cholecalciferol, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Biotin, DL-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Nicotinic Acid, Vitamin A Acetate, Manganous Oxide, Zinc Oxide, Ferrous Carbonate, Copper Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Cobalt Carbonate.

I guess my question is does anything stand out about the Diamond brand dog food that you would avoid feeding to your mice, rats or asfs?

[ElliotNess]

Costco "designer" label is exceptional dog food. It is on par with the high end stuff like diamond, canidae and blue buffalo. Its much more cost efficient as well. Just a thought if you were trying to save in the wallet as well.

[Muskrat24]

I don't know if its that I wanna save as much as its an convienance issue. My dog will be eating this particular diamond brand dog food. I was just worried that someone else may have attempted it and had an bad experience. I would assume the higher protein content would be good fro breeding femals. But then again it has an 8% higher protein percentage than the Mazuri and I dont know if that is too much. I know the Diamond dog food has done wonders putting weight on my dog. Another concern is the ingredients in the dog food is there any of the additives that wouldn't be good for consumption by the snakes? After picking it up from the rodents eating it.

[Rhasputin]

If you're feeding just the dog food, then NO! It's all wrong and I would never suggest it. Your rodents will definitely decline in health, wellness, and production.

Mixing a little bit into your mazuri is fine, but it's a little unnecessary since mazuri is already laboratory designed for the perfect rodent diet.
The dog food itself isn't very good, and personally, if I were going to mix in dog food with my top quality rodent food, it would be top quality dog food like blue buffalo.

[Muskrat24]

Thank you Rhasputin.

[bunnykit]

I've used a variety of foods for my rats. Lately, because I ran out of the mixture I typically gave them (dried peas, dried corn, wheat, cat food, pea nuts, dried banana etc) I gave them what I had at home, dried dog food and I also tried mixing in some chicken feed. It's all veggy and organic. I thought it might ruck up their digestive system, and prepped for that, but wee and behold my shock to see better digestion, firm and nice looking poop, healthy rats that produces nice healthy babies, and the males don't put on that bothersome extra weight they used to, they stay slim and handsome. I'm still planing on blending in some more variation in the feed, but the chicken feed is here to stay. The rats love it and they look so darn healthy. Nice energy, nice fur, nice litters, nice poop. If I remember correctly then this feed had a little extra calcium also, which always worried me before, since rats grow quickly and I was always worried that I didn't get enough calcium into their diet. I supplement their diet with fresh carrots, fresh apples, dried apples and some food leftovers.

I also started breeding meal worms recently, and plan on blending down some dried meal worms into their feed later. I have given them some and they like it. I just don't have enough to make it a regular supplement for now, will take a while longer.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You want to stay around 16/18 % of protein, 24% protein is too much and will likely lead to a series of issues (from skin issues to possible kidney failure)