Opinions on these hog feeds?

[artgecko]

Hi guys,
After doing some digging, I found out my local TSC carries purina hog feeds. I wanted your opinion on these to see which would be the best for maintaining non breeding and breeding rats. I don't know prices yet, but am sure that they are cheaper than the native earth I've been getting. All of these have corn and some have corn gluten meal (which I didn't think rats could digest) so I'm curious what the effects would be. The "complete sow oval" claims to be large sized, so I'm wondering if that would be easier to feed through wire and one of them (the grower finisher) claims to reduce the odor of waste, etc.).

Nature's Match (purina) sow and pig complete
Nature's Match complete sow oval
Nature's match grower-finisher

[Rhasputin]

Complete sow oval is too low in protein, so that's out.

The other two... One is corn and soybean, and the other is wheat and soybean. But other than that, there seems to be only very minute differences, that as far as I know won't affect the mice any differently

[artgecko]

If it makes any difference, I was planning on trying this with rats. I don't keep mice yet (although I'm considering it).

[Lore]

I'd go with sow and pig complete, out of those three choices, because I am partial to wheat over corn. Corn has a tendency to produce a lot of unnecessary sugars. There doesn't look to be any vitamin K in that diet though? You can supplement that by adding a few boxes of Total cereal to your mix.

Other notes
Calcium is low.
Phosphorus is low.
Contains phytate from the dehulled soybean meal, lowering phosphorus absorption.
No information on the level of magnesium. Phytate decreases magnesium absorption.
Sodium looks alright.
Appears to be lacking in Vitamin D. Will have to supplement if your rats are never in direct sunlight.
Zinc looks adequate.
No information: potassium, copper, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, etc. (several more but this is quite a list)

I'd message the company and ask for a comprehensive vitamin and mineral panel. I'm not the most educated person on this subject, I would look up some books on nutritional requirements of laboratory rats and do some comparisons.

If there is anything I can do to help, just send me a PM. :]

[artgecko]

Thanks! I'll email them and see what they say. I haven't checked the price on this stuff yet, so if it is not much cheaper, then I may stay with native earth. If it is a much better deal, then I'd be willing to do a mix to supplement with.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Your main issue here will be your protein content I would not recommend lower than 16% unless you are planning on supplementing with protein.

As for corn and corn gluten meal it is found in rodent breeder food made for breeder rats and mice such as Mazuri.

[Rhasputin]

I think your best bet is to mix the hog food with your lab block. The pig food is about $15 a bag, and I think the lab block is sometimes double that. So it'll bring cost down greatly and still give them a good diet.

[artgecko]

Thanks for the advice! You might be on to something Rhasputin... That would reduce my expenses while not making me worry about nutritional content.

[artgecko]

I ended up going with the sow and pig complete. (the green bag) because it was the only alternative they had other than regular hog feed. I will take a look at the label and post any different ingredients / percentages that may be listed on it. It has 16% protein.. But also contains corn (I think as the first ingredient). TSC said that they couldn't order mazuri unless it was on their ordering sheet, but I am going to check with other feed stores in town.

The sow/pig feed cost $13, so $7 less than I pay for the NE now. I am considering mixing the hog feed 50/50 with the NE for my males, but keeping my females on NE only, if you think that would make a difference in their health or ability to produce litters successfully. If the hog feed is just as good, then I can use a 50/50 mix for both genders.

The feed is in smaller pieces than the lab blocks. Will this effect the rats ability to grind down their teeth? I provide them with a lot of cardboard to munch on and wood toys as well, so I wasn't sure about that aspect of it.

Thanks again everyone for your help!

[Rhasputin]

The small pieces don't matter, rodents eat way smaller stuff in the wild. But why just feed it to your males? If you were going to pick one sex, I would do females only. But I would just go ahead and feed the mix to both, lol.

But I had perfectly fine luck on just hog feed (except with my freakin spiny mice, they won't breed for nothin' lol).