Question about Becky's rat food mix

[cassandra]

I bought most of the ingredients yesterday to mix up a batch of this to feed temporary "in-house" feeders (we buy them a few days before hand and want them to eat the bestet). My question is, eventually the cereals will get stale (since I'm not feeding very many ratters a week) and the mix makes up quite a bit. Will the stale food be bad for the ratters and/or will they eventually not want to eat it because it is stale?

[cassandra]

Okay, so I don't have spider pictures to post...but *shameless bump*...

[Smulkin]

They will still eat it stale and leave everythign else for seconds - at least ours do.

We usually get enough to mix and store in a big rubbermaid to balance out the big bag of beneful. It never lasts longer than 7-10 days but they always eat the cereals first it seems.

I also crush up cereals for the dubias and since they consume far less I store the bulk uncrushed leftovers in freezer ziploc bags - we've had bags of those sitting around for 2 months and still crunchy enough to powder between your fingers.

Hope it helps!


but here's a spider anyway

[TheAudOne]

I didnt realize that the mix is exactly what I have fed our rats for 5 years now.

I dont mix it all together myself, but pick and choose what to give them each night, or put a larger portion out in the morning that will last. When I mixed it all together my rats would pick and choose there favorites, once I started puttig out diffrent stuff each night they would eat it all.

I have always used what I have on-hand and whats okay for rodents to eat. I also give mine cherries every other day or so....they have insane sweet tooths.

But yeah, I dont see why they wouldnt eat stale cereal, although the crunch is prefered I'm sure, it wont hurt them at all though. I think our rats favorite food is uncooked pasta and oats and cooked pasta.

Any who good luck.

[cueball]

Okay, so I don't have spider pictures to post...but *shameless bump*...

Haha!! I feed mine Mazuri zoo lab blocks and they do not seem to stale. This would be easy to bag and keep around

[SatanicIntention]

I feed mine Mazuri rodent blocks too, the 6F or 6% fat kind. The mice get the 9F and they look like little pingpong balls with legs

That mix doesn't really go stale if you keep it in an airtight container, such as a big tupperware or garbage bag(which is enclosed in a rubbermaid or similar). Keep it closed though or you will get weevils. I put a bit of sweet feed in my ratfood mix just to bulk it up and make it last longer. Weevils sometimes come in it if it's not fresh... So we baked about 40-45lbs of rat food. Yay for a molasses smelling house! And the rats get crunchy weevil carcass for lunch

I usually mix up about 45lbs at a time, depending on how many rats I have. It may cost me $50-$60 each time, but the mix lasts for 3-4 months(I have 27 rats). Even the last little bit I dole out to the little heathens isn't stale, it's still as crunchy as the day I bought it. So maybe that helps a bit.

[recycling goddess]

i use this as well and my ratties love everything but the lentils and peas i add into the mix.

i also supplement them with crickets and silkworms... they LOVE both! i give the ratties their crickets in a pill bottle... they stuff their heads in there to grab the crickets in their teeth LOL

[recycling goddess]

but here's a spider anyway

that is one gorgeous OBT!!!!! mine is about 2"+ and i absolutely love him

[cassandra]

Welp, Carmen's-future-meal is happily munching away on something in there...at my rate of 1-2 rats per week, this mix will last quite a well, hehe.

Thanks for the replies, folks!

[TheAudOne]

Welp, Carmen's-future-meal is happily munching away on something in there...at my rate of 1-2 rats per week, this mix will last quite a well, hehe.

Thanks for the replies, folks!

I think you should get yourself a bowl with some milk and start eating lol.