what do you feed your mice?

[Sean22]

mine are eating my dogs food now
but i dont think its the bet choice
i need to find a good mouse food in bulk
could you tell me where to get some
or is the dog food just fine?

[SexyHero]

Pet stores carry small rodent food...I have always fed mine the same stuff you feed a hamster or gerbil. Also, I used to give them some fresh veggies and fruit...they enjoy it and it keeps them healthy. (used to have feeder mice as pets)(feeders are cheaper than the "pet" mice).

[Sasheena]

I feed my mice a variety of things. The rodent chow you get in the petstore isn't necessarily best (expensive and not designed for a feeder colony).

I do buy one component of my mouse food from PetsMart though. Their cheapest dog food is called Grrreat Choice and I use the "Adult" variety (50 lb green bags for $11.95). I supplement that with black oil sunflower seeds ($6.99/20 lb bag), and COB from the local feed store ... corn oats and barley ($7.95/50 lb bag). So for 120 lbs of mouse and rat food I pay $0.23/lb. I probably sell enough mice and rats in a month to local herp keepers to pay about three times that. The 120 lbs of food lasts about 6 to 8 weeks. Sometimes I buy REAL cheap dog food at the local feed store and feed that to my rat "weiners"... the weanlings that are growing up. Sometimes I give the rats chicken bones and sunflower seed heads.

The mice and rats thrive on this diet. They produce well. I've gone through "poor times" when I could barely afford the dog food, but they still thrived. I just like to add the grains and seeds because I have fewer problems with cannabalism when those are added.

[Sean22]

k thanks

[magick-bears]

Personally I would never recommend feeding dog food. If you are just starting out dog food is not the way to go. However, if you have been feeding dog food all along (over 6 months) and you are happy with the results, like Sasheena, then don't fix what isn’t broken ;)

What I feed and always have (I bred mice for 20 years before getting out and am know getting back in) is lab blocks formulated for mice/rats. I breed feeder mice, pet mice, and show mice. One of my main focus points across the board is litter size and growth. In the past my average litter size was 18 with 22-24 being common. I have found that does simply can not feed that many kits on a dog food based diet. It only cost me $16 for a 50lb bag of feed. I do also on occasion supplement with left over veggies, stale bread, and pizza crust simply cause I hate to have food go to waste. If interested, I can provide the names of several top feed companies that make Lab Blocks.

Jeff C.

[Sean22]

sure im interested tell me where to get

[magick-bears]

Sean, where are you located? You can get lab blocks from almost any feed/grain store. I live in southern California and use Ace Hi (High Fat) milled by Star Milling. If you live on the east coast Agway has their RMH line. I believe that RHM1000 is the one I used for mice but it has been 5 years now so I might have the number wrong. I used RMH exclusively for 10 years. I have also used and can recommend Mazuri Rodent Breeder, though this one is much more expensive. If you are production breeding I would suggest using the Rodent Breeder 11F. Lastly, is Purina Mills Lab Diet 5015 Mouse Diet.

I have personally used all of the above diets with good results. There is one other one I can suggest. I have never used this one myself but know breeders that do. It is Harlan Teklad Global Rodent Diet. For producing mice I would go with the 19% Protein diet. This is produced by Harlan one of the largest and best known Lab Animal breeding facilities in the world.

Hope this helps,
Jeff C.

[dovetailthis]

Hey Jeff.

What kind of production did you have with the mice? How large? And did you do it for profit or hobby? I am starting to raise some mice to feed my snakes and have been wondering if this is something that can easily be done for profit if the necessary space was available.

Thanks,
Aaron

[magick-bears]

Hey Aaron

Back when I was breeding in my peek I had between 75 and 100 breeding colonies and was producing 5,000 to 6,000 mice per month. I was selling them wholesale for between $0.25 for pinkies up to $1.50 for the nicer colored "Aurora Super Mice" (a stain of Satin English Mice). My monthly expenses averaged under $500 and I would seldom have many mice left at the end of the month.

Now this was back 8 to 10 years ago. Before the "super" chain stores had come into the North East. In fact the only chain around at that time was one called Dr. Pets. They had stores in NY, MA, RI, VT, and NH and a couple other states I can't recall. Even though they were in at least those 5 states they only had like 50 to 75 stores. And guess who they got most of their mice from ;) It was also back when family/ Ma & Pa stores who carried everything except dogs and cats were very popular. I supplied allot of these stores and all of the ones that specialized in reptiles. This was because my competitors liked to save a buck and fed cheap dog food. I was told several times that they had to feed their reptiles twice as much when using the other's mice then they did with mine. I also would exchange any of the mice I sold as "Fancies" or "Auroras" if they did not sell in a month’s time with new 4 week olds. This was unheard of before I started doing it.

Now a days I am not sure that I would start up an operation like this again. If I was going to I would first look into getting a contract with one of the larger chains (if that is even possible). However, I have no doubt that if you are in an area with allot of snake owners (be it pet snakes or breeders) and no one selling feeders you can make money at it. You won't get rich, but you at minimum will have free food to feed your own snakes and maybe even pocket a buck or two.

If you have any further questions feel free to e-mail me.

Jeff C.

[eddie1976]

One htinkg you can always do if you liv ein a good college town is go to someone in charge of the mice labs and ask for outdated food. It comes irradiated and vaccuum packed. THe college labs can only use them for 3 months and then they throw it out. WHen I worked for Cornell I did this all the time. And when it was time to move I took all of the outdate dfoos they ha dleft. (About 80 pounds)

[Taceas]

I'm with Magick-bears on this one.

I only feed my mice lab blocks formulated for mice/rats. It costs me $12 per 50lb bag and that lasts my 3 colonies for 4-6 months. I get mine through the professional rodent breeder where I got my starter mouse colony from, which he obtains from a feed mill in Kentucky that custom blends it. I've had nothing but success from it and usually have 13-20 kits per litter.

When I first started out I thought that the cutsey seed diets I see would be good, variety is the spice of life eh? But what I ended up with was mice that were fat, lazy, and never bred. Seeds are primarily fat, hence why most bird breeders suggest you get birds on a pelleted diet. Fortified seeds doesn't do any good either, they spray the vitamins/minerals on the shell and thats what most animals don't eat. Once I got them on the lab block diet, wow, what a difference.

If I'm in a pinch and I don't have any lab blocks, I'll break down and use my dogs food, Nutros Large Breed Adult. It's pretty much all natural, and it's expensive as all heck. But it keeps my dog healthy as a fiddle so why not my mice eh.

[Sean22]

Sean, where are you located? You can get lab blocks from almost any feed/grain store. I live in southern California and use Ace Hi (High Fat) milled by Star Milling. If you live on the east coast Agway has their RMH line. I believe that RHM1000 is the one I used for mice but it has been 5 years now so I might have the number wrong. I used RMH exclusively for 10 years. I have also used and can recommend Mazuri Rodent Breeder, though this one is much more expensive. If you are production breeding I would suggest using the Rodent Breeder 11F. Lastly, is Purina Mills Lab Diet 5015 Mouse Diet.

I have personally used all of the above diets with good results. There is one other one I can suggest. I have never used this one myself but know breeders that do. It is Harlan Teklad Global Rodent Diet. For producing mice I would go with the 19% Protein diet. This is produced by Harlan one of the largest and best known Lab Animal breeding facilities in the world.

Hope this helps,
Jeff C.

i live in schaumburg,illinois about 30 min from chicago
can someone tell me where i could find a place to get lab blocks
or a site i could order from?

-sean

[magick-bears]

Well I don't know any spacific places there. I am sure that if you look in your yellow pages under Feed stores or Grain Stores you should be able to find at least a few listings. Then just call them up and ask them if they carry rat/mouse lab blocks and if not can they order it. As for ordering online you can check out http://www.mazuri.com/ and http://www.harlan.com/news/frame-click.asp?url=http://www.teklad.com/index.htm however, be prepaired for very expensive shipping charges.

Jeff C.

[Missy]

ooh, do you all breed the mice then freeze them. i always alwys have bought mine from a expert snake breeder who has his own shop and thats where i get everything i need from. i normally but like 20 or something mice at a time, then put them straight in our freezer, then just thaw out however many i need. dont think i could ver have live mice in the house.