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can mice live on dog food

A

alden113941

New member
My apoligies if i posted this is the wrong place

But i was wondering if i could breed mice using dogfood instead of lab blocks.
I can by lab blocks but if dogfood is ok for mice id rather buy that so i can just go to walmart or any grocery store
 
Well I may not own a snake yet but my dad used to breed mice for petstores and for my lizards and he was going to use dog food but we found out that a lot of dog food containts a dye in it that its poisonus to most reptiles and since mice cant process poisons out there body it stays there...so I would go with lab blocks.
 
Lab blocks are good, but not necessary. You can feed them lots of things, but dog food alone won't work. I do a simple Walmart diet though (and supplement with whatever leftover food we have that's good for them (bread, vegetables, etc). I just get those big bags of birdseed mixes and mix dry dog food in, like 1 part dog food 3 parts birdseed. I have good results with that.
 
Ill just stick to lab blocks instead lol thanks for the info guys i dont want my snakes to get poisond.
Do any of you guys happen to know where to buy cheapest lab blocks?
 
The poisons that I believe are being mentioned above are the dyes they put in the dog food. They can live off dog food, however, they will not thrive... more of survive. In order to breed and such they need to thrive. A simple diet as mentioned above by cornsnakeforsale or the lab blocks works really good. Check with your local farm store/ co-op store. If they deal with Purina products they can order Mazuri lab blocks in 50 lb bags. Also FMR makes a rodent block.

Personally I use a pig food mixed with seeds, and other things along with large cattle blocks. A good mix but I also feed a lot of rodents....
 
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Buzzard said:
The poisions that I beleive are being mentioned above is the Dyes they put in the dog food. They can live off dog food, however, they will not thrive... more of survive. In order to breed and such they need to thrive. A simple diet as mentioned above by cornsnakeforsale or the lab blocks works really good. Check with your local farm store/ co-op store. If they deal with Purina products they can order Mazuri lab blocks in 50 lb bags. Also FMR makes a rodent block.

Personally I use a pig food mixed with seeds, and other things along with large cattle blocks. A good mix but I also feed a lot of rodents....
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info :)
 
After some reading, it seems like a mix of:
5 parts bird seed. Cockatiel or parakeet mix... not sure which is best. Cockatiel mix has sunflowers seeds so I would think that.
2 parts dog food, sans red dye. I've read that red dye is the culprit of the poisoning.
3 parts rabbit alfalfa pellets. Keep in mind that a lot of rabbit food, even the popular brands, have a lot of brightly colored bits of junk that neither rabbits nor your mice need. Get something that's just pellets, possibly bits of hay.

Alternatively you can choose a good mix that contains white millet, sunflower, oat groats, and hay pellets. Then you can mix in a bit of dog food.
 
VickyChaiTea said:
Alternatively you can choose a good mix that contains white millet, sunflower, oat groats, and hay pellets. Then you can mix in a bit of dog food.
Click to expand...

The seeds I use are similar to this, and I add extra sunflowers. My females are never seperated and they need the extra fat from the sunflowers for milk production and to retain weight. The pig food is 16% protein but the cattle blocks are actually 20% protein. They are real hard so the rodents do more chewing on the and less eating of them. (This helps with their teeth growth) I only put 1 large block per cage, until it has been chewed away(usually within 48 hrs). :)
 
I feed my mice wild bird food, rabbit pellets, hamster food, horse Krunch(simular to lab blocks), and dog food.
An all dog food diet would be way to high in protien.
 
When I had mice in high school I raised them mostly on a rodent seed mix and they seemed to do pretty well and all lived about three years. I prefered feeding them a "naturalistic" diet for the variety of foods/nutrients that offers.
 
I use 18% protein pork grower. Cheap and easy to get. All my mice are thriving and they don't smell nearly as bad as when i gave them a little bit of dog food. More than 10 pups a litter. I've heard many times that mice can't digest alfalfa or hay. so I'd avoid any rabbit food. And i'm not possitive, but i think the red dye poisoning doesn't effect snakes. It's just that it gives the mice kidney problems and shortens their life dramatically. So, I still wouldn't use it.
 
pheonix said:
I use 18% protein pork grower. Cheap and easy to get. All my mice are thriving and they don't smell nearly as bad as when i gave them a little bit of dog food. More than 10 pups a litter. I've heard many times that mice can't digest alfalfa or hay. so I'd avoid any rabbit food. And i'm not possitive, but i think the red dye poisoning doesn't effect snakes. It's just that it gives the mice kidney problems and shortens their life dramatically. So, I still wouldn't use it.
Click to expand...

Wer do yoy get the pork grower from?
 
I get it from my local feed store. The company is red river grain. I doubt they sell it in california, you'll just have to look around for feed stores and see what they have. I didn't worry about ingrediants just the protein. Mine costs $12 for 50 lbs.
 
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