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.
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