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Feeders Any and all issues about raising rats, mice, or anything else that you feed your cornsnakes.

what do you feed your mice?
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Old 07-04-2004, 08:11 AM   #1
Sean22
Thumbs down what do you feed your mice?

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?
 
Old 07-04-2004, 09:47 AM   #2
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).
 
Old 07-04-2004, 10:21 AM   #3
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.
 
Old 07-04-2004, 10:36 AM   #4
Sean22
k thanks
 
Old 07-04-2004, 05:49 PM   #5
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.
 
Old 07-05-2004, 08:33 AM   #6
Sean22
sure im interested tell me where to get
 
Old 07-05-2004, 02:53 PM   #7
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.
 
Old 07-05-2004, 05:05 PM   #8
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
 
Old 07-05-2004, 06:15 PM   #9
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.
 
Old 07-09-2004, 10:01 PM   #10
eddie1976
Lab MOuse food

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)
 

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