What Do You Feed Your Feeder Rats or Mice

Since there are a lot of people on here that breed their own rats or mice, what do you feed them? What is the cheapest and most economical, but nutritious way to feed them? I figure that when they are all on adult food, it will probably cost me about $30/month. Just think that after my start up costs, it wouldn't cost me that much for food to feed a colony or two....

I would go with the lab blocks. They are nutrionally balanced, & really easy to feed. If you cannot find any in one of the pet stores in your area, some places sell it online.
http://www.spoiledratten.com/feedingcontent.html

http://beanfarm.com/product_info.php...oducts_id=5994

Block food. Mazuri is a purina product. You can order it from any purina dealer. Most co-ops and/or tractor supply. I pay 23.75 for a 50lb bag.

There are lots of different blocks I use f6.

Originally Posted by Buzzard

Block food. Mazuri is a purina product. You can order it from any purina dealer. Most co-ops and/or tractor supply. I pay 23.75 for a 50lb bag.

There are lots of different blocks I use f6.

Good to know, that is a lot cheaper than Bean Farm has it for.

I have rats, so they do great on just about anything. Literally. When I don't have a good supply of table scraps, I feed mainly this dog food with 1/4 to 1/3 the amount of dog food of this cat good (indoor or normal formula).

The dog food is about 18 dollars for ~15 pounds, and the cat food about the same at Petco with a PALS card. I can't find a place with a good lab block in bulk and can't be bothered to spend the effort when they probably won't be able to order it.


I really want to note that rats are extremely adaptive and I did have a rat go through most of her pregnancy and nursing phase on mainly various table scraps and a few hard boiled eggs each week with no problems. I highly highly doubt mice could do that.

Thanks everyone for your input on my thoughts on breeding rodents for the snakes... I have seriously given this a lot of thought and have decided that it's not worth the effort or work to breed mice or rats for my snakes at this time. I have figured that spending $30 a month on snake food is worth my time and effort of having to breed and clean all those cages at this stage, just to save a couple of dollars. Maybe down the road, I might, but for now....

I checked on site here in Canada that has FT mice that can be shipped. I figure by the time I pay for shipping, I am not saving that much. I can get my mice and rats at the pet store (using my discount) for nearly the same price. I can't be bothered to send for mice to only save 20 cents or so. It's not worth it in my books.

Just wondering how long it takes for a baby mouse to reach adult size?

I'm not sure how many Canadian expos you guys have around your parts, but expos are one of the cheapest place to score f/t rodents. You benefit of the cheaper price that f/t dealers generally have and you don't have to pay for shipping!

I'm not really sure how Canadian prices might differ from American prices though. Hopefully you can stick it out until an expo and then get a decent deal.