dog food or pig pellets for rodents?

[cornfish]

ive been looking for rodent lab blocks for a wile for my rats/mice/gerbils but cant find anything exept the 2lb bags of mazuri pellets at petsmart and at 8$ a bag its just to expensive, i used to feed dogfood to my rats but was told it wasent vary good for them and i figured sence its round they might have a hard time eating it threw the 1/2" mesh and 1/4" mesh for the mice but is it realy any diffrent than the lab blocks? someone suggested i get pig pellets and there only 8$ for 40lbs and have 16% protien(witch i think is way too low for breeding right?)but they werent sure how mutch fat was in them, would ither of these be an alternitive to lab blocks or can anyone suggest one that can be eaten threw the mesh?(not the seed mixes for rodents)

and just wondering but whats a good size tub for 1.2 rats?

 

[sargeoif]

I use gerbil food, my mice been breeding pretty good snakes don't have any complaints eating them.

 

[TripleMoonsExotic]

Have you tried at like a local feed store that can order it for you?

You can also usually find it at shows.

 

[reptile_jones]

Mazuri makes several types of lab block for rodents. One which is for rodents that are feed to other animals. I had to spacial order my at a local feed/farm store. $18 for 50lbs. Go to Mazuri web page to find who sell it in your area.

 

[mommyof2]

I don't breed my mice(they apparently breed themselves, though :shrugs: ), but I have always fed them hamster food. It's got a few small seeds but for the most part it's big dog food looking chunks. They are all happy and healthy.

 

[diamondlil]

I use a high protein rabbit mix plus puppy food as a basic feed, plus lots of treats. The mice go crazy over dog biscuits and cooked corn on the cob. Small pieces of toast crust with butter on go down a treat too, shelled sunflower seeds, unshelled peanuts, dried fruit. I found using the hamster or rat/mouse mix meant a lot of wastage, as they didn't eat the small seeds in it

 

[snakeboy24]

i feed a mix of rabbit muslea, rabbit pellets and dog pellets. my mice seem healthy and very active.

i have heard other people saying about feeding pig pellets but i wouldn't imagine they would be the best thing you could feed.

lee :cheers:

 

[Velvet]

I feed my rats and my mice good quality dog pellets with standard rodent pellets, hamster mix mixed in for added Nutrients...I also feed them safe fruits and veggies... they are thriving!

 

[snakeboy24]

just out of curiosity what fruits and veg aren't safe to feed?

thanks
lee :cheers:

 

[snakeboy24]

oh and BTW, if you want to know the ratio, per 500g i use 200g rabbit mix, 200 grams dog pellets and 100 grams rabbit pellets. that is the usual mix for a pregnant female. for the weaned mice i normally give them 50g extra rabbit pellets and 50g less dog pellets as the rabbit pellets work out better for them nutrition wise and have more nutrients needed for growing than the dog pellets (surprisingly).
i have tried other combinations but this seems to be the best IMHO.
hope it helps

lee :cheers:

 

[Flagg]

To the other comments, Rabbit alfalfa pellets are worthless to feed rats and mice. They can't digest alfalfa.

If you can't special order Mazuri 6F Id say go with the pig pellets if the fat isn't too high. 16% protein is fine, Mazuri 6F is 16% protein. I use Harlan 2018 from the reptile show, that's 18% protein and they seem to like it a lot better than the Mazuri. The Mazuri smells a lot worse as well.

 

[cornfish]

thanks for help all, i know that rabbit pellets(alfalfa)arent good for mice or rats(and the rats i used to breed woud rather starve than eat them)i phoned 10 feed stores and one thinks they can order me a bag of mazuri but i dident know there were diffrent kinds, i asked for rat and mice breeder pellets, flagg what dos 6F mean? mazuri is a good brand right? i got a small bag from petsmart for the rats just for the heck of it and they like it ok it says on the bag it has 23 protien and 6.5 fat(iam gessing fat shouldent be higher than that?)so i thought the pig pellets were way too low in protien, would there be a diffrence in useing mazuri or pig pellets as long as the fat isent to high? sence iam sure the mazuri will be at least $20 for 20-50lbs on the other hand i dont have vary many rodents now so mabie i will get the lab blocks now then when i have a lot of rodents switch to the pig pellets.

another thing i cant seem to get around here is large bags of good shaveings its all dust pine/fir/spruce mix, but one store has pine pellets(mad for horse stalls)they say they have no dust and there only 4.50$ for 40lbs would they be a better alternitive than normal shaveings?

sorry for the long post

 

[Flagg]

The type of Mazuri that I see most used and sold by feeder breeders is the "Mazuri 6F 5M30" which goes for around $18 a 50 lb bag best price from the reptile show when it used to be there, the feed store I had order it for me charged like $23.

It's 16% protein 6% fat. There apparently are other formulas with much higher protein, like 23%. In my opinion thats a little high for rats, I have some blue males that seem to be allergic to high amounts of protein.

Check the mazuri website for a list of all the formalas and ingredients.

 

[Mike@boakingdom]

Dog food is OK, but make sure you buy the cheapest food possible, the higher quality dog food has a lot of meat protein in it which is not good for rodents. The real cheap dog food is made of all grain products...terrible for your dog, but good for your rodents

I use the dog food ALDI Food Store sells. I know a snake breeder who has used that food for over 2 years for his rodents. I have multiple bird & squirrel feeders out in my yard, so I always have hundreds of pounds of feed on hand...every couple days I give each mouse box a mixe of shelled corn and wild bird seed.

 

[Mike@boakingdom]

I use the dog food ALDI Food Store sells. I know a snake breeder who has used that food for over 2 years for his rodents.

This was supposed to say 20 years, not 2 years :shrugs:

 

[cornfish]

i looked on mazuris website and theres a place that has it in my area...but they dont sell to the public :realhot: and the one store that said they would get we a quote hasent phoned back, they gave me a name of a store near me that can order it but i dont realy like the store too mutch and i think ordering it from them will be quite $$ but iam going to phone them and se tomorow but othwise iam just going to get the cheep dog food from save on foods(18%pro and 6%fat)

 

[Susan]

You may want to try and find out who that one store is selling it to and see if you can purchase a bag from them. I guess I'm lucky as one of the many local feed stores carries it in large quantities. I get the 5-bag discount there as well...$15 per 50# bag. And yes, I go through that much...one bag lasts me about a week. One of these days I'll figure out about how many feeder mice and rats I get per bag...but then, maybe I don't want to know!

 

[paulh]

When I was breeding rats, I gave them a mix of hog starter pellets and whole corn. The pigeons got the same mixture. Both did fine. The pellets were around 20% protein, and you have to be careful to give the non-medicated stuff.

 

[Tearak]

We feed our mice and rats Pig Feed (Breedmor Sowcare Pellets), here in South Africa. We've been feeding them that for the last 8 years, and our rodents have never bred so well! The sowcare pellets that we use are almost exactly the same as the Mouse Pellets sold here, but it's a lot cheaper. We go through about ten 50kg bags a month, and we feed it to both the rats and mice. I also mix sifted crush or mixed poultry grain with the pig pellets.

 

[jimijaw]

I tried many many different foods, hog chow, chicken scratch, sweet feed but my rats and mice have never done better than they are now on the Diamond dog food 26% protein and my snakes are doing quite well off of these rodents. Jimi