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My setup

P

pixall

New member
Hello folks. :D

I breed mice for various reasons. I breed pedigreed fancy mice, but then I also have a colony of feeders. I have a dog, two cats, two bearded dragons, and a corn snake(among others). All of which enjoy mice(some only on occasion, though).

My main colony is in a 55gal glass aquarium. They have a mix of aspen, timothy hay, newspaper, and cardboard for bedding. I feed a mix of three types of cat food, one type of dog food, various cereals, pasta, dog treats, and oatmeal. Once this mix is done, I will be switching to a diet of sprouted birdseed and fresh feeder insects a few times a week just to see if there is a change in production. If not, I will go back to my current mix for price reasons.

In the colony I currently have three males(two of which are around five or six weeks old) two adult breeding females, three six week old females, and 9 pinks.

At least one of the males will be set up in a spare tank with 2-5 females(depending on how many of the pinks are female). The other males will be raised to adult size then fed off to the cat.

Due to health reasons, My cats and dog are on a whole prey/prey model raw diet.

MAN I could talk "mice" all day. Genetics, personality, looks, nutrition content, digestibility.
 
Hi :) I have been breeding mice for 5 years now :) I learned mouse genetics and mainly have brindles, working on blue angoras :) No one up here breeds mice for pets/shows like they do in USA. So I just breed pretty feeders lol!

Your mouse diet sounds like it is very high in protien, 14-16% seems to do the best with my mice. I feed a mix of wild bird seeds, hog grower, rabbit pellets and cat/dog food. I also dry bread and crumble it into the mix. I have been breeding mealworms for my bearded dragons. I give them greens with mealworms mixed in the morning and any left overs goes to the mice.

How do you offer the mice to your cat? That is intresting to me, my one female got tape worms this year from the wild field mice, so I know she would eat them... My old siamese cat will not eat anything but dry food. I feed my dogs a raw diet(mostly moose) that is suppelmented with kibble. I don't hunt but a friend pays me in meat to help with her horses.
 
Well, fist and foremost, I would switch the dogs to all raw, all kibble, or raw and canned. Little known fact, kibble moves slower through a carnivore's system, so the meat is sitting in your pup's stomach.

The kitten was weaned onto whole prey as it is the most natural and healthiest method of feeding(and SO EASY!). The first time he got a furred critter I had to make a little cut into the skin(I ONLY feed pre-killed!) so he knew there was meat there. :p Now I just hand him the mouse/gerbil/hamster/guinea pig/rabbit/whatever. Variety is key to any healthy diet! :D

As for my mouse feed, it is around 18% which has worked for me for quite a while, remember different strains have different protein requirements. ;) There isn't a LOT of dog/cat food in there, I just had a bunch of kibble lying around. I feed the wildcats in my area. I am a registered caregiver for a colony of 10+ feral cats, can't exactly afford to feed them ALL raw, as much as I would like to.

Also, Your pet mice hopefully don't have tapeworms. ;) Wild mice are another matter entirely. My dog has to get wormed REGULARLY. He is a working terrier, so he is constantly eating things with worms, however I have found since we made the switch to raw, his immune system doesn't let the parasites take hold as easily.


BTW, though it is more expensive and less convenient, CANNED IS WAY BETTER THAN KIBBLE. ESPECIALLY for cats, who are desert creatures and naturally get a LARGE amount of their water from their food. Even the cheapest of canned (friskies, meow mix, WHATEVER) is better than 99.9% of those top shelf kibbles.

Just my two cents, can you tell I am fascinated by nutrition? ;) I have done extensive research into this subject because I want to right by my critters and the subject just FASCINATES me.

HAHA Old habits die hard, pirating away my own thread. :p I could talk "mice" and "pet food" ALL DAY!
 
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