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what do i feed these mice

susang

susang

New member
I am now feeding mouse/rat mix from Grange Co-op with added Cheerios. The mice are fine have babies all is healthy, but. They waiste so much of the food don't eat little seeds, dried beans, dried peas, oats hardly any of the cubed food. Out of a 20# bag I bet easily I throw 10# away. I tried the fortified block which they didn't eat. I know I have to switch over slowly. How many hear raw fruits and veggies and what kind? susan
 
The only answer I have is to feed them a good lab block. If they won't eat it, they are probably spoiled by the seed mix.
If it was me I would just let them starve until they figured out to eat the lab block.
Barring that, perhaps start a new colony with juveniles fed only lab blocks?
Or wean them off the seed mix slowly and include the lab blocks with the seed mix while reducing the amount of seed mix over time.

If you are getting that much waste, you could probably save a lot using food hoppers with lab blocks so they can only get small amounts at a time and they can't scatter the food in the dirty bedding.
 
also the beans or peas are bad for mice. i cant remember which one but i definatly know one is bad for them. also make sure the food does not have any raw penuts in as RAW penuts are toxic to mice

hope it helps,
lee
 
I read the post by Flagg and couldn't find the forbidden foods list so thanks. The food I buy is rat/mouse food and has peanuts, dried beans, and dried peas. However my mice don't eat the beans or peas, they eat some of the nuts. My problem is I don't want to feed them potentially harmful food, but all the commercial food has these things, except rodent block. Mine will not eat rodent block. They don't eat the little seeds either. I also am tired of throwing away more than half the food I buy :shrugs:
Last year someone posted a recipe for a complete rodent diet, I just can't remember all the ingredients.
Thanks for the help so far anymore advice welcome, susan
 
I feed mine cat and dog pellets with Hamster mix mixed in. (Mostly sunflower seeds) and they are thriving on it! :)
 
I used to have a waste problem feeding seeds too - used to make sure they had a large supply in a huge dish for them. What I did to cut down on the waste was use smaller dishes and feed smaller amounts multiple times a day (this won't work for everyone, especially if you're not home to feed the in-between meals) and by the time I add the next scoop of food they have finished everything in the first.

I also feed both lab blocks and seeds still. Both the rats and mice enjoy the variety. We also give them fresh fruits, veggies, an occasional stale bread (NOT moldy, just hard), and store bought treats like yogurt drops and the ones with the peanut in the middle.

I have 11 colonies of mice and 2 of rats and we spend about $40 dollars on 100lbs of food (50 block and 50 seed) that will last about 5-7 weeks depending on number of babies and on the number of adult rats we have. (The rats eat more then the mice on average). Still cheaper then buying Frozen mice/rats for all the snakes.

I am interested in that recipe that was posted though, would be nice not to have to make the 120 mile round trip drive into Victorville just for the rat food. Though, where we'd find all of the ingredients out here in the boonies beats me.
 
Jenn, All I can remember about the recipe is it was someone here in Oregon. I'm still searching my house as I wrote it down, :shrugs: who knows when I was in the hosp (last Jan) my daughter cleaned my house, so I wouldn't have to for awhile. I keep hoping whoever it was will se this post. If I find it I'll let you know. susan
:-offtopic Are you guys OK after the ordeal yesterday?
 
susang said:
Jenn, All I can remember about the recipe is it was someone here in Oregon. I'm still searching my house as I wrote it down, :shrugs: who knows when I was in the hosp (last Jan) my daughter cleaned my house, so I wouldn't have to for awhile. I keep hoping whoever it was will se this post. If I find it I'll let you know. susan
Click to expand...
The link is up above for the recipe, I think... might be a different one. I'd be willing to try it once we move out of this way-station we are living in. It's just not cost effective right now due to how far out of town we are.

susang said:
:-offtopic Are you guys OK after the ordeal yesterday?
Click to expand...
Er... Ordeal? I'm drawing a blank here... which ordeal was that? (Yep, CRS runs in the family...) Sorry... :shrugs:


Jenn
 
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