Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i am using 9f ovals as a staple ,but i am supplimenting with cracked corn,esspecialy in my weanling grow-outs and i believe i have noticed an increase in speedy maturity.and they like it.

i use standard dog/cat food and mix in a horse grain with smashed corn, oats,molasses, etc, to my rats. I love and believe in variety.
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"Have you hugged your snake lately?"

rodent ovals and Cracked Corn and WAL-ly World dry dog food are what my rats get,but no dog food for the mice

dog food for the mice? i use it very spairingly with my mice mostly when they are nursing. i am just curious if that is not a good idea, or why you choose not to use it. other wise i feed mostly rat cubes from sun seed, and the occasional hand full of loose mouse/hamster food.

Adam
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4.5 THAYERI
1.2 SPLENDIDA
1.3 ALTERNA
0.0.1 HOLD BACK RUNT ALBINO CORN
0.1.1 PYXIE FROG
0.0.1 MEXICAN RED KNEE
1.0 CHILEAN ROSE HAIR

i just think of mice as grain feeders, and rats more of an opportunistic feeder.

yeah, i get where you are comming from, makes sense. i like to give alittle dog food during nursing, i get free samples of the ritzie organic stuff so i use that.

have a good one
Adam

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4.5 THAYERI
1.2 SPLENDIDA
1.3 ALTERNA
0.0.1 HOLD BACK RUNT ALBINO CORN
0.1.1 PYXIE FROG
0.0.1 MEXICAN RED KNEE
1.0 CHILEAN ROSE HAIR

Mice have much more stringent dietary requirements than rats and are more prone to nutritional imbalances. I have seen mouse colonies go downhill when dog food was mixed in with their standard diet at too high of a percentage. It depends a lot on which strain of mice you have, but I would basically avoid using dog food with mouse colonies, although rats seem to tolerate well some dog food in their diets if not overdone.

Kelly

>>Mice have much more stringent dietary requirements than rats and are more prone to nutritional imbalances. I have seen mouse colonies go downhill when dog food was mixed in with their standard diet at too high of a percentage. It depends a lot on which strain of mice you have, but I would basically avoid using dog food with mouse colonies, although rats seem to tolerate well some dog food in their diets if not overdone.
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>>Kelly

I am curious why you say this. Is there info out there? I have raised mice over the last thirty years on anything from block to cow chows, seed mix in the 70s and then dog or cat kibble. Right now using high pro dog kibble. They are doing fine on it and better than on any blocks. What do you feed mice??
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny

I think everything you listed as diets is fine, except for the fact that I have seen several strains of mice do very poorly on dog food. It all depends on what strain you are working with, as there are a few that will tolerate dog food well, but many will not. It is not that it will kill them, they just survive in a sub-optimal state and have smaller litters. I have an older CF1 outbred strain that I acquired several bloodlines of back in the late 70's and early 80's. They do very well on commercial pelleted diets or a combination of commercial and seed mix. However, they do not do near as well on dog food or a dog food mix. They are larger than any of the Swiss or Carworth strains and very hardy. It is just that I have seen some of the older Swiss strains and other unidentified strains in other colonies that did very poorly on dog food alone.

Kelly

I Dunno, i am with sonya, i think variety is a good thing, and as far as strains go i have brindle, holsteins (cow markings) and all in between with some albino too, and none seem to react any differently being fed the same diet, if you can consiter those strains. big healthy litters frequently, and babies hardly ever die or are ever still born

Adam

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4.5 THAYERI
1.2 SPLENDIDA
1.3 ALTERNA
0.0.1 HOLD BACK RUNT ALBINO CORN
0.1.1 PYXIE FROG
0.0.1 MEXICAN RED KNEE
1.0 CHILEAN ROSE HAIR

Hard to say what you have unless you are working with a pure strain purchased from a large research lab supplier. It's probably a mixture. Like I said, some strains seem to tolerate lower quality diets better than others. I believe some researchers have speculated that some strains can't handle the animal protein and animal fat in dog foods as well as other strains. I know for a fact my CF1 mice do much better on lab diets and grains than they do on dog food.

Kelly

>>Hard to say what you have unless you are working with a pure strain purchased from a large research lab supplier. It's probably a mixture. Like I said, some strains seem to tolerate lower quality diets better than others. I believe some researchers have speculated that some strains can't handle the animal protein and animal fat in dog foods as well as other strains. I know for a fact my CF1 mice do much better on lab diets and grains than they do on dog food.
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>>Kelly

You are right strain wise. The closest thing I get to pure is a line from a NJ wholesaler that has huge albinos (wish there was some color but oh well) that have huge litters and do very well on dog kibble. Can't complain.
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny