Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay I have run through a bunch of the posts and see that some of you are saying to r2d2 or c3po blah blah food. What is this stuff and where can I get it? I havent seen it at pet stores or walmart so I am terribly confused on the whole matter. I just finished building my racks that will hold 72 mice ( grouped at 1.3 per tub) and 54 rats ( grouped at 1.2) I want to keep these guys fed really healthy as that in turn makes the snake healthy but I dont want to go broke feeding the feed. The whole idea is to eliminate the need for buying frozen as I am not at all happy with the stuff I have had to buy. So if you guys can tell me how many mice and rats you sustain on what I would appreciate it. I am just looking to figure out cost versus frozen to justify it to my "govenor" aka fiance.

Thanks,
Gabe

For maximum production and health I use "PMI Nutrition International, LLC 5L42 Rodent Breeder Diet" Lab Chow Blocks with "Vita Hamster Mix" given twice weekly as supplemental. With 12 boxes of 1.3 ICR Mice I produce 400 mice per month, and with 1.2 Rats groups are consistantly producting 13 pups per litter. Cold water is a must every day. Dog food is cheap but is not designed for rodents. A 50# bag of "5L42" is @ $20 & a 25# bag of "Vita Hamster" is @ $18.
To justify breeding: multiply the offspring per month by retail price, then subtract the costs of litter & feed and cleaning supplies. If you are producing more in retail value than the cost of supplies you are justified. This has been my formula for justifying breeding. You can also sell excess offspring for hard cash.

Okay so far I got one answer and a good one at that but I am still missing a key ingrediant. Where can I purchase some of this mystery feed as well as what you guys are using for optimum results. I breed pitbulls and staffordshire bullterriers as well(only blues though) and I can get NUTRO the feed of choice for me and my dogs at from PETCO. So like I said the binary code feed I have yet to see in a retail store.HELP!!!! I need to get on this asap as my snakes are breeding now and I need to be up on this as quick as I can. I dont want to get caught with the proverbial pants down.

Thanks,
Gabe

Ask local petstores where they buy their rodents, they probably can order you the lab chow for you. It's how I found a supplier for the purina mills lab chow, actually wanted to sell some excess rats to the local petstore but they won't take them, they suggested a local breeder supply /petstore supply store which bought my rats and can order in the bags of lab chow.

Most of the Lab Chow Brands listed can be purchased from any feed store, you may want to check your yellow pages for this. As far as breeding stock, you will want to outbreed Harland SuperMice to other breeds like fancy mice. Outbreeding every third or fourth generation, raise fancy & supermice fuzzies/hoppers together in breeding groups. This eliminates agression and inbreeding. Then breed back to other diluted groups. Only Harland Supermice will produce 25 to 20 pups per litter for about the first four litters then reduce to 15 or so. Strains of Harland Supermice can be purchased for rodent breeder off kingsnake.com or at swaps & shows. Ask vendor which strain. Vita Hamster or other seed mixes are necessary for supplementation and maintenance of the teeth, wearing down of ever growing teeth.

If you live in the country or suburbs, you should be able to go to a feed store and they can order it. If you want to try Kent, which is what I use do a search on their website. I think it is www.kentfeeds.com it will tell you where they sell it. I love it because I get a 50lb bag of actual rodent diet for about 10 bucks. I have had great luck using it, I do throw some seed mix in now and then, more because I think the rodents like it, then need it. Good luck

Where on the kent site is there info for rodent diets? What is it exactly called?

It is called rodent diet, I am not sure if they show it on their site or not. You may have to call local dealer

I would recommend either Harlan Teklad, LabDiet or Mazuri feed. I have used both and currently use Mazuri 5M30. My rats absolutely love it and their litters are usually huge!

You can also save money by combining dog food with the lab produced food and mixing it together.

Go to the following websites, which will give you lots of info.
These links should help:

www.teklad.com

www.mazuri.com

www.labdiet.com/indexlabdiethome.htm

I get mine from a local farm & feed supply store.
Hope that helps!
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Michael

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Michael