Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Where can you get rat/mouse food in bulk? I have been buying the 2lb Kaytee bag from Petco at $4 a pop and now am also feeding them Cheerios and Milkbones. A friend is trying to get me 50lb of lab block for $35 but hasn't gotten ahold of his supplier yet. Anyone know of places to get food in larger than 2lb bags? Or what else can I feed that is healthy, reasonable in price, and available in quantity? Thanks in advance.

Try a mixture of wild bird seed and dog food.. throw something like a cheap box of bran cereal into it and it works. I raise all my feeders on that... Gerbils and Rats... I spend about... *thinks* $10 a month on rat food that feeds up to 50 at a time... 25 lbs of dog food just cheap stuff.. $4, 10 or 12 lb bag of Wild Bird seed. $4 and 2 boxes of cheap bran cereal.. $2..

I have a question about dog food. I read that red dye from dog food is deadly. Hence, I have been throwing away the red ones. (I get some dog food from the neighbors). The next time they buy dog food, they will be looking for dog food with no red dye (they have snakes too and I informed them of the possible dangers of red dye). Not all dog food have red dye, so they will be buying non-red dog food.

The bag they currently have is half brown and half red. We throw away the red.

Do you do anything special in choosing your dog food? One persona I talked to have lost two ball pythons due to red dye in dog food.

just wondering.

I've never tried Lab blocks.. but from some of what I've heard, some people's production dropped off due to a switch to lab blocks. As to the dog food.. not really anything special. We get a cheap brand of dog food here in Toledo, Ohio put out by FMV, 20 lbs of it for like $4.. no dyes in it.. just a uniform brown color...and made primarily of grains... The other you can try is Pet's Pride... I can't remember if Purina Mainstay is brown or not... You may just want to avoid any dog food that has any kibble dyed red... I've never run into that problem so I'm not sure.. I've had a healthy thriving population.. No incidences of females eating their pups... Had 3 mothers drop me 40 pinks within a week time period.. *L* And at least I know whats going into my snake, monitor and geckos.. thats my big benefit from breeding my own feeders.

Go to mazuri.com and look for the link that will give you locations/distributors of stores in you area that carry their food. Mazuri rodent food is awesome. I breed rats and I order a 50 lb bag of their rodent food (designed specifically for those who breed rodents to use as feeders). It has a high protein of 23% so there is no eating their young.

I have had absolute huge and healthy litters since I have been using this food. It is lab blocks and I place it on 1/2" wire mesh on my rat rack. They love it!! It cost around $23 for the 50 lb bag and believe me, it's worth it.

Hope that helps!!
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Michael
KoenigsPythons

Yeah, I used lab blocks as well...it's a cheap, complete food. And you don't have to worry about what your herps are getting on the other end, either, since the lab blocks are a complete diet. Dog food by itself isn't a good diet, it'll keep the rodents alive, but doesn't provide very good nutrition on the reptile end. I didn't notice any production problems with rats or mice on lab blocks, and they appear to like them.