Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i am planing to switch my mice and rats from puppy food to a pelleted diet. my question is "how much does fat and protien content matter?" i went to mazuri.com and looked at the different feeds they have for breeding rodents and the fat content ranges from 6-11% how much does this matter. the feed store i will be ordering from, can give me another kind of feed with 20% protien, 5% fat, 6% fiber, and 8% ash. how much do these matter? and what are your preferences?

Go to http://rattie-express.org/Food_Ingredients.htm, this will show you all the main Rat & Mouse Lab Block Diet Ingredients. I use Harland Teklad Breeder Diet, don't have the manufacturer number at hand, with Vita Hamster Seed Mix. With 16 boxes of 1.3 Swiss Webster Crosses I produced around 400 average pinkies a month. Best to get them off Dog food slowly by gradually adding rat food to dog food until it's all the rat food. Otherwise they (mice and or rats) become ill, stomache must adjust to new food. Vita Hamster gives additional micronutrients along with seed, ceral mix which helps their teeth stay ground down. The problem with dog food is the dyes used in the manufacturing process is passed on to the snakes, lizards, monitors, and geckoes which can develope liver problems from it. When breeding rats and mice a key to successful repetative litters is quality seed mix, lab block, and ice cold water offered everyday.

To correct the previous poster.. the only dye in dog food that has proven dangerous to reptiles is the red dye.. all plain brown coloured nuggets and bites are fine to feed. I don't use lab blocks.. never have.. never will... $30 for 25 lbs just isn't cost efficient. I use a mix of #50 Blue Seal Vintage Gold Horse feed and #50 Ole Roy dog food from WalMart plus add in 8lbs of Black Oil Sunflower seeds and 2 boxes of puffed rice or wheat ceral and thats my basic diet... the bulk of it is the Horse feed and dog food...Lasts my 1.12 Colony over 3 months usually.. averages out to about 1 lb of food per week per breeder and my females have steady litters of between 10 and 15 pups.. save my new females who go between 7 and 9 for a first litter...2nd litter is always over 11 though.
-----
Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
3.5.3 Leopard geckos (2.0 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 0.1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short), 1.0 Rainwater Albino (Mycah), 0.4 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, Rain and Aris) and 2.1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas, and Mystic))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
3 cats (Ashe, Sahara and Hercules)
6 Fish (4 Red Danios, 1 Cardinal Fish, and 1 Tiger Barb)
8 Ramshorn snails
"And a Partridge in a Pear Tree!"