mouse food?

[sapphire_moon]

Ok since my stubborn little hognose refuses everything except for live mouse pinks I have decided that we have to breed them. Only because a live mouse pink here comes up to 2.14$ (usd).

I did a search on here and someone said something about horse chow. Which makes sence because horses are grain eaters as mice are. And you always see or hear about how mice eat the horse food.

I am only going to have little 1.1 or 1.2 (probably 1.1) as I am only breeding for my w.hognose to see if I can get him on f/t mouse pinks. I can seperate the mice if needed so I don't get tons of pinks every month.

[marisa]

Seperating isn't the best idea. Set up a colony, and leave them.

For your porposes (having live pinks) you will need a couple families. If you only have one set up you'll get live pinks once per month that will quickly grow into fuzzies which means you'll get like 2-4 live pinky feedings, if that, before they are too large.

I'd set up 1.2 in one cage, then two weeks later set up another 1.2 in another cage. 1.1 would work to I guess but I have never tried such a small ratio.

Marisa

[sapphire_moon]

lol, ya, I plan on freezing some, and feeding up to as big as possible. right now it is not possible for me to have more than one set up. of maybe 1.2 and no more than that.

Does anyone have any idea on the horse chow. The thing I'm reading is that some (not all) has molasses in it.....not sure what it is though.

[Siretsap]

you can have 2 females in seperate cages and switch the male betwen them. I only have one setup and I get about 20 pinkies to 40 pinkies 2 times a month. but I have 6 females last time I counted lol.
As for the food, I have no idea what that horse thing is. But the healthier your mice are, the more babies you will get plus it all ends up in your snake's stommach so better give the mice something nutricious.

[sapphire_moon]

ok, right now there is NO WAY i can have more than 1 cage. I only need this for 1 snake that eats pinks. I will freeze some pinks and feed up till the biggest I can. There is NO WAY i need THAT MANY pinks!

Of course I know healthy mice/healthy snakes. I breed rats.

But as I said I did a search on here and found that someone said they fed their mice horse chow and their mice did great on it, big litters, no cannabalisim, etc...etc....

[marisa]

Horse chow isn't universal so why not tell us the nutrional values of the brand you want to use?

Marisa

[sapphire_moon]

I forgot the name but it's about 12% protein, about 6% fat and about 3% fiber....

[Auskan]

Molasses is a sweetener. Its very thick & sticky - much more so than honey. You can find it in the grocery store in the baking section. Its used when making things like gingerbread cookies. I'm not sure if its sugar based or not. Maybe google search?

[Syco]

Why not feed your mice the same thing you feed your rats?

[Auskan]

Mice have some different nutritional needs. Their natural diet is more geared to grains and they have less need of protein than rats do.

[Jayson]

Actually I have started breeding mice, (about 8 months ago)and have found that the mice need similar protein and more fat then rats do.
On a rats diet the mice become cannibalistic. Add some seed to the diet and all is well.

[Auskan]

I actually agree about the protein. I didn't have a problem with cannibalism, but had a litter of kittens that the mother just didn't seem to have enough milk for and they didn't grow. I upped the protein and the same mother had no problems with her next litter. However, they still don't need as MUCH protein as rats, which is what I originally said. Also, I have seed as a good portion of my mice's diet, and the rats don't get any at all. On the other hand, my rats get fresh greens when I have them, and the mice don't. Things that my rats consider to be treats, the mice don't even like, so their nutritional needs are definitely different.

[Linds]

As Marisa said, horse chow isn't universal. You can get many different types. Some of the basic types include:

-extruded feeds (looks kinda like dog food)
-sweet feed (pretty much molasses coated oats, corn, pellets)
-pelleted feeds (pelleted ration)
-block foods (pretty much same thing as pelleted, different shape)

Now, all of the above also come in a variety of formulations to meet the needs of weanlings, lactating mares, retired horses, racehorses, sports horses, etc. All have different levels of protein, fat, minerals, etc.

[sapphire_moon]

And I looked into it all, there is no way I would do the sweet feed thing. I would think that it would be to high in molasses, it's the syrup drained off of canes when producing sugar.

I've went with the lab blocks for now. And I'm going to try to find something that is of the same nutritional value.

They had no white mice for breeders so I ended up getting 3 fancy mice ( for half the price of fancy mice).

the male is long haired dirty tan colored and white,

female is longish haired black and white

and the other female is short haired dirty tan with rust color outlining the white belly.
I think either they all have red eyes or 2 out of 3 have red eyes. Not sure. Didn't look that close.

[Peter Ludwig]

I feed my mice Turkey grower 22% protein, almost no cannabalisms and I pay $10.50 for a 25 kg bag at a feed store. The pinkies are very healthy and the mice have big litters.

[Linds]

I'd be very weary of turkey grower, or any other poultry feed that is for growing animals. It is typically pumped up with steroids, hormones, synthetic additives, and even antibiotics. All of which you don't want to be pumping in to your reptiles.

[sapphire_moon]

exactly. and as I said, I only have 3 mice. I don't need a 25kg/50lb bag! That would litterly last the lifetime of the mice I have (probably!) lol.

One time a member posted a website about breeding mice. Does anyone know of the website? I think it was Marisa, but not to sure.

[mykee]

I fed my mice the same thing I fed my rats; Mazuri 6F. Check out their website, www.mazuri.com.

[marisa]

I wrote this simple page....simple because I breed mice simply using very cheap easy methods.....just general how too

http://8snakes.myftp.org/marisa/mouse.html

Marisa

[sapphire_moon]

yes, I just found it on a search and put it in favorites. There needs to be more pages like that! Thanks though! :)

[Jayson]

mykee I started feeding mice mazuri 6f at the same time a friend of mine did and we both experienced the same problem (cannibalism) Both colonies were very good producers and parents before the mazuri and nothing else changed. since then we have changed them back to a diet that consists of seed mixed with the mazuri 6f.

[Linds]

Sapphire,
Obviously the bulk foods such as Mazuri, horse feeds, etc. are not an option since they will become stale long before a fwe mice are able to eat it all. A cheap and good option is to just make your own. I get all my stuff at Bulk Barn (not sure if you have something similar down there). My mice were fine for a while on dog food, but when I switched types became counter-productive and cannabilistic, so I am currently feeding them a mixture of bird seed, wheat berries, dried peas, millet, and a small amount of dog food. With this diet, you can create batches as large or small as suits your situation :)

[sapphire_moon]

I am also looking for something that will fit in 1/2 hardware cloth food drop....I'm just so demanding aren't I. lol :)


You said they were fine on a type of dog food. Then switched. What kind of dog food? If you don't want to say please pm me or send me an email. :)

[Jayson]

You dont actually want the food to fit through the hardware cloth, the rats or mice will chew off what they want through the hardware cloth. That way none falls through and goes to waste.

[Linds]

Mine did fine on Ol Roy for quite some time. Then when I started mixing up the colony they stopped, and when I switched dog foods they would occassionally have a litter but then would eat it. I won't ever go back to feeding my breeder mice dog food, even Ol Roy, but still raise my feeders up on it. They did fine, but not nearly as good as they are on the new mixed diet. I think the dog food only diet can have the potential to eventually catch up, shortening the productivity of your colony. Your specs are kind of hard to fit, unless you went with something like Nutri-Block, but that stuff is ridiculously overpriced. For breeders, if you don't go with a seed/grain mix, you should go with a block food intended for mice.

[sapphire_moon]

sorry double post

[sapphire_moon]

it don't fall through, they pull it out through the holes and eat it. Well I guess since I only have a 1.2 of mice then a 4lb bag should last a little while....I hope. lol