What do you recomend for food?

[winterose]

I'm trying to find a good mouse food for my mice around where i live... i can only seem to find foods for hamsters and gerbils.... I was wondering if this was ok or if there was a different food i needed or if someone had a nutrition chart for mice so i could look for a food that had a mouse's nutritional needs.... thanks

[Craig Thatcher]

I don't think there is an agreed set of nutritional values for mice, I understand that 13% of their daily diet is maximum for protein because more can cause skin irritation, fresh fruit and veg is good every day, and mixed grains, look at mouseranch.com go to the FYI section on the right, and look at the diet of mice option,there is some useful information on there.

[Craig Thatcher]

P.s - Found the site myself when looking for Rat diet, although no good to me, I am sure it would help, you can compare the list to that of other foods available and help you decide what is best, been considering mixing food myself, but worry that I might leave something important out, it is risky in that respect....... There is a list of useful sites at the top of the mouse and rat discussion section, maybe they might be useful also?

[bokuza]

Id be hearing more about this too! I plan on owning some more mice in the future and ive always wondered about foods for them.

[CrWoodyspets]

Make sure that you give them strawberries and lettuce at least once a week and once a month a dab of creamy yogurt is good for them. Raisins I believe are good and Cheerios are also good, you can buy hamster food and add soem of your own food or just make your own from leftover things in your pantry. I get mouse and rat food (not the pellets) for my mice and then I also add a little bit of rice, peanuts, pinto beans, cat food, uncooked oatmeal, cheerios, fruit loops, rice crispies, pecans, and sunflower seeds. You don't need all of those things but they are all good things to add to the food.

[winterose]

alright thanks for the info guys.... i just don't want to screw it up .... I can't wait to ge t the little guys then post pics up for you guys to see

[Brighteyed]

http://www.dapper.com.au/articles.htm#diet
this is a good link some of the stuff in the diet was off but it still is extremely helpfull

there are online stores where you can buy lab blocks. basically that is what they feed rats and mice in labratories. they are pellets that have all the nutrients and vitemins a rat or mouse needs to be healthy. they arent the best tasting things in the world though.

i personally found that when i looked at the rat/mouse mixes and looked at the labels they had alot more sugar than a rat/mouse should have and they often had far to many sunflower seeds. those are really high in fat and to many can be bad for your ratties heart. they also had dried corn in them with can have fungus in that can make them sick. guinea pig diets arent generally the best for rats because they contain alot of alfalfa made stuff. alfalfa is hard for rats and mice to digest and they dont like the taste of it much. i give my rats a mix simmilar to the one found on the link and supliment it with fresh veg and fruit.

ps: raisins are good as treats but have to much sugar in them to be a part of there regular diet

sory i keep editing this post but i keep remembering things i want to add >.<

my rats mix consists of

8 cups roled oats
8 cups roled red wheat
1 box total serial
5 cups dog food (i use the brand that is lowest in protien get the smallest bag you can find and it will last you ages)
4 cups uncooked unsalted in shell peanuts
3 cups dried split peas.

this isnt a complete diet you still need to feed them other stuff to makes sure they have enough calcium and vitamin k and vitamin c

brussel sprouts, spinnach work best for vitamin k
low fat yogurt and cottage cheese for calcium
strawberries are there favorite with vitamin c in

treats:
sunflower seeds
cooked whole grain rice
dried fruits

things you shouldnt give them

plantains/green bannanas
dried corn
caffiene or chocolate> its ok in really small amounts but to much can cause heart failure