[shadowmouse]

I'm trying figure out how much 3 mice will cost me to keep. Just curious if someone could give me an average? I'm trying to budget for my new mice.

If I'm feeding something like this...

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754662&lmdn=Pet+Type

..how long would this bag last?

If you're bedding with this...

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753654

...how long does this last?

 

[moustress]

Dried bread would provide a more balanced diet than this. I recommend whole grains and corn-free puppy food, along with occasional treats of apple, spinach, banana, millet, safflower seed. Pineapple isn't good for meeces, neither are soy, corn or peanuts. Ascorbic acid is not good either, as meeces manufacture their own vitamin C, and having it their diet can cause health problems. Plain oats, barley, and wheat (the whole grains) make the basis for an excellent and healthy diet.

This mix is way too high in fat in general. Almost all the commercially available mixes for meeces and ratties are just plain not good.

 

[shadowmouse]

How hard would it be to make my own feed, Moustress?

 

[Rhasputin]

Go to a feed store for bedding!

A HUGE bag of aspen shavings for horse bedding is like $5!
In a pet store, the same sized bag of 'small pet' bedding, could cost you $15+

Making your own mix is super easy. It's much better for your mice, and better on your wallet in the long run.
You can buy oats from a feed store at $10 for a 50lb bag!

 

[Jack Garcia]

You'll spend more money on veterinarian visits (hundreds of dollars per visit) than you ever do on supplies.

I don't keep track of how much money I spend on my mice. Probably not more than fifty dollars (USD) a month, which would be about $12.50 per week. The problem with calculating such a figure is that the number of mice varies (I have about 40 times as many mice as you) and also that I buy almost everything in bulk, two or three times a year.

 

[shadowmouse]

Do they sell aspen for horses? I've been into horses for 20+ yrs and we've always used pine.

 

[Jack Garcia]

Some places do. Pine hurts mice because they have more delicate respiratory systems than horses.

I live in horse country (Kentucky) and I'd say out here about 1/3 of the horse places have aspen. Some can order it for you. It's only barely more expensive than pine, when bought in bulk. And enough for a horse can last three mice for a very long time!

 

[Rhasputin]

I recomend American Excelsior Premium Aspen Horse Bedding.

If you contact them online, they are very open to sending out samples. And sample sizes, are FOURTY FIVE POUND bags! :lol:

It's great stuff. It's more in splinters (not sharp or dangerous ones!), and less in shavings. It's very 'fluffy' and makes GREAT nesting material. I recomend it over all other bedding I have personally used.
I mix it with shredded paper, and baking soda, and it seems to last for a good while, even in the cages I have with 5 or 6 mice living together.

I keep spiny mice, fancy mice, rats, and African soft furred rats on this bedding, and they all just love it!
OH! And I keep my Brazillian Short Tailed Opossum on it, and he enjoys it as well, so it's good for a wide variety of critters

I'm about to order an entire truck load through a feed store here.

 

[shadowmouse]

Rasputin- Wow. Do they charge shipping on the samples?

 

[Rhasputin]

Nope. Absolutely free. And with only a few mice, it would last you months.

I do suggest trying to get a feed store around your area to carry it, if you like it, since the company is so willing to hand out free samples, and has GREAT customer service.

 

[shadowmouse]

Whoa. Good info. Thanks! Do I want the horse stuff or the curly stuff?

 

[Rhasputin]

Ask for the 'Premium Aspen horse bedding' It should get you the right stuff.

 

[moustress]

Mills fleet Farm has the best prices on aspen (though admittedly one cannot beat free) that I've found. Aspen is pretty good. It has a nice fresh smell and my mousies love to shred it down to excelsior (little skinny threads) so it gets extremely fluffy and soft.
When I clean a tank, there's always one mouse who sits and tastes the fresh litter a bit.

 

[shadowmouse]

I e-mailed them and asked for a sample. Waiting for a reply.

Tomorrow I'm going to go to Rainbow Foods and visit their balk organic section and see if I can find organic oats, wheat, safflower and Barley. What else can I put in the feed? Peas? Rolled oats?

 

[Rhasputin]

Peas and rolled oats are both good!

Holistic dog food is also good. It's exspensive, but it will last a while when you mix it in with the seeds and grains.

 

[shadowmouse]

What brand of dog food?

 

[moustress]

Try Professional Brand puppy chow. It's only about $8.00 for a 6 lb. (or is it 7lbs.) bag. A piece every other day per mousie. Go for the corn free stuff, and watch out for tomato (as tomato pomace) if you get something else. Store it in the freezer, as that amount will probably last a couple of years. Some of the bigger stores sell little bags with just a few ounces of some premium pet foods, and if you only have a few meeces, even that will last weeks.

I did some crunching of numbers and came out with $.10 per mouse per day, but then I buy 50 bags of oats and wheat. My cost would be a lot cheaper if I was willing to spend time hand sorting the oats and wheat. As it is, the grain averages out at about $.23 a pound. $.10 per mouse per day includes bedding, food, and some equipment and assorted supplies like miticide, assorted first aid and grooming items.

Yeah, I knew I spent a lot. Heehee! And I have a lot of mousies...well worth every cent of it too! I also spend about $100. once or twice a year on new water bottles, wheels, tanks...but I wait until I can put together a big order from an online store.

This doesn't take into consideration the much needed upgrade of my mousery, which is going to end up costing a couple of hundred dollars.

 

[shadowmouse]

I'm back from Rainbow. They didn't have everything I wanted, but I got some different things...

Organic Split Peas

Organic Pearled Barley

Organic Steel Cut Oats

Organic Rolled Oats

Organic Winter Wheat Berries

Organic Millet

Do all those sound fine? Do I just throw them together? Or what stuff do I want more/less of?

 

[shadowmouse]

Try Professional Brand puppy chow. It's only about $8.00 for a 6 lb. (or is it 7lbs.) bag. A piece every other day per mousie. Go for the corb free stuff, and watch out for tomato (as tomato pomace) if you get something else. Stopre it in the freezer, as that amount will probably last a couple of years. Some of the bigger stores sell little bags with just a few ounces of some premium pet foods, and if you only have a few meeces, even that will last weeks.

I did some crunching of numbers and came out with $.10 per mouse per day, but then I buy 50 bags of oats and wheat. My cost would be a lot cheaper if I was willing to spend time hand sorting the oats and wheat. As it is, the grain averages out at about $.23 a pound. $.10 per mouse per day includes bedding, food, and some equipment and assorted supplies like miticide, assorted first aid and grooming items.

Yeah, I knew I spent a lot. Heehee! And I have a lot of mousies...well worth every cent of it too! I also spend about $100. once or twice a year on new water bottles, wheels, tanks...but I wait until I can put together a big order from an online store.

This doesn't take into consideration the much needed upgrade of my mousery, which is going to end up costing a couple of hundred dollars.

I will look for the dog food another day, but thank you for the brand suggestion. Where do you get that brand? Is it a Purina Product?

You do sound like you spend a lot on your mousies. Which vet do you use locally? Out of curiosity.

 

[Rhasputin]

Infinia is the holistic Purina dog food. It's $40 per 30lb bag.