[Lil Miss]

Well i got my 6 girls yesterday, and i have a plastic bag of the food they can with (probably enough for 2 weeks) but obviously i will need that to change them over with too, so as not to upset their tummies.

but i have to admit im not too clued up on mouse food (having never owned mice before, and having only agreed to take these guys on last week :lol:
so what is the best food to feed them? i know they shouldnt have peanuts, i was told the food they are on at the moment is a rat food (not sure on the brand though)

and can they eat cat biscuits and insects (mealworms, crickets, grasshoppers) as i have these for my hogs, and the hamsters and gerbils often enjoy a snack on them as a treat

what other foods do they like?

 

[Fantasia Mousery]

Have you had rats? Hamsters? They eat pretty much the same thing

 

[Lil Miss]

i have hamsters, but hamster food has peanuts in it which mice shouldnt have, and a good hamster food is 17% protein which i believe is too high for a mouse

 

[Fantasia Mousery]

The food I use for my mice is Hamster Crispy from Versele-Laga. It's great for rats, mice and hamsters. It has 15% proteine. No peanuts.

 

[Lil Miss]

15% protein is too little for hamsters, and i dont think we have that brand in the UK any way

 

[SarahY]

When I had just a few pet mice I fed Pets at Home rat museli. Burgess Suparat (the museli) and Reggie Rat is fine as well. They always did well on those and to be honest I'd still feed them but it's far cheaper to mix your own food from straights when you have a lot of mice.

Mice love insects, so they'd be fine to give as well.

 

[Lil Miss]

what sort of straights and what sort of percentage of each? i buy oats and barley to add to my rabbits pellets

 

[SarahY]

I've fed lots of different mixes, all of these were fine for my mice, but bear in mind mine are breeders so need more protein than pet mice would:

Currently:
80% layer's pellets (which are easy to find in small bags that now pet chickens have increased in popularity) and 20% wild bird seed (which contains wheat, barley, maize, sunflower seeds and millet). I've settled on this mix because they are looking very fit and shiny at the moment.

Previously I've fed:
40% oats, 30% barley, 20% Chudleys Original dog food and 10% Parakeet mix (which is made of sunflower seeds, millet, red dari and black niger I think). I also used to give it without the parakeet mix if it ran out and I couldn't get any more for a few days.

70% mixed poultry seed (wheat, barley and maize), 20% Chudleys Original dog food and 10% Parakeet mix.

40% rolled oats, 40% flaked barley, and 20% parakeet mix. This wasn't enough protein for mine.

100% sow and weaner nuts - my mice looked fantastic on this, but then they changed the ingredients to read "40% to 100% barley". I couldn't risk feeding them nothing but barley for a month :evil:

Anything like that will do them fine, although you'll want less seeds etc because your mice won't need the protein that a breeder would. Basically you'll want 80% to be different grains and 20% to be comprised or dog food and/or bird seed.

I hope this helps you.

EDITED : I've written loads of stuff here: http://www.blackthornmice.co.uk/feeding.html

 

[Lil Miss]

i have hens so have plenty of layers pellets, i feed argo golden yolk layers pellets if they are suitable?

 

[SarahY]

Yep, that's fine, just chuck some of those oats and barley in and you'll be away. If you feed insects and cat biscuits as treat, they shouldn't need anything else added to the mix.

 

[Lil Miss]

what sort of percentage should i use then? if i go for layers pellets, oats & barley? would it be worth adding some cat biscuits to it, my hogs cat food mix is around 35% protein and 11% fat at the moment (it needs re working soon) the cat gets fed wet

 

[Galaxy]

I bought that Beapher mouse food that has the turkey bits and the echinea in it etc.

 

[Lil Miss]

i decided on what mix to make for my girls

i have gone for
70% golden layers
10% rolled oats
10% rolled barley
5% dog kibble
5% cat kibble

 

[Galaxy]

Let us know what they do/don't like.

 

[Zowie]

I feed my girls Wagg hamster, gerbil, mouse munch, but i pick out the peanuts

 

[Lil Miss]

Let us know what they do/don't like.

so far they seem to like everything in it!

 

[bw89]

I've fed lots of different mixes, all of these were fine for my mice, but bear in mind mine are breeders so need more protein than pet mice would:

Currently:
80% layer's pellets (which are easy to find in small bags that now pet chickens have increased in popularity) and 20% wild bird seed (which contains wheat, barley, maize, sunflower seeds and millet). I've settled on this mix because they are looking very fit and shiny at the moment.

Previously I've fed:
40% oats, 30% barley, 20% Chudleys Original dog food and 10% Parakeet mix (which is made of sunflower seeds, millet, red dari and black niger I think). I also used to give it without the parakeet mix if it ran out and I couldn't get any more for a few days.

70% mixed poultry seed (wheat, barley and maize), 20% Chudleys Original dog food and 10% Parakeet mix.

40% rolled oats, 40% flaked barley, and 20% parakeet mix. This wasn't enough protein for mine.

100% sow and weaner nuts - my mice looked fantastic on this, but then they changed the ingredients to read "40% to 100% barley". I couldn't risk feeding them nothing but barley for a month :evil:

Anything like that will do them fine, although you'll want less seeds etc because your mice won't need the protein that a breeder would. Basically you'll want 80% to be different grains and 20% to be comprised or dog food and/or bird seed.

I hope this helps you.

EDITED : I've written loads of stuff here: http://www.blackthornmice.co.uk/feeding.html

SarahY

This link is so useful and has some great info, i have saved it to my browsers favourites :lol: . Thank you

Bill

 

[Galaxy]

Have just spent the last 3 & a half hours picking out the corn and crushed corn from my mouse mix. Thanks Sarah Y for bringing that to my attention. The link is VERY helpful. Never want to see another bit of corn in my life!

 

[Galaxy]

Have discovered that the charcoal biscuits I keep advocating are called "Pointers Charcoal Cobs"

 

[Galaxy]

This is the mix that I would like to do:

kitty kibble
puppy kibble
maise flakes
rolled oats
wheat flakes
pumpkin seeds
sunflower seeds
rolled barley
spelt flakes
rye flakes
flax seed

But not sure of quantities. I am NOT breeding my mice so don't need the extra things that mothers do however I do have the baby mice and am going to get the EMP for them to give them a boost. Talking of boosts I weighed the baby mouse Maple last week and she was 16g - today she was 18g. Is that a good increase for one so little?