Print

[LittleSqueaksAdmin]

Simple, What do you feed your mice?

[Toast]

Well, I feed my mice Fiesta Max Rat and Mouse food, but I've been looking for a change for a while.

[WillowDragon]

I feed mine JR Mouse Feast cut with Rolled Oats, Cat Kibble, Brown Rice, Soup Pasta, Budgie Seed, Bran Flakes and a tiny bit of Cornflakes.

They eat better than me!  LOL

I have bought some rabbit food that could work too, am trying it now, cos its cheaper than importing my food from Germany!

Willow xx

[moustress]

Years ago I discovered that most of my mousies wouldn't eat corn, so I stopped buying it, I noticed after a few months that none of my of my younger does were getting tumors. I switched from regular kitty kibble, used as a dietary supplement, to a corn free brand, and after that I had no tumors for a few years.

At that point, I decided to try adding peanuts and sunflower seeds, and I started seeing tumors again. I had been feeding them safflower seeds, and I switched back to using those as the only source of fat outside the kitty kibble and whatever fat is present in whole oats and wheat. The tumors once again ceased to develop.

Later, I found out that it was generally accepted among breeders that corn is carcinogenic for meeces. Peanuts and sunflower seeds are suspected. Whether it is the fatty content or some other problem, such as mold, agricultural chemicals, I do not know for certain. I have noticed that sunflower seeds and peanuts for pets, such as birdseed, is often rancid or moldy. For that reason I no longer buy pet quality or bird quality seed mixes. The mold that grows on corn is highly toxic, as are the contaminants found in poor quality sunflower seeds and peanuts.

Sure, it's convenient to buy bird seed or ready-made mixes for pets, but I prefer to give my darlings every chance to live out a natural span of life. Of course, their diet is supplemented by a large variety of other foods like dried fruit, stale bread, leftover veggies, whatever seems suitable. Even there one has to be careful, because not everything we eat is good for meeces. And mousies will eat things that are not good for them; when I was a kid, wild ones would come out at night and nibble on the Ivory Soap bar, probably attracted by the the fat content. (Yup, most soap is made with animal fat!) Big ugh!  And my mousies like to nibble on fresh aspen bedding, clean TP, any kind of paper product so it's also good to be careful about those kinds of things. I'm sure you all kow that meeces need to chew, so you need to give them healthy stuff to exercise their teeth on. I buy used balsa gift baskets at the thrift store which double as housing and playsets; it takes awhile for a few mousies to reduce one of those to sawdust.

[LittleSqueaksAdmin]

I feed mine a lot of dried fruits, alfalfa meal, Safflower seed, barley, some wheat, and then a pre-made mix as well.

[moustress]

I try to surprise them, which isn't all that hard really. When I go up there to do my mousework, they all stand at the end's of their cages or up on the water bottle trying to smell whatever I'm mixing up for them. They get especially exited over anything with starch in it, bread, crackers, taters. I try to avoid salty stuff. They love cooked pasta, but then who doesn't?! Tomato products and citrus are no-nos, though.

[Windy Hill]

* Wild bird seed/cockatiel seed
*High Quality dog food
*Ramen noodles (uncooked)
*Pumpkin seeds
*Whole grain cereal(cheerios/corn flakes/Rice Chex)
*Sunflower seeds
*Split peas (uncooked)
*Rice (brown)