# Anyone have a homemade recipe for mice chow?



## salemouse (Oct 9, 2010)

For now I can only use rat/mice lab blocks as im not sure what to use. Anyone have a good recipe to keep them healthy and happy and with a good varied diet? fanks

also, For pregnant does what would the approximate change be?


----------



## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

How many mousies are you going to be feeding?

Are you going to be breeding?

Simplest formula is oats (the whole grain) 40%; wheat 40%; 10% other seeds with good fatty contents like safflower and linseed: 10% other stuff varied from day to day like millet, dried bread, greens, dried apples or banana, bits of cooked chicken or tuna, cooked pasta or rice, and every few days, some high quality dried pet food, say one piece per mousie.

Avoid corn, peanuts, sunflower seeds, anything with much sugar or salt. Some things are like poison like citrus fruit, almonds, probably other things that I can't think of. Try searching the forum for posts on food, Everyone has their own ideas about these things. Dried bread or breakfast cereal are great favorites for treats, especially good for hand feeding when you want to tame your meeces to The Hand.

Barley and milo are okay too. Slightly processed oats and wheat would do too, if you are not keeping dozens of meeces, at which point it can become pretty expensive. Oat groats or bulghar wheat, wheat berries, steelcut oats, rolled oats, brown rice, just about any grain except corn is good.

Pellets aren't immediately fatal to meeces, but they have several corn ingredients and are generally high in sugar in the form of molasses, which is used because rodents like sweets, just like little children, and molasses helps to keep stuff together in pellet form. Corn can cause cancer in meeces, especially animal grade corn that is most often used in pet foods. Some swear by corn as a secret to good health, and all I can say is they must have been using a different grade of corn, and/or they have stock that has been extensively bred for resistance to cancer. That's a good thing, but we don't all have access to highly selectively bred mousies.


----------



## salemouse (Oct 9, 2010)

haha thanks. Is it okay to keep them on pellots until it runs(only have half a bag left) out or will in invariably cause cancer in them?


----------



## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

I really can't say. It's like this: My husband eats Banquet TV dinners and Michaelina's for lunch six days a week. I don't even like the way they smell when cooking, but if there was nothing else to eat, I'd probably do it and be grateful for food.

If you want your meeces to lieve a long healthy life, switch when you can afford to. Frankly, I think dried bread wold be better than the pellets. The pellets have all the ingredients you need for shiny coats and bright eyes....

Uncooked oatmeal is a good thing for them, dried bread. (We NEVER through away stale bread unless it's gotten moldy. It always go to the mousies.)

I'm not going to do the Meece Police routine. Just do your best, and I'm sure your little darlings will love you.


----------



## salemouse (Oct 9, 2010)

haha thanks a ton. Ive been slowly putting in som e oatmeal to get them used to the change. they pick it over the pellots everytime which i find interesting. i plan to vary it up its sort of fun makeing them food. I may just throw that bag away


----------



## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Believe it or don't; I actually spend more time, most evenings, preparing the night's feeding for the mousies than I do on food for my hubby and myself. I mix the grain and seeds fresh each evening, plus chopping dried bread into very small bits, dired bananas, tearing up whatever other treats in little bits, etc., counting out pieces of kibble.

Changing the diet slowly is a very good thing.


----------



## salemouse (Oct 9, 2010)

is it okay to feed them yogart? i had it was and gave them a tiny bit and they absolutly love it however it has a small amount of citric acid in it...your thoughts?

and I bet your husband loves that xD. Does he like the mice?


----------

