# Food for making fat baby mousies



## moustress

Someone asked what I'd gleaned from this forum as far as a diet for making fat little baby mousies. I had always given my breeding, pregnant, nursing and very young mousies corn-free puppy kibble every day. From breeders in this forum, I took the idea of feeding bread and milk (dried bread and milk, or whey)and scrambled egg. The mousies that are breed get this from the time they are first put together in order to ensure that they make the best quality contributions to start the pregnancy. they c ontinue to get this through birth, nursing, and the mom and babies continue on this regimen until the babies are weaned plus a little longer to give mom a chance to restore depleted body fat and give the weanlings a little extra support as well.

The difference is visible as they grow up with fatter tails, wider heads, and shinier eyes. I like it!

This is one of my favorite ever pix of baby mousies.


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## MoonfallTheFox

That TUMMY! <3 That is an adorable picture of very beautiful mice.

Sounds like your diet is working well, I know eggs are a great super-food for sick animals of all kinds, and those supporting babies.


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## moustress

The only thing cuter than this is seeing a tiny baby mousie yawn; I've seen it, but I don't suppose it'll ever happen while I'm pointing
a camera at some.


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## Shadowrunner

OMG I just died of cute overdose.

They look so warm and pink.
I have heard of feeding them milk and bread. Is it the KMR or just regular cow's milk?


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## jadeguppy

Moustress may use cows milk, I can't speak for her, but I've been advised against it by several people. I've used soy milk and several people use kmr. KMR is probably best, but the only can I could find was very pricy and wouldn't store long.


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## moustress

I've used regular milk, milk based infant formula, soy-based infant formula, and now a whey concoction made for body builders. Some of the meeces wouldn't take the soy stuff; tipped the gallon jug lid over and left it, bread and all. I have not noticed any health effects from feeding dairy to my mousies. They absolutely love the whey stuff. It's sweetened with fructose and stevia, vanilla flavored, and it makes my mouth water. One of these days I'm gonna have me some!


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## Kingnoel

What about yogurt for calcium instead of the milk? I've heard calcium is more available in yogurt than milk and my does especially clean it all up.


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## maddeh

Thanks for the info  My girls don't seem keen on scrambled egg in the slightest, yet my boys love it :? Bread and KMR goes down extremely well though, so I suppose that will have to do


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## jadeguppy

From my understanding the milk is more for the protein. I haven't heard about calcium being discussed much.


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## Laigaie

I use raw cow's milk with mine, though I used to use goat. Both of those are more easily digestible than store milk, but if mice were lactose intolerant, the raw cow's would still cause them trouble.


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## Rhasputin

I was about to ask what those little black specks on them were, when i realized my computer screen was very dirty.


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## moustress

:lol: ..I hate when that happens; I run upstairs to check to see if they have cooties.

My son is always bugging me to wipe my screen. The grapefruit I eviscerate while surfing are the worst for that. And his bugging me reminds me of the fact that he sometimes uses my computer to do stuff while he's got something else cooking on his own machine. Considering that he helps me maintain my software, especially security software, I guess I don't mind too much.


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## Kage Davies

Like body builder protein shake type powder? Hrmm.

Out of curiosity, what size do you keep your litters?

Aaaand do you dry out the bread first?

Sorry, many questions . Its one of the few supplements I haven't tried yet, and your babies are so fat.


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## moustress

Yes, I dry out the bread first, as some meeces have problems with live yeast. I don't usually cull; I try to foster a few if I have more than 10 in a litter. The stuff I'm using now IS labeled for bodybuilders.


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## Rhasputin

Dandelion greens are purported to help milk production in mother mice if fed before birthing.


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## jadeguppy

Imported beer helps humans with milk production. The high hops kind. I bet a mousie mommy would love a taste. :twisted:

moustress, now that you are feeding the whey protein, are you still suppling the dog food and eggs daily?


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## Rhasputin

well beer is supposed to also make cattle more tender and the met more marbled with fat. . . Anyone wanna try a mouse? :lol:


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## moustress

They get all of it everyday, if they are breeding, preggers, lactating or very young, up so, say, about three or four weeks.

My meeces would make very tasty hor 'd oerves. Probably like the mammalian equivalent of smelt.

I called for Foster's Lager after the birth of my first child.


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## jadeguppy

I do have a book that has mouse recipes in it. I think they made a movie based on the book. It was about the early research with Canadian wolves. He showed that the wolves ate mice throughout he day and would walk past herds of animals without even trying to get one. The hunters didn't like finding out that the declining population wasn't the fault of the wolves, but their own fault.


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## moustress

Meeces are a lot less challenging and a lot less dangerous than something with muscles hard hooves, and antlers.

Smithsonian Magazine had an article years ago about a Czech naturalist who failed to make it out of the country before it was taken over by the Communists. He hid out in the woods for a year and a half until he could find a way to be smuggled out. He lived on what he could find or catch, and meeces, shrews, and moles were a favorite. He would spit them on a hardened stick and toast them whole. The fire burnt off the fur and made the whole critter crisp and tasty. In the article, they followed him on a visit after the Soviet bloc fell, and one thing was eager to do was go into the forest and recreate the gustatory experience that he remembered so clearly.


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## Kage Davies

moustress said:


> Yes, I dry out the bread first, as some meeces have problems with live yeast. I don't usually cull; I try to foster a few if I have more than 10 in a litter. The stuff I'm using now IS labeled for bodybuilders.


Interesting. That's what I try to do with my hobby litters, but then I've seen a massive difference between them and the litters of six or fewer... And they're nothing as good as your loverly walrus babies. I'm going to give this a go and see if it helps.

How do you prepare it?


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## moustress

I just take the bread out of the wrapper and let it air dry. I chop or break it into small chunks, say, the size of a finger nail, put a few chunks in a gallon bottle cap, add enough of the liquid to moisten the bread without having any standing in the bottom of the lid, and serve it up.

A few months ago, when I has about 10 litters in process, I kept making a few more than was needed, and I put those in with other meeces so it wouldn't be wasted. They loved it too. But they don't need it; I have very well padded meeces on the regular diet of grain, seeds, and kibble. The crumbs created breaking up the bread for milksop go into the regular feeding bucket. Of course, they all get little bits of this and that from the kitchen when I think of it.


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## Laigaie

The way I read it, Kage was asking about your whey protein powder stuff. Do I remember correctly that you sprinkle it into the food?


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## moustress

No, I "add enough enough of the liquid (whey powder mixed with water) to moisten the bread without having any standing in the bottom of the cap".


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## jadeguppy

Is chocolate safe to mice? I have some chocolate flavored whey powder.


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## moustress

I'm not sure if chocolate is safe, which is why I got the vanilla.


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## Laigaie

Theobromine is bad for most animals, actually. I definitely had a wildie keel over after eating a square of Hershey's Special Dark. He died right there with the chocolate in his mousey mouth and everything. Admittedly, you're probably not getting a lot of theobromine in whey stuff, so check to see if it has real cocoa powder in it. If not, no theobromine. If so, you can't really know how much is in it.

OH moustress! I didn't realize you meant the whey mixture when you were talking about the bread. That makes so much more sense!


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## moustress

I wonder how the folks that sprinkle powder l ike Lactol on food get it to stick, and not end up mixed with the bedding. Soray the food lightly with water? :?


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## Kage Davies

What brand whey powder stuff do you use? I'd like to look up the ingredients. All of the ones in our shop were sucrolose and dextrose sweetened :roll:

I sprinkle lactol on the top, as well as sometimes some supplement powders. I use bowls for their food, and its normally their first stop to lick up all the powder . Most of my mice come running at the smell of lactol anyway. Its a little sticky on its own, so if they dig it into the main food it just kind of coats.


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## moustress

Nutrition Information. Proprietary Protein Blend 19.5G, %Daily Value Not Established: Whey Protein Blend (Whey Protein Concentrate, Whey Protein Isolate). Bcaa Blend (L-Leucine, L-Isoleucine, L-Valine). Ingredients: Proprietary Protein Blend ((Whey Protein Blend (Whey Protein Concentrate, Whey Protein Isolate), Bcaa Blend (L-Leucine, L-Isoleucine, L-Valine)), Buttermilk Powder, Fructose, Inulin, Oat Fiber, Natural Flavors, Xanthan Gum, Soy Lecithin, Stevia Extract (Stevia Rebaudiana) (Leaf). Contains Milk And Soy Ingredients. Contains Small Amounts Of Soy Lecithin To Improve Mixability. Typical Amino Acid Profile (Milligrams Per 27 G Scoop****): Essential Amino Acids: Histidine 314 Mg, Isoleucine 967 Mg, Leucine 1,772 Mg, Lysine, 1,289 Mg, Methionine 308 Mg, Phenylalanine 466 Mg, Threonine 1,107 Mg, Tryptophan***** 236 Mg, Valine 924 Mg. Nonessential Amino Acids: Alanine 633 Mg, Arginine 416 Mg, Aspartic Acid 1,609 Mg, Cysteine 299 Mg, Glutamic Acid 2,025 Mg, Glycine 262 Mg, Proline 825 Mg, Serine 818 Mg, Tyrosine 427 Mg. ***Daily Value Not Established For Sugars. ****Approximate Values. *****L-Tryptophan Is Naturally Occurring, Not Added.


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## candycorn

Very interesting post, I really appreciate this myself!


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## Kage Davies

The whole thing confused me so I bought straight up whey protein, it comes in easier to afford packets and doesn't have a load of ingredients to check XD. My bread is still drying, so I mixed them up some 'Goop'. Lactol and Whey protein in water, then added baby rice till it was a baby food consistency. Then added honey to sweeten it, and some high calorie multi vitamin powder. They love it .

Can't wait to see if it makes a difference.


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## moustress

Lactol IS whey.


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## Kage Davies

I knew that.
:?


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## moustress

I'd have much rather gotten Lactol, but it's not available in the US, and none of the UK online dealers would take my order.


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## Kage Davies

That's pants. Sorry, I didn't realise it was a straight swap lolol.

Think I could post you some? Its expensive though.


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