# is this food ok?



## elliriyanna (Feb 2, 2011)

I am planning to get Mazuri Mouse formula for my mice. Its a pretty good diet as far as what I've seen and its easy to get here. But i've also heard of reggie rat and a few others here. Would mazuri be ok or is there another food you'd suggest? and i cant mix my own. Also I have dog food and biscuits on hand for my hamsters teeth so the girls will be getting that too and they will get Kaytee seed mix for variety ( i know its not high quality but its good for a little variety and they no longer have the dangerous ingredients... I'll prob switch seed mix once this bag runs out.)


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## SmallFurryDisco (Jan 27, 2011)

Reggie rat is not good for mice, it makes them really fat as the food is made for rats not mice.

I only know this after having no choice but to buy it. There is only one shop in the county that sells mouse food, but when their food ran out and the shop had non in stick I figured that would be the next best thing...How wrong was I.

They did not touch it, and when they did it made them really fat.

If you can get mouse food for mice get mouse food, it is made for them. My mice were weaned on hamster food as the pet shop I got them from had no mice food and it made them fat and made them dislike the turkey pellets in their mice food.

Sorry for the rant just wanted to let you know that Rat food is not a good thing for little mice. 

:book5


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## elliriyanna (Feb 2, 2011)

Everywhere else I've read has said rat mixes are fine for mice ... most are labeled for rats and mice. As far as i've found none near me are just for mice.


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## SarahY (Nov 6, 2008)

Rats are very similar to mice anatomically and short of a proper mouse diet, rat food is the next best thing  
Hamster food contains far too many seeds, and guinea pig and rabbit food are much too high in fibre.

Sarah xxx


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## geordiesmice (Oct 26, 2010)

yes well if Rabbit food was for mice it would be called Mouse food lol .  I use the mix the other sarah posted on here and the mice love it.


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## racingmouse (Jan 12, 2011)

Rabbit mixes (although not containing animal proteins) are basically a lot like rat mixes if you compare what`s in them. Most of the grains (oats, wheat, barley, corn/maize and alfalfa) are mainly found in many dry mixes. Some will have soya added, some not. Some will have locust beans, some not. Hamster mixes have too many sunflower seeds and peanuts included so are not the best for mice as these would need to be picked out.

Reggie rat will contains:

14.5% protein
3% oil (fats)
4% fibre

Ingredients (unless they have been changed) include:

Wheat, maize (corn), peas, oats, soya, poultry meat meal, alfalfa, locust beans and soya oil.

Looking at that list, I would`nt feed Reggie rat to mice because of three things. The soya, the alfalfa and the locust beans. Mice don`t like these. You would have a lot of waste and not enough grains/seeds.

The reason I use Burgess Supa Natural rabbit mix is because it contains more grains than most rats food do, although you can add animal proteins from other sources like dog kibble if you wish, but not all dog kibbles are suitable so you need to be careful of the fat content.

The best thing to do, is either use a rabbit mix like mine and add other seeds and grains to that (and kibble if you want to) and give your mice much more variety. I`ve looked into many rat mixes out there and they are all much the same and contain the larger extruded biscuits and `fillers` that mice hate, so it`s more economical to mix the grains yourself (bought seperately) or use a rabbit mix as a base and add to it. The fibre in my rabbit mix is 9% and causes no harm at all. Fibre is just part of wholegrains anyway!


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## elliriyanna (Feb 2, 2011)

Browns hamster 
Ingredients: oat groats, millet, alfalfa meal, milo, safflower seed, sunflower seed, corn, kibbled corn, pineapple, buckwheat, wheat, peanuts, banana, raisins, lentils, squash, pumpkin seeds, almonds, brazil nuts, green peas, cantaloupe seeds, navy beans, carrot, potatoes, apples, papaya, wheat flour, cheese meal, semolina flour, soybean meal, gluten meal, soy oil, di-calcium phosphate, dried brewers yeast fermentation product, yucca shidegra extract, salt, vitamin A palmitate, cholecalciferol (source of vitamin D3), alpha tocopherol (source of vitamin E), ascorbic acid (source of vitamin C), thiamine mononitrate, menadione sodium bisulfate (source of vitamin K), choline chloride, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin, niacin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, copper amino acid complex, calcium iodate, cobalt chloride, manganese amino acid complex, iron methionine, zinc amino acid complex, dried bacillus subtilis fermentation product, dried aspergillus oryzae fermentation product, dried lactobacillus acidophilus product, dried lactobacillus bulgaricus fermentation product, sulphur dioxide (a preservative), FD&C color, artificial flavors.

Reggie Rat

Ingredients:
Ground whole wheat, whole corn, flaked peas, flaked whole wheat, whole oats, pelleted soybean meal, dehydrated alfalfa meal, kibbled locust beans, soybean meal, soybean oil (preserved with BHT), ground whole corn, ground dried banana, salt, calcium carbonate, sodium sulfate, vitamins (vitamin E supplement, choline chloride, niacin, d-calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride [vitamin b6], vitamin a supplement, riboflavin [vitamin b2], thiamine hydrochloride [vitamin b1], folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin d3 supplement), minerals (zinc oxide, manganese oxide, iron sulfate, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, cobalt carbonate, sodium selenite), added fd&c colors (yellow 6, yellow 5, blue 1).

Browns Mouse/rat 
Ingredients: Wheat, Oat Groats, *****, Whole Corn, Striped Sunflower Seed, Green Whole Peas, Buckwheat, Pumpkin Seed, Shelled Peanuts, Jumbo Green Peas, Almonds, Pecans, Walnuts, Banana Chips, Carrots, Raisins, Maple Peas, Lentils, Papaya, Brown Rice, DL-Methionine Supplement, L-Lysine Supplement, Di-Calcium Phosphate, Dried Brewers Yeast Fermentation Product, Salt, Vitamin A Palmitate, Cholicalciferol (Source of Vitamin D-3), Alpha Tocopherol (Source of Vitamin E), Ascorbic Acid (Source of Vitamin C), Thiamine Mononitrate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfate (Source of Vitamin K), Choline Chloride, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Niacin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Copper Amino Acid Complex, Calcium Iodate, Cobalt Chloride, Manganese Amino Acid Complex, Iron Methionine, Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Dried Bacillus Subtilis Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Product, Dried Lactobacillus Bulgaricus Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Lactis Fermentation Product, Sulphur Dioxide (a preservative), FD&C Color, and artificial flavors.

Also I can remove any parts that should would not be healthy or should be in moderation


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## geordiesmice (Oct 26, 2010)

or dont use rat mix or Rabbitmix and use 70% poultry mix as the bulk.There was a reply to a post earlier where the user changed poultry mixfor parakeet mix because they added golden biscuit do you know what that is RM i guessed a type of dog biscuit?


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## SmallFurryDisco (Jan 27, 2011)

I use "XtraVital Mouse Food" look it up. It is good for the mice and I have never had any issues with it.

When it comes to feeding the mice I would rather buy them food that is made for them not another animal.
Rat food is made for rats, same goes for other animal feeds.

I have always bought mice food for them, not for other animals (Apart from that one time mentioned), other types of food are not going to do mice any good.

:book5


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## geordiesmice (Oct 26, 2010)

I have said this all along but when you keep birds and chickens for example mice will always be there to eat there food they cannot get specific mouse food in the wild ,yes they forage for what they want and this can be in the mouse food you buy but not always and you see healthy wild mice that live on other animals food.Mice are omnivorous if they see alot of layers pellets or a bag of foreign finch seed they will eat a hole in the bag to get it .At work a whole winter mice lived in our garage and lived off grass seed nothing else.I used to buy nothing else but specific mouse food but when you keep alot of mice it can be very expensive and they never stocked it in big bags or had enough smaller bags to purchase it in so i make my own, I dont penny pinch I spend alot of money on my mice they want for nothing


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## racingmouse (Jan 12, 2011)

When you keep mice for a while as I and many others have done, you realise that many of the commercial mixes have much the same ingredients in them anyway. The typical analysis on the bag might be slightly different (protein, fibre and oil content), but look at the main ingredients and you will see that they are much the same with some exceptions. So feeding a mouse on rabbit mix with other grains and seeds added to it actually makes it a better mix. Just because a bag states `mouse food` does`nt mean it`s just for mice. Many hamster owners use gerbil mixes and vica-versa. It`s looking at the whole picture and breaking the ingredients down.

Just the other night, I picked out a lot of the grains that I feed my mice to actually identify them all and they are:

Whole oats
Flaked oats (organic)
whole wheat
Flaked wheat
Flaked barley
Puffed rice (organic)
Buckwheat
Mixed millet (budgie seed)
Linseed/Flaxseed
Hempseed

Three of the above come from the rabbit mix and the rest I add seperately. These are just the grains and seed alone. I also break up gravy bones and add these now and then, but it`s not always necessary. You can add dog kibble or other protein sources if you wish, but a maintenance diet does`nt require so much attention to high protein anyway.

So reading the contents of what is in a mix and looking at what you can ommit (like corn, soya and bright coloured extruded biscuits) and adding other things to compensate for ommiting those. What is`nt in a mix can be added seperately from other sources like grain stores or healthfood shops. I still have other grains and seeds I want to look into, so the list can grow or stay the same. It`s not an exact science and variety is definately the key.


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## elliriyanna (Feb 2, 2011)

I ordered a parakeet mix and will remove the unhealthy parts for mice. It has the same seeds as most mouse and poultry mixes the pellets will be the main mix of course though


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