# Seeds, Grains and Nuts - Nutrition and Preference



## maddeh

I know that oats, barley, maize and wheat often make up the large proportion of mouse diets, but I am curious about varying what goes in my mix.
Out of the following seeds, grains and nuts, could you please tell me which are the most beneficial to mice in their regular diet, which should only be a treat, if the supplementation of any of them would be beneficial to nursing does, and of course - which do your mice prefer? 

Almond - in shell or de-shelled?
Aniseed seeds
Bran
Brazil Nut - in shell or de-shelled?
Buckwheat
Bulghur Wheat
Plain Canary Seed 
Caraway Seed
Carrot Seed
Cashew nut
Cedar Nuts (apparently like pine nuts but larger)
Celery Seed
Chicory Seed
Dari - Red or White? A.K.A Milo or Sorghum
Dill Seed
Evening Primrose Seed
Fennel Seed
Gold of Pleasure Seed
Grass Seed
Hazelnut - in shell or de-shelled?
Hemp Seed
Lettuce Seed - Black or White?
Linseed
Locust Bean
Macadamia nuts - in shell or de-shelled?
Millet - best type? I've seen many listed but mainly I want to know about Yellow, White and Red
Milk Thistle Seed
Mung Beans
Nigella Seed 
Niger/Nyger Seed
Paddy Rice
Pecan nut - in shell or de-shelled?
Perilla Seed - Brown or White?
Pine nut
Pumpkin Seed
Quinoa
Rapeseed - Black or Red?
Rye
Safflower Seed
Sesame Seed
Soya Beans
Spelt
Teasel Seed
Tiger nut
Walnuts - in shell or de-shelled?
Wild Celery Seed (listed as Ajwan online)

I think that's everything I can get hold of... if anyone has anything to add then go ahead


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## SarahY

From your list I have fed:

Buckwheat
Plain Canary Seed 
Dari (both red and white)
Grass Seed
Hazelnut (both in shell and de-shelled)
Hemp Seed
Linseed
Locust Bean
Millet (White)
Mung Beans
Nigella Seed 
Niger/Nyger Seed
Paddy Rice
Pine nut
Pumpkin Seed
Rapeseed (Black)
Safflower Seed

with no adverse effects. I can't say that any single one of them has done anything amazing to the condition of my mice, but the mice enjoy the variety and tuck into all of these happily. For a staple diet, wild bird seed mixed with pigeon depurative seed will give a big range of these seeds and grains as well as wheat, maize, oats and barley.


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## Laigaie

I honestly don't know the majority of those, but I can tell you a few things, just to get you started:

Brazil nuts contain massive amounts of selenium, which can be toxic in large doses, and also is 1000x more radioactive than most other foods.
Safflower is currently about 3-5% of my mix by volume. It's hard to find it straight, unless you have a nice birdseed place. It's cheap oil for their coats.
Soy beans are almost always GMO (if you care about that), and it is quite common for breeders to advise against using either soy or dent corn (dried maize). Phytoestrogens and anti-nutrients are the usual explanations. Anti-nutrients are also why peas and other dry beans are often avoided in mouse mixes.

I've been using whole oats, red wheat, hulled barley, white millet (most millet is actually just different varieties of Proso millet), and safflower. Since I buy organic from the local food co-op, I've got a very different selection than people buying from feed stores, and generally try to buy the most "whole" form of whatever I'm looking for. That means whole instead of rolled oats, red wheat instead of cracked wheat, hulled instead of pearl barley, that kind of thing. That way, my mice are getting as much of the food as they might want. I find that though they leave certain parts of the kernels behind, and so do produce waste, they're definitely eating more of the kernel than they'd be offered if I bought the less-whole form. And besides, the food that the mice don't eat just goes to my chickens anyway, so it's not really wasted.


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