# Powdered milk or similar



## Cait

I have tried this before and did not notice any improvement in my mice and therefore stopped. However I am thinking of giving it a go again, so I was wondering what brands others used, how much these cost, how was the product used and what sort of results they've had...


----------



## HemlockStud

I just thought Id say Ive used the powdered milk formulas before and never really saw a difference as well. Ive seen more improvement when giving my mice raw egg, which I picked up that advice from an article written by a fancier over there.


----------



## laoshu

I give mine a "in between" the milk powder and the raw egg you both mention.
its called egg biscuit, its not cheep although i am sure you can shop around for it. It can be given as crumb or with water/milk as a porridge type thing


----------



## Maplewood Stud

i use a semi skimmed powdered milk formular (from tescos) made up with water soaked into bread for pregnant or feeding does, plus i also use a mixture of cuttle fish and milky bone biscuits to give extra calcium x


----------



## geordiesmice

I give them lactose and egg food what you feed chicks.


----------



## Wight Isle Stud

I give SMA human infant milk. around £7 for a large tin that even with 60 boxes, lasts ages. Everyother night in the bead mash. There s nothing to compare on price, availability,and the fact that it will rear a human baby does it for me.


----------



## Matt Haslam

Wight Isle Stud said:


> I give SMA human infant milk. around £7 for a large tin that even with 60 boxes, lasts ages. Everyother night in the bead mash. There s nothing to compare on price, availability,and the fact that it will rear a human baby does it for me.


same here. i tend to just use rice krispies to sprinkle it on!


----------



## Cait

To those who use SMA, which one is it and how much do you use? I don't do bread mash so would have to sprinkle it on dry or mix in with the complete dog food before adding it as it's most likely to stick to this. I did look at the SMA and it was £7.68 per tin in the supermarket.


----------



## Matt Haslam

I iuse SMA Gold , no1 its the infant new born milk. Yeah its about £7.

I have a little tub of rice krispies. sprinkle some on and mix, so the krispies are covered . I just give a few to mine every day.

sorry not very scientific. but i have used lactol before and SMA is definately cheaper and lasts longer.


----------



## Seawatch Stud

I use go-cat kitten kibble for breeding mothers, which contains dried milk. I don't like giving "wet food" as it's messy and disgusting. The trouble with giving powdered milk dry in any other form is it's so wasteful. All (or most) of the powder gets lost in the litter. The kibble I use has the milk in little squares, guaranteeing that it all gets eaten, not wasted. The idea of "milk pobs" as the old fanciers called it harks back to a time when alternatives were simply not available, and mice lived on a very basic diet of oats. I think all the dietary needs of mice can be met with dry foods.


----------



## m137b

I've used both, egg yolks and dry milk replacer. I don't really have a preference, of one over the other, but I do like to give them one or the other, or even both just mixed together into a paste. It seems to encourage the pups to eat better.


----------



## Cait

That is what I was wondering Phil - about it all getting 'lost' in the bedding and not eaten. Which brand of cat food do you use? Perhaps that would be a better plan. I agree about the wet food too, though I'm sure the mice enjoy it!


----------



## Seawatch Stud

I use go-cat kitten "complete" dry food. I don't think they do enjoy wet food particularly. The old fanciers didn't give water in bottles or pots, so I'm sure the mice ate it with gusto in those circumstances. I have always found they hardly eat any bread/milk mash if they are given a good supply of water as well. I personally think it's just one of those things that come under the old definition of the NMC as "nothing much changes". Old habits do indeed die hard. My stock (and yours Cait) can compete with anybodys as far as health, fitness and condition goes, so where's the imperative for wet food?


----------



## SarahC

I've moved off of the milk powder for the reasons stated.I've also given up the cat biscuits,cookes do a breeder sack Cait of unbranded which the mice like and also sacks of go cat.I've gone for the disgusting pobs,can't see me switching back because the mice like it so much.Time consuming though which is a big draw back.


----------



## WillowDragon

I have never given wet food *yuck* hehe

I used to mix james wellbeloved kitten dry food in my feed. great protien percentage.


----------



## Seawatch Stud

I think results from the show bench illustrate clearly that these methods are much of a muchness in terms of their effect on the overall condition of mice. I will stick to instant non disgusting foods, rather than time consuming messy gloop. But hey, each to their own.


----------



## SarahC

I agree on the much of a much,mice do well on a wide range of stuff.


----------



## Cait

Interesting topic this, glad to see such a range of opinions. I will report back on anything I try...


----------



## WillowDragon

Oh... and my pregnant/breeding does got a couple of dandelion leaves a week.

After babies were born, I did give lactol powder if I thought they needed a boost.


----------



## SarahC

I do a spare pot of bread and milk for the blackbirds,they've raised one family already this year.


----------



## Wight Isle Stud

pobs. (bread mash ). Modern version fed with the excellent diet that Seawatch feeds, plus water is the ultimate. Thats my opinion. I am aware of another Fancier who coates the corn mix in ordinary sunflower oil (for cooking ). Ideas are many and varied, however you can get all sorts of special ingredients into bread mash. It should not be at all gloopy or runny, and as it goes off (milk powder ) you have to learn to feed only enough that will be eaten. I you can get on the right side of a local bakery you canpick up sacks of bread loaves f.
or next to nothing


----------



## moustress

Some of my meeces just tip the jug lids I serve bread and milk on right over without touching it. I think they don't like it! Maybe I should use up the rest of it as sprinkle on the chunks of dry bread. Have to spritz the bread chunks with H2O to make it stick....

I'm switching to whey powder which is supposed to be one of those super-foods for building up the body. I also plan to continue giving scrambled egg, as everyone of them like that. I have been giving soy based infant formula, but I think it has way too much sugar in it.

And I still use Professional Brand Puppy chow which is loaded with calcium, protein, and vitamins.

I rarely give fresh foods and try to restrict that to very small amounts of stuff that won't make too much of a mess like little chucnks of chicken, bits of spinach, potato, cooked rice.

Mousies are omnivores, but a diet of good bread all by itself would make a pretty decent diet for them. I think the smell of bread baking is what drew rodents into human dwellings and led to the evolution of the house mouse. The old custom of putting out a dish of milk and bread for the 'Brownies' was a good ploy to keep rodents out of the food stores.


----------



## nuedaimice

Just be careful giving milk in the U.S., it contains Vitamin D3... which is essentially rat poison, and too much of it can kill your mice.


----------



## SarahC

what ever feeding method you use a combination of good diet and selection will bring big fat babies in the nest.Keeping large litters that drain the mother won't


----------



## WillowDragon

Thats a right combination of colours in that litter Sarah!! Are they a mix of two different ones?


----------

