what do you feed your rodent's?

[BIGBANG]

As I live in the middle of nowhere things are a bit dearer up here cos of freight costs and just because they think they can charge you more, but I pay $33 a 20 kg bag I buy a few at a time. I am looking into getting it elsewhere but when ya add travel costs to get it its just as expensive. Same reason I started breeding rats, might have been paying 3-4 bucks a rat but it was costing me 100 bucks in fuel to go get them

 

[andynic07]

As I live in the middle of nowhere things are a bit dearer up here cos of freight costs and just because they think they can charge you more, but I pay $33 a 20 kg bag I buy a few at a time. I am looking into getting it elsewhere but when ya add travel costs to get it its just as expensive. Same reason I started breeding rats, might have been paying 3-4 bucks a rat but it was costing me 100 bucks in fuel to go get them

Do you have a comparison for what biomare is worth in your area?

Edit* I just looked up the cubes and I can get them for $29 for a 20 kg bag.

 

[bigguy]

Just about every university and animal houses in Australia use the best rodent food in the country Gordons. These cubes are the hardest on the market and do not crumble to pieces or powder when chewed on. The result they last 2 to 3 times as long then most other cubes. As for their nutritional value, again probably the best recipe in the country. Most breeders state they have never seen young rodents grow as fast when eating this food. Also, being so hard, if you buy 20kg's, you get 20kg's of cubes and not kilos of powder.

 

[andynic07]

I feed mine laukie mill mice and rat food, apparently designed by rodent breeders for the reptile trade, as well I throw in a bowl of defrosted frozen mixed veggies, my babies are between 45-50 gm at 3.5 weeks when I wean them

I just weighed some of my 4week old rats that I just removed from their mother yesterday and they weighed between 70-80 grams. They were on diet science dog biscuits available from birth( obviously not eating straight away) and biomare for this last week.

 

[Jungletrans]

This is another one that comes down to choice . Just me personal so don't start but I don't keep my rats in tubs [ or my snakes ] they are in an aviary so they can run around and climb , hide etc . I approach their food in the same way , a mix of cummins pellets , wild bird seed and thorough working horse mix . This costs $1 per kilo . Add to that any leftover bread , vegies and table scraps and they have an interesting , healthy and cheap diet . Not scientific but not a feed lot either .

 

[BIGBANG]

I just weighed some of my 4week old rats that I just removed from their mother yesterday and they weighed between 70-80 grams. They were on diet science dog biscuits available from birth( obviously not eating straight away) and biomare for this last week.

that's not bad going, I only feed mine the one cube and lactating mothers get a bowl of veg every now and then, what size litters are ya having? And how old are ya breeding females? I have a young batch at the moment this lot are only on their 3rd litters and the are averaging 10+ a litter. I have just come back from 2 1/2 weeks holidays an had a accident in one of the tubs where the drinker leaked and soaked the substrate and killed all but 3 out of 2 litters so now I have 2 lactating females feeding the 3 pups they should grow pretty fast

 

[wokka]

I think the genetic background of the rats will effect the weight for age more than the food in younger animals. Our weight are about the same as andynics but our females are small by some standards with an average of only 350-450 grams depending upon stage of pregnancy. Ive seen jumbo rats that go 700 to 1000 grams but never disected them to see just how much fat they carry.

 

[andynic07]

that's not bad going, I only feed mine the one cube and lactating mothers get a bowl of veg every now and then, what size litters are ya having? And how old are ya breeding females? I have a young batch at the moment this lot are only on their 3rd litters and the are averaging 10+ a litter. I have just come back from 2 1/2 weeks holidays an had a accident in one of the tubs where the drinker leaked and soaked the substrate and killed all but 3 out of 2 litters so now I have 2 lactating females feeding the 3 pups they should grow pretty fast

I have had really varied litters, my biggest being 15 which was no good for the mum, I had to take 5 off her and put with another mum. She ended up really skinny, I mostly breed once they reach about 160g. I bred one female at 100g and she only had 6 but lost a couple. I guess my average is about 10 as well but do not keep real good records, also my averages are from a small setup of three breeding females.

 

[Blake182]

has any one ever feed speedibeef??

 

[wokka]

has any one ever feed speedibeef??

Whats that?

 

[Blake182]

its got high protien and low salt ext ill try and and get a list off all the stuff thats in it

 

[Shotta]

i think blake^ meant speedi beet? its a horse food? made from beet flakes

 

[Grunter023]

Has anyone used Ambos stockfeeds Supercool Horse pellets for their rats? I can get a 25kg bag at my local Co-op for $14.95 which makes it over $10 per bag cheaper than Biomare. Just wondering if it's as good as Biomare Horse cubes?

 

[ingie]

Some of my lineages of rats get regularly over 600g. Just big rats. You can select for size just like you can select for anything else. If I am going to use them for food though I generally want to use these ones to cull at younger ages, as they have grown faster and used less food, so it is more efficient. I prefer to use a higher quality food and find other ways to be efficient with money, than skimp on the price of food/kg, and have less efficient growth and reproduction. My rats are much more healthy and efficient since getting off crappy biomare.

 

[MyMitchie]

SpeediBeet needs to be soaked before fed as it swells ALOT.

At the moment i'm feeding my rats the vetafarm pellets, a mix of fruit n veg which changes mix every month (which has at least 3 red veg and 3 green veg and a maximum of 3 fruit), soaked and sprouted seed, some wet cat food, a mix of seeds (quinoa, black chia, seasame seed, linseed and only those) then they get things like bones to chew on, dried fish and some porridge made with water in the mornings if they've been good!

Probably not the greatest diet ever but they love it.

 

[chimerapro]

I use Aus Organics a certified organic rodent pellet and it does the job great and at $26.40(?)/25kg bag it's one of the cheapest on the market. To ad to this without using any chemicals, pesticides, antibiotics ect on my rodents I feel it makes them organic too which I would think makes my snake food organic It is also all locally grown, milled and produced which is good too for supporting local Australian business's.

 

[solar 17]

l was given a book a few years back put out by a collective of (10) universities in America on Rodent keeping and it covers everything from food,housing,bedding,blood counts and even urine counts and it makes very interesting reading especially some of the tabulated information a couple of points become very clear after only a few pages and graphs; the "optimal" temperature is 73f/23c, salt 1% max. & protien 12-14% and one other point that l have followed is that most of them mix two rodent foods (specialized pellets/kibble) together to encourage variety and l have personally found this to work very well in fact interestingly enough the different ratios of food choice between enclosures. solar 17

 

[wokka]

l was given a book a few years back put out by a collective of (10) universities in America on Rodent keeping and it covers everything from food,housing,bedding,blood counts and even urine counts and it makes very interesting reading especially some of the tabulated information a couple of points become very clear after only a few pages and graphs; the "optimal" temperature is 73f/23c, salt 1% max. & protien 12-14% and one other point that l have followed is that most of them mix two rodent foods (specialized pellets/kibble) together to encourage variety and l have personally found this to work very well in fact interestingly enough the different ratios of food choice between enclosures. solar 17

What do you define optimen performance as? This will determine the input perameters. I believe you probably require different nutritional perameters for optimen maintainence as compared to optimum growth. generally mammals require higher protein for growthe as opposed to mainatainence.