This obsession on food cost with rat breeders amazes me. Feed costs from $800-$1200 per tonne depending upon the brand chosen and volumes purchased, or $0.80 - $1.20 per kilo- say $1 per kilo average. If you allow a food conversion of say 3:1 that translates to 30 cent food cost for a 100 gram rat. If you get the cheapest feed it might come back to say $0.25 and the dearest about $0.35 so feed accounts for about 10% of the rats value and can vary by say 2-3%.
On the otherhand management can vary production from say one hundred progeny per female per year to none which has a far greater effect upon the cost of feed production.
