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Victorian Fancy Rat and Mouse Club |
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Mouse Food Guide |
| Basic foods suitable for mice include... Thurra Mix, Maintenance Mix, Completo ect. (horse food that contains molasses) Barley, Hulled Oats or Steam Rolled Oats or Feed Oats, Porridge Oats, Processed Bran, Wild Bird Mix, Lucerne Chaff, Pasture Replacement Pellets (rabbit pellets), Crushed Maize, Rat and Mouse Cubes (GR2 / Lab Blocks), Small Dry Dog Food or Small Dry Cat Food, Extra Sunflower Seeds / Pumpkin Seeds (any seeds), Nuts. Give Vegetables / Fruit at least once a week but dont over do it as they can get diarrhoea. Carrot tops and Broccoli are mice favorites. Diet Mice, like all animals, need a balanced diet. It is desirable to have a good basic diet which can be supplemented and varied from time to time. Commercially prepared mouse cubes are redily available and these may be fed constantly without the need to supplement the diet in any way. If you have trouble obtaining these cubes, a suggested diet is as follows... * Grain, paticularly wheat * Dry bread cut into small pieces (wholemeal is best) * Fresh vegetables - clean and uncooked * Dog biscuits cut into small pieces. They must not be too soft or too hard (avoid those which have a high degree of food colouring) As an occasional treat, small quantities of barley, oats, milk and nuts may be given. DO NOT feed mice cheese. Although this is a traditional bait used in mouse traps, it is not part of a mouses natural diet and captive mice fed on cheese will soon become fat. As a guide, an adult mouse will eat a teaspoon of grain, two or three squares of bread (about 1cm) and a small piece of dog biscuit per day. In addition, it will drink about one teaspoon of fluid and eat a small piece of vegetable. It is better to feed your mice in the evening or late afternoon and to leave food in the cage overnight. In the morning all the food should be removed, left over milk emptied and all containers washed. Water should be changed every day. Place dry dog food in a small flat container. Liquids are better placed in a gravity fed bottle or drip feed bottle. This is because when placed in a dish, mice end up either tipping the container over or filling it with debris and sawdust. Mice need to gnaw on hard food or objects to keep their constantly growing teeth strong and at the correct size. If they are fed food that is too soft, their teeth will not wear down and eventually prevent them from eating. If you do not provide mouse pellets or dog biscuits, you may find your pet mouse taking his tooth problems out on your cage! This can be avoided by placing pieces of wood in the cage for them to gnaw on. You can find small animal wood chews at most pet stores. |
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