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Post by fuzzymom on Mar 31, 2009 10:49:53 GMT -5
1/2 cup honey 1 egg - scrambled 1/4 cup apple juice - no sugar added 1 4oz bottle Gerber yogurt/juice blend (mixed fruit/banana) 1 teaspoon Rep-Cal Herptivite - blue label 2 teaspoons Rep-Cal Calcium - pink label 2 2.5oz chicken baby food 1/4 cup wheat germ 1/2 cup dry baby cereal (mixed grain/oatmeal)
Blend till its pureed well. I think it would be ok if I left out the honey. I think its just there to make it sweet.
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Post by harrisi on Mar 31, 2009 10:53:23 GMT -5
Oh that will definitly be ok if fed in small amounts off to make some now hehe!
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Post by fuzzymom on Mar 31, 2009 10:56:00 GMT -5
Due to the egg and chicken content, can it serve as a daily protein source?
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Post by fuzzymom on Mar 31, 2009 11:12:11 GMT -5
Well I just fed the mice and the rat and the rat loved the BML mix.
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Post by harrisi on Mar 31, 2009 13:07:44 GMT -5
I would say so without the honey, or even just a little less honey. The main thing that concerns we is actually the honey will probably have them bouncing off the walls, Lol!! I cant feed any artificial flavours or colours to our rats 'cause last time we did they went extremely hyper . Might prove worthy to change the kind of baby food though if possible (read the bottom of the original post ) but apart from that, trial and error! Feed it for a week every day and if they start to loose condition or they seem ill then stop feeding and if they return to "normal" then think about changing some of the recipe.
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Post by bluedove on Mar 31, 2009 15:08:38 GMT -5
I would agree with less honey. If it were dwarf hamsters we were talking about, I'd say cut it out completely, but from what I've read so far, mice and rats are not so prone to diabetes. Other than being a bit sugary, looks like a great supplement for preggie/nursing moms. As for the %'s, be sure to include some dry grasses in there somewhere.
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Post by harrisi on Mar 31, 2009 15:31:13 GMT -5
I would agree with less honey. If it were dwarf hamsters we were talking about, I'd say cut it out completely, but from what I've read so far, mice and rats are not so prone to diabetes. Nope, not really prone to anything apart from Cancer really as they are scavengers so can eat pretty much anything without getting in from it Sorry this has confused me? Lol!
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Post by bluedove on Mar 31, 2009 16:38:29 GMT -5
Rodents in the wild eat a fair amount of fresh and dry grasses and they provide essential minerals and fiber. It's ideal to include dry grass like Timothy (or other fresh hay/straw) either as part of their dry mix or simply offered as a supplement. While we're clearing stuff up... 8% fruits, 20% veggies, 25% salads, 30% grains, 17% protein (insects, meat, eggs, brown rice etc) OR 5% fruits, 20% veggies, 10% salads, 30% grains, 35% protein. What's the difference between veggies and salads? Personally, I'd go for about 20-25% protein, 20% dry grain(avoid corn and wheat), 20% dry seed and nuts(limiting sunflower seeds as they can cause calcium deficiency), 10% dry grass, 10% fruit and "wet" veggies*, and 15-20% other veggies*. *When increasing fresh fruit and veggie content in the diet, do so gradually and watch for loose stool.
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Post by harrisi on Mar 31, 2009 17:03:46 GMT -5
See I give the option of timothy grass, orchard grass and wheat grass but instead they just play with it and nest with it as opposed to eating it lol. With timothy hay, meadow hay and alfalfa hay (aside from the fact they cant digest alfalfa!) I would be worried about punctured cheeks and such. Everytime I offer orchard hay to the rats they pick a piece up, nibble it then spit it out lol. Lettuce, tomato, cucumber etc is salads (basically....the general thing you would find in a salad!) but things like carrot, cabbage, kale, pepper etc is veggie. Also seeds/nuts are classed in the grains group.
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Post by harrisi on Mar 31, 2009 17:10:39 GMT -5
OK, to give you an idea, here is a 1-3 monthly shopping list to feed our rats and mice and the "group" they are put in (according to the NHS nutrition centre, anyway ) 45kg rolled oats - Grains 15 kg pony mix - Grains/Vegertable 2 kg dehydrated fruits - Fruit 10 kg dehydrated veggies - Vegetable 1 kg kelp powder - Vegetable "supplement" 1 kg copper powder - Varies 5 kg puffed rice - Grain 10 kg of bran - Grain 30 chickens - Protein 40 whole beef shins - Protein 50 heads of romaine lettuce - Salad 5 kg Carrots - Vegetable 1 kg Cabbage - Vegetable 5kg Apples - Fruit 5kg Pears - Fruit 20kg kale - Vegetable
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Post by bluedove on Mar 31, 2009 17:52:35 GMT -5
Well, you can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink! As long as you offer the grass, they will have access to it if they need it. Why would you worry about punctured cheeks? Do mice and rats load their cheeks like hamsters? So far I've just been offering compressed Timothy cubes, since that's what we had for the hamster... and I have seen them munching on them. Ok, so the "salad" refers to what I call "wet" veggies. Gotcha! Hmm... from the looks of that, you don't offer any seed or nuts at all! I would really look into adding some seed mix in there... without it, they are missing out on good healthy unsaturated fats and minerals. In your current mix, they appear to only be getting animal fats primarily. Grains and seeds are quite different in nutritional make up which is why I separated them in my % breakdown. I hope you won't take offense or just dismiss me out of hand because you're an experienced breeder and have been doing "fine" this way. I may not have the experience in breeding rodents, but I am a trained nutritionist. Human nutrition, is of course, my area of training... but every animal I own I research and learn the best way to feed them. Which is why I ended up here!
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Post by harrisi on Mar 31, 2009 18:48:38 GMT -5
They dont load their cheeks but they will take a mouthful of whatever they are eating and chew it for ages. The pony mix has various nuts and seeds in and I buy different kinds of nuts and seeds for myself so they get them but as they get most of them in the pony mix, I dont add what I feed seperately to their shopping list.
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