What is the best food for mice?

by Bandit Cat Mon 23 May 2016, 3:01 pm

I know that this question will have many different answers, but what food is best for mice? I've read the food section on The Fun Mouse, but it never listed a safe food. When I looked on the Petsmart website, none of the foods met the requirements. If it matters, I would like a male mouse.

by scaredymouse Mon 23 May 2016, 10:44 pm

Most food that is marketed to mice isn't nutritionally appropriate for them. A good food that many of us feed our mice is actually parakeet food:
http://www.petsmart.com/bird/food/vitakraft-vitasmart-parakeet-food-zid36-3918/cat-36-catid-400005;pgid=kJlOWvxBXKFSRprMd2N6FOlF0000o0-49oQi?_t=pfm%3Dsearch%26SearchTerm%3Dvitasmart+sunseed+parakeet

It has the right amount of crude protein, it doesn't have anything in it that needs to be removed, and mice really like it. My mice eat every last thing in it and clean out their bowl. It is mostly seed based but has a nice variety of other things, too.

The other food that we recommend is:
http://www.petsmart.com/small-pet/food/brown-s-tropical-carnival-gourmet-hamster-gerbil-food-zid36-1877/cat-36-catid-600005;pgid=kJlOWvxBXKFSRprMd2N6FOlF0000o0-49oQi?_t=pfm%3Dsearch%26SearchTerm%3Dhamster+gerbil+tropical+carnival

However, you would need to pick out the striped sunflower seeds and peanuts. And in my opinion, the food smells weird and a few people have had mold in their bags. So, I don't use it anymore. I am very happy with the parakeet food.

by CinnamonPearl Tue 24 May 2016, 5:47 am

I would have to recommend you don't use Brown's tropical carnival. I find the bags are often moldy or full of bad food, making the entire thing unusable. But Sunseed Vita conure food is another good one that works well. You just have to pick out sunflower seeds and peanuts.

by theo1231231 Sat 22 Oct 2016, 8:06 am

Hey, Im from the UK and the shipping for that from there is horrendous. I found a supplier of a similar version of that here http://www.northernparrots.com/vitakraft-amazonian-food-750g-prod5951/?sku_s=5951&src=google_shopping&gclid=Cj0KEQjwnKzABRDy2pb7nPSazdsBEiQAI4lZQBu8LsY4rTggmrjYwCOfzxBEL2rq_r2tZfZNgcDH0OoaAmem8P8HAQ Im not sure if its good or not?

by CanadianExport Sat 22 Oct 2016, 11:15 am

My main concern when looking at the amazonian food you linked to is that it doesn't actually list the ingredients which is concerning. Digging around though this budgie food seems very similar to the one scaredy mouse recommended.
http://www.northernparrots.com/hagen-living-world-budgie-premium-seed-908g-prod562002/?src=google_shopping

by EverythingAnimal Sat 22 Oct 2016, 12:07 pm

I noticed if you click on "details" it lists the ingredients and other information.

by CallaLily Sat 22 Oct 2016, 3:58 pm

That one is quite low on protein. Look for a seed mix that has 12-14% crude protein (for mice from untracked lines) and fat and fiber under 10%. Double check ingredients -avoiding anything unsafe like the "chili pods" that are listed in the ingredients of the food you linked- and also try to pick something with good variety.

There's a little bit of advice for UK members here too: https://petmousefanciers.forumotion.com/t24-help-for-the-uk-members.

by theo1231231 Sat 22 Oct 2016, 9:07 pm

Hey cheers guys,
I think this stuff looks good from what you said
http://www.ratrations.com/supreme-rat-mouse-johnsons-p-856.html and its surprisingly cheap.

by theo1231231 Sat 22 Oct 2016, 9:07 pm

although would I have to pick out the sunflower seeds?

by CinnamonPearl Sat 22 Oct 2016, 9:21 pm

Yes, always pick out sunflower seeds, raisins, and peanuts. You can also pick out corn, but some of us don't. Also, in the future, please refrain from posting on threads that haven't been active in over two weeks. It's against forum rules.

by MouseLover Sun 23 Oct 2016, 8:30 am

theo1231231 - I am a UK mouse owner too, and I used to use that johnsons supreme rat/mouse food in my early days of mouse keeping. It's okay, but the protein is quite high at 16% and you'll spend lots of time picking out sunflower seeds and corn.

If you want to know what I feed my mice... To be honest, my choice of mouse food is often changing as I am often looking to improve the care I give my mice. But generally I give my mice a mixture of things - some seed/muesli mix and some Supreme Science Selective Mouse food. Some of my mice have been picky eaters, and I have worried about them getting a balanced diet. The supreme science selective mouse food is a nutritionally complete biscuit/kibble type food - so I find that offering this as part of their diet helps prevent this (the mice are fond of it too). However eating the same biscuits all the time would be REALLY boring for the mice - so I make sure that it makes up less than half their diet, and then the rest is the seed/muesli type mix, which has a lot more variety.

At the moment, I am trying the No. 7 mix (the with soya, no garlic one) from ratrations. I like the fact that it has quite a variety of ingredients (including some animal protein), and the mice seem to be enjoying it. Protein on that one is 12.94%, so is suitable for mice.

by theo1231231 Sun 23 Oct 2016, 8:37 am

Dang thats annoying. I literally just ordered it before you posted this Sad

maybe I can cancel it. Anyway thank you, I did notice the higher protein but thought it was okay, and yeah the sunflower seeds thing sounds tedious.

Il check out trying to cancel my order, if not Il bare this in mind for next time. cheers.

by theo1231231 Sun 23 Oct 2016, 8:48 am

It looks like I cant cancel it. But it I notice it doesnt say anything about corn there, so I guess I just have to worry about the sunflower seeds which wont be so bad I guess

by CallaLily Sun 23 Oct 2016, 10:01 am

A bit off topic but for those of you in the UK, when you find a product that works well for mice please comment about it in the thread I linked above. Thank you!

by AnonONIagent Sun 23 Oct 2016, 5:02 pm

Personally I don't pick the sunflower seeds or peanuts out of my mix. My girls have never shown any signs of being allergic to them, and they both seem to be the favorite part of the mix, so I leave them in. That being said, it is a risk, but I'm pretty confident that my girls are fine considering they have been eating sunflower seeds and peanuts ever since I've had them and none of them have shown any signs of allergies whatsoever. Whenever I get a new mouse though I keep a close eye on them so that I can start picking out those things if I need to.

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