Oxbow/Making my own food mix

by Tpanmo Sat 14 Mar 2020, 11:40 pm

I am a new mouse owner (yay!!) Smile

Adopted three female mice about a week ago and have been feeding my mice oxbow hamster/gerbil food which has pretty decent/harmless ingredients and they seem to love it. I have also been feeding them some fruits and veggies like broccoli and blueberry as well as making some porridge with wheat germ for them which they devour!!
I am buying some bird seeds to mix into their diet this weekend also

My main question is— is it okay to keep the Oxbow pellets in their diet or food mix as they seem to enjoy it a lot?

*i have read what feels like tons of forums on the topic of Oxbow and now know that it should not be the main food because of the protein etc. but was still curious to if it is okay to still include it in the mix*
Sorry I am new to this but any help/recommendation would make me and my mousies very happy

by Robin~ Sun 15 Mar 2020, 8:23 am

Timothy-based pellets aren’t the greatest as mice cannot process timothy as well as herbivorous rodents like guinea pigs. However, oxbow also sells a food made for adult rats whose main ingredient is brown rice and is much safer to feed. My girls love it Smile

You can still include the other oxbow mix, but I’d personally be worried about malnutrition.

As for bird seed, don’t go too heavy on it—it’s not fortified for rodents so too much can make your girls malnourished. A sprinkle every time you feed is plenty (No need for GA calculations as both have fine GAs).

by chiroptera Thu 19 Mar 2020, 4:24 am

@Tpanmo A high quality parakeet mix is actually generally considered pretty safe for mice - sometimes better even than mixes designed for mice (many have too high protein, or have too many high fat ingredients).

I personally use a mix of Science Selective Rat (as Oxbow's protein is higher than I like for my mice) and Vitasmart Parakeet seed, mixed with some grains - usually flax, wild rice, oats, and barley, with a few nuts and pumpkin seeds mixed in for variety.

I'm not sure about the hamster/gerbil feed's ingredients, though I will say that I haven't had any luck with Oxbow Garden Select for rats/mice - my mice and my roommate's rats seem to avoid it as much as possible. Regal Rat is better, but as I said, it's higher in protein than I'd like.

by Tpanmo Thu 19 Mar 2020, 9:47 am

Thank you!!!
I have changed it up to a mix of brown rice, oats, barley, flax seed, a little wheat germ and mealworms as well as some seeds
I also got some supreme science selective mouse food to mix in but they seem to enjoy the other items more!! Wink

by MerciToujoursMaPetiteBoop Thu 19 Mar 2020, 11:10 am

If you want your mousies to get the nutritional value of your Oxbow or Supreme Silence Selective, try grinding up the pellets or blocks and mixing the bits into the porridge that they enjoy. If you lack the equipment to grind, then soften up a block with water and stir the mush into the porridge.