Proper Feeding of Mice
1. Feeding Basics
2. More About Feeding
3. Nutrients
4. Practical Tips
5. Recipes
Proper feeding is of great importance to the welfare of a mouse. A mouse that has been fed properly, has a better opportunity to grow up to be as big as it's genetic background (which is inherited from it's parents) allows. Proper feeding keeps a mouse healthy and resistant to different kinds of disease.
Breeders, in particular, should become familiar with food and nutrients. The wrong kind of feeding can easily ruin results gained by selective breeding.
Basic Feeding
In the wild the mouse eats various vegetables. It isn't specialized in one sort of plants or seeds. Sometimes the mouse catches a warm or a small insect in order to fill its need for animal proteins. Also a pet mouse should get as versatile diet as possible. Mouse/rat lab blocks are very good because every bit tastes the same, so mice cannot pick the tastiest and usually the fattening seeds. The blocks also contain all the vitamins and trace elements a mouse needs.
Rapunzel's Tiffany |
A versartile seed mix is suitable for a mouse basic diet. When buying seed mixes, you should take into consideration some of the following: Mice do not like the usual so called rabbit pellets (which are usually just hay pellet), and they leave those uneaten. Therefore, it's better to choose a seed mix completely without these pellets. Some seed mixes have been constructed to please the eye of the owner more than the stomack of the mouse. Therefore, it pays to take a close look on the contents of the seed mix and make sure it does not contain mainly colored corn flakes.
You can also make your seed mixed yourself. If you live in the countryside, it is quite easy to buy seeds directly from farmers. In addition to this, some country side shops seel quite inexpensive seeds, flaked oats and brans. You can vary the contents of your own seed mix according to what is easily available at the time. If you use a self made seed mix, you should add dry dog or cat food in the mix.
The more a breeder has animals, the more her animals consume food. When you have more than 20 mice, it is no longer practical to feed them with small bags of food available at pet shops. It's better to buy in bulk or make your own seed mix.
Mice should be fed once or twice a day. Larger groups of mice or does with litters are better fed twice a day. Each feeding time, give enough food that there is some left at the next time.
Additional Foods
The importance of additional food grows greatly if you feed your mice solely on seed mixes as the basic diet. In this occasion you should give additional food daily, in order for your mouse to get all the vitamins and trace elements it needs. You should vary the additional foods you give, as well. One of the most important additional foods is high quality dry hay. It contains lots of various minerals and fiber, which is beneficial for the well being of the intestines and the digestion. In addition to this, hay offers plenty of activities to the mice; they love to arrange it and build nests out of it. Other additional foods are different kinds of vegetables and fruit. Whit these, it pays to pay attention to the seasons of the year, nature and what is cheap at the moment. For example, it is needless to buy cucumber or tomatoes for mice when they are at their most expensive.
Using nature's own reserves, you can build up a versatile and cheap diet for your mice. In the early summer, you can pick up dandelions, coltsfoot and grass. In the late summer serve vegetables and berries. The autumn is the golden era of apples and roots and in the winter you can give branches of trees or twigs, and grow sprouts on the windowsill. In the springtime you can give your mice as additional food swollen buds of trees, branches and the first green plants growing through the snow, like coltsfoot. You can also dry many vegetables and plants during the summer to use in the winter: willow herb, blueberries, carrots, rutabaga/swede etc. What ever you collect from the nature, always be sure that the area you collect from is free of pollution, pesticides or other poisons. Also, make sure that the plants you gather aren't poisonous or contain harmful substances. Do not pick up anything you do not know for sure to be nonpoisonous!
Every now and then you can buy processed sour cream (or, if this is unavailable, use live culture yoghurt without flavourings or artificial sweeteners) and mix for example brans or oat flakes in it. Especially babies and pregnant females need added calcium, which is obtained from dairy products. You can give your pregnant and nursing females processed sour cream or milk or natural yoghurt daily.
Neilikka & Meirami having dog kibble treats |
You often see mentioned that you can give porridge, macaroni casserole, boiled vegetables and such to you mice. This is true. However, you should remember that it does not pay to start preparing these food solely for your mice. Some vitamins are destroyed when heated, which leads to the lessening of the nutritional value of food. However, if there are leftovers from your own cooking (porridge, potatoes or their peels - cooked!) you can give them to your mice.
How Well Do Food and Feed Keep
Dry lab blocks and seed mixes don't go bad very easily. However, the vitamins in the foods do not keep long periods and when stored improperly these vitamins get evaporated quicker. Often the natural vitamins present in the feed do not keep as long as synthetic vitamins added to the feed. Fat present in the feed can also turn rancid if stored improperly. In order to keep the nutritional values as well as possible, the food in a dry and cool place, protected from sunlight.
Vitamin & trace element pills, -pulvers and -solutions should always be stored in their own packages. Best place to store small bottles is the fridge. When buying vitamins, always check the best before date. This date does not mean that the product cannot be used after that, only the date until which the producer guarantees that the product contains the amount of vitamins mentioned on the label.
Fresh foods should be stored in the fridge. If you keep them in a cellar, do make sure that wild mice or rats cannot get their paws on the food and pee & poop on them.
On to next feeding article - Nutrients
Text: Minna Koivu.