Recipes!

1. Feeding Basics
2. More About Feeding
3. Nutrients
4. Practical Tips
5. Recipes

The shortest way to a mouse's heart goes through it tummy. Here are some recipes for staple diet and treats as well.

Stable Diets

Self-Made Seed Mix

Recipe by Anniina Tuura

When a breeder has a lot of animals, it is better to make your own seed mixes with high-quality ingredients. I buy almost all of my feed stuff in bags of 10-40kg from farms or feed shops (farmers' shops). Benefits of self-made seed mixes include cheaper prize, known composition and easy versatility. The following recipe has been tested and found to be good and tasty!

Almost a bucketful of ready mix:

2 l oats
2 l barley
2 l Racing Progress (full staple pellet for horses)
1 l Pasture Mix (muesli-type feed for horses)
5 dl shredded corn
3 dl sunflower seeds
2 dl crushed nuts
2 dl dog kibble

Bread for Mice!

Recipe by Katri Pohjanvaara

The stable diet of my mice is bread I bake. It keeps cleaner in a food bowl than seed mix does, doesn't get 'lost' in the beddings, is good for mouse's teeth and what's most important – you can decide the ingredients yourself. You can bake more bread more rich in proteins and fat for youngsters, pregnant and nursing does and light bread with no possibility of choosing just the sunflower seeds and nuts for those with weight-gaining tendencies.

Mouse bread is easy to bake and you can get the ingredients from any larger grocery. Here's how to do it:

1. Take a 3 l bowl and measure in 2 litres of various seeds and groats - whole or shredded barley, oats, buckwheat, crushed rye or wheat, millet. Crushed peas and soy have loads of vegetable-based proteins. Peeled sunflower seeds and rolled flax include healthy oils. I also add garlic powder.

2. Let the grains soak in warm water (just get them covered) for an hour or two, then add more warm water a bag of dry yeast and enough wheat flour to make the dough not runny, but still easy to mix with a wooden spoon.

3. If you want the bread to be more rich in protein, add dog kibble or eggs at this stage. Mix the dough enough to toughen it a bit. Let the dough rise while the oven heats up (200^o). Bake on baking sheet, spread thinly (3 liter dough makes about three breads) about half an hour, mid-level in the oven. Keep the dough runny enough for easy spreading.

4. When the bread is done, let it cool down a bit and use a knife to carve lines for breaking it. When the bread has completely cooled down, break it into pieces and dry the pieces somewhere airy.

5. Keep the bread in a basket or a paper bag, not plastic.

Baking for Mice

Recipes by Satu Karhumaa

Self made bread is a good addition to a mouse's diet and you can modify the bread to suit your mice well. Furthermore, when you're baking the bread yourself, you can be absolutely certain about what's in it.

I use bread machine to bake bread for my mice. My machine is of standard size and the following recipes are designed for that particular machine. Check the specifications of the machine you use. It's easy to make up your own recipes after baking for your mice a few times. Besides, mice don't care if your bakings didn't quite turn out to be what you wanted, for example the bread didn't rise proplerly.

When the bread is ready, let it cool down a bit and then cut it into pieces – or rather crumble it as small as possible, small enough to fit a mouse's hands. Spread the pieces to dry as airy as possible to prevent them getting mouldy. When completely dry, mix the bread into seed mix or serve as treats.

Sweet Raisin Bread

* Cool water 1,5dl
* Wheat flour 3dl
* Whole grain flour 1dl
* Honey appr. 2 tbs
* Raisins 1,5dl
* Milk powder 2 tbs
* Oil or butter 0,5dl
* Dry yeast

(Use the 'sweet bread' program.)

Iron Bread

* Cool water 2,5dl
* Wheat flour 4dl
* Whole grain flour 1dl
* Spinach / nettles 1dl
* Oil or butter 2tbs
* Pinch of salt
* Sugar appr. 1 tp
* Dry yeast appr. 1,5 tp

Green bread

* Cool water 2,5dl
* Wheat flour 3dl
* Whole grain flour 1dl
* Barley flour 1dl
* Pea powder 1dl
* Oil or butter 2tbs
* Pinch of salt
* Sugar appr. 1 tp
* Dry yeast appr. 1,5 tp

Yellow bread

* Cool water 2,5dl
* Wheat flour 3dl
* Whole grain flour 1dl
* Barley flour 1dl
* Soy powder 1dl
* Oil or butter 2tbs
* Pinch of salt
* Sugar appr. 1 tp
* Dry yeast appr. 1,5 tp

Treats

Yummy Bisquits

Recipe by Leena Koiranen

You will need:

~ 1 dl water
~ 1 dl wheat flour
~ 1 dl rice crispies
~ ½ dl rolled oats
~ ½ dl millet
~ ½ dl lab blocks + a bit of water
~ ½ dl grated carrots
~ a couple of drops of honey

Soak the lab blocks in a small amount of water to make “porridge”. Mix the 1dl of water with what flour, rice crispies, rolled oats and millet. If the mixture feels too dry, add a little water. Mix in the soaked lab blocks, carrots and honey. Mold into small cookies and bake in 200^o for about an hour. Bon appetit!

Orange muffins

For four BIG muffins you need:

* 1 egg
* 1 tablespoon honey
* 1/2dl orange juice (whole)
* 1/2dl oat "flakes"
* 1/2dl wheat bran
* - added spice: 1 teaspoon of crushed nuts and bird "power seed mix" (available at pet stores)

Beat the egg and honey together thoroughly. Add orange juice carefully. Add carefully with a spoon oats and wheat and, if you want to, the added spices. Divide into 4 cups.  Bake in 225C for c. 15 minutes.

Do not over-feed your pets! Hee-hee!

Treat

phase 1
Put 1½-dl water in a kettle, add at most ½ dl rice, macaroni and cut spaghetti. Cook half done. After that, add ½ dl oat flakes. Cook until porridge like. Add/remove water if necessary. (Note: the mix has to be 'solid'.)

phase 2
Add 1-teaspoon olive- or other cooking oil. Small (!) dash of salt. Mix and let the porridge cool down.

phase 3
You can choose a vegetable- or meat based filling.

a) Grated carrot and apple, bread crumbs and millet seeds.
b) Grated carrot, minced meat fried on a pan with as little oil as possible and grated cheese.
c) Or use one of the above mentioned delicacies alone...
d) Or make up a whole new treat.

Mix the filling you chose with the cooled down porridge. Serve on a heavy earthenware bowl to your mice. If you want to, you can keep the porridge for a couple of days in an airtight container in the fridge. Also other animals like this treat, like rats and hamsters.

Treat for rainy days

* 2 average-sized potatoes (boiled)
* 1 egg yolk
* 1 tablespoon bread crumbs or rye flour
* rye flour for baking

Mash the potatoes with, say, a fork in a bowl. Mix in the yolk and the breadcrumbs. Knead the dough. If it is too soft and sticky, add flour.

Roll the dough into a 2mm thick 'plate'. Cut out cookies with a glass or a gingerbread mould. Bake in the middle level of the oven in 100 C for about an hour.

When you feel that the "cookies" are ready, lower the temperature to 50 C and let the cookies dry for an hour or two.

Treat for colder days

* 1 dl hot water
*1 tablespoon honey

Mix the ingredients together and serve to your mice still warm (not hot!) from a cup or from a small water bottle.

Hip Soup

* 2 dl fresh hips (= "rose berries")
* 1/2 dl water
* 1/2 teaspoon potato flour

Rinse the hips carefully. Heat the water to boil and add the hips. Cook under a lid on mild temperature until the berries are soft. Pour the soup to a bowl. Use a blender to smoothen the soup. Pour the smoothened soup back to the kettle and add potato flours. Bring back to boil, mixing the soup at all times. You can add water, if the soup becomes too thick.

* Your mice will love hip soup mixed with semolina/farina porridge.

Apple Soup

* 2 dl apples
* 1/2 dl water

Peel the apples, remove the seeds and other hard parts, and chop the apples in pieces. Put the apples in a kettle with the water. Cook on mild temperature, mixing regularly, until the apples are soft and done. Smoothen the sauce with blender.

* Both hip soup and apple sauce should be frozen if you do not use it within a couple of days. Self-made soups without any conservatives (do not use them!) will otherwise go bad in a short time.

Christmas veggie casserole  (by Katri Savolainen)

* 1/2 dl frozen peas
* 1 small piece of cabbage or cauliflower
* 1 small potato
* 1 small carrot
* 1 dl water

Stew the vegetables until they're done. After that, mince them with a blender. Serve to your mice in hand temperature - not too hot in order to avoid your mice burning their little mouths.

Hint: Mix a little lean, well done meat or unsalted, lean ham to the casserole. Your mice will surely love it!!!

Honey rice porridge for meecies (by "Christmas Land Kid")

* Rice porridge
* Pieces of raisins and almonds and other goodies
* Honey

Take a piece of rice porridge to a small bowl. Spread raisin and almond pieces on the porridge, coat with thin layer of honey.

Christmas cookies (by H. Heikkinen)

You can prepare the cookies in the microwave oven, or in the oven when you bake christmas cookies at home (for humans)

* minced almonds
* plum sauce
* grated cheese
* 6 tablespoons wheat flour
* c. 2 tablespoons water
* If you want to, you can add few drops of cooking oil.

Mix wheat flours and water and the cooking oil, if you use it. Divide the dough in three parts. Mix the minced almonds in the first part, the plum sauce to the second (you may have to add more flour) and grated cheese to the third part. Knead the dough, each part separate and mould into round cookies (breads). Bake in oven or in the microwave oven - it's hard to tell proper times. This way, you will get three christmas cookies. This portion is suitable for, say, 3-4 mice.

Goody-bomb for mice

Buy a bag of mixed nuts, raisins and almonds. Shell the nuts and crush the  hearts. Mince the raisins in small pieces, as well as the almonds. Mix all together and serve. YUM!

Even though you should not be on any stupid diet during christmas, be careful not to give your mice too much of the goody-mix.

Dewdrop bread for mice (by Saara Salmi)

* Small piece of chicken
* water
* low-salt whole grain bread

Cut the bread in small cubes a couple of days beforehand, in order to allow it to dry hard. Cook the piece of chicken in not too much water. When the chicken is well done take it out of the broth, soak the broth into the pieces of bread. Cut the chicken in small pieces and serve along with the bread still warm.

Rice-fish -salad

* 1dl rice
* 2-tablespoons fish (canned tuna in water)
* 1 tablespoon small pieces of rutabaga/swede
* Chopped parsley just for the taste of it

Mix all other ingredient into boiled rice. You can replace the rutabaga/swede with some other vegetable or roots. Let cool down in the fridge for a while before serving.

Macaroni-minced meat-vegetable -casserole

* 2dl boiled macaroni
* 4 tablespoons minced meat
* 4 tablespoons carrot cubes
* 3 tablespoons peas
* milk and egg

Boil macaroni and fry the minced meat in frying pan without any fat (you can also bake it in the oven). Mix the macaroni and meat in a pan. Add boiled carrot cubes + the peas, finally a little of milk and the egg. Bake in an oven in 200 C for approximately 10-15 minutes.