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Posted by rodmalm on May 10, 2003 at 00:45:38:
In Reply to: While we are on the Rodent blocks/ dog food subject.... posted by Kevin Ray on May 09, 2003 at 18:56:37:
When originally setting up my colonies, I compared all the cheap dog foods to rodent blox. I went around to all the local discount stores and wrote down the nutritional info. printed on the labels. I noticed an interesting thing, all the cheap dog foods are almost identical to rodent food. Expensive dog foods are quite different. The expensive ones use meat fillers and the cheap ones use corn/grain fillers just like lab blox. I think using high quality/expensive dog food is just a waste of money---remember, you aren't feeding dogs! Rodents eat a lot more grain than meat!---compared to dogs.
Another thing, I can get 2 grades of lab blox here. Breeder blox--higher protein with slightly different ratios of fat etc. and normal lab blox. The cheaper dog foods are right inbetween the Breeder blox and normal lab blox in protien levels/fat/etc. (I was originally comparing them to Harlan teklad if I remember correctly.)
Also, I don't know if this is true or not, but I heard from a local rodent breeder that using high protein diets will increase litter size, but it also incourages kidney failure in the breeders from processing all the excess protein and due to the stresses of larger litters. Obviously, this can lower your production if your breeders don't last more than a couple of litters before having problems.
One last thing that I heard from a local distributor of pet foods that I use. He said that what ever the label says is what the food is! Think about that for a minute.
If you take a bag of dog food at the production level, and change the bag to read rodent food instead of dog food, it is in fact rodent food by law. Just because something says rodent food on the label doesn't mean it is better than something else for your rodents.
(by the way, I have used both and I only use rodent blox because I can now get it wholesale--very cheap. I do agree that dog food is smellier and I have noticed oiler coats in my mice with it--other than that, they are both fine.)
Rodney
