Trying out the Suebee diet ...

I make my own mix too, I have not found any safe lab blocks here.
This is my mix:
the base is 2/3 wild bird seed mix(corn, millet, sunflower seeds, oats)
1/3 rabbit pellets
then I add
Barley, alphabet pasta, brown rice, lentils, cat food(only a small amount), split peas, cheerios, and flax seeds.
I had a mouse with a peanut allergy, so I don't feed them to my mice. Other then that what ever grain I can find I'll try and see if they like it. I try too keep the protien at 13-14% since most mice can't handle more then that.

are you still using this diet Nikki? is it working well? i've been thinking about trying it

lol ok, i think i might give it a try once the babies are older.

I copy and pasted this directly from the lil ratscals forum in the mouse section:




"After discovering that one of my mice was diabetic I decided to mix my own mouse food. I've found that I benefit not only by controlling what's in the food, but the cost is considerably less than premixed food. Most of the ingredients average around $1.00 per pound, compared to $4.00 per pound for premixed food.

While mice are omnivores (they eat both plants and meat), grain comprises much of their normal diet. The recipe reflects this and contains a number of different grains. The basic diet includes the following ingredients mixed in equal parts except where noted. Four mice receive 1 tablespoon per day. I use mostly rolled grains because they seem to be preferred to whole grains. I've noted that whole grains are often stored for times of famine. If you notice a large amount of stored food you may be feeding too much and should consider reducing the amount, particularly for over weight mice.

Rolled Oats
Oatmeal - along with high fiber, oats helps with glucose and insulin modulation, important for controlling diabetes.

Rolled (or Pearled) Barley
Like oats, barley also shows potential to help modulate glucose and insulin.

Rolled Rye
Rye has been cultivated for 2,000 to 3,000 years. It contains more fiber and vitamins than wheat and somewhat less gluten.

Rolled Wheat
Because of it's high gluten content, wheat is popular for it's ability to produce good bread. Wheat has a greater potential for gluten and allergy sensitivity than other grains. For sensitive mice it may be substituted with one of the grains below.

Whole Buckwheat
Buckwheat is not a type of wheat, although the name suggests otherwise.

Millet
Millet is a major ingredient in many commercial mouse foods. It is one of the least allergenic grains available. White millet is the most common, but you may be able to find red millet for variety.

Flax Seed (use twice the amount of other ingredients)
Flax seed is a good source of omega 3 oils (essential fatty acids). I use double the amount of other ingredients.

Sunflower Seeds
Restrict sunflower seeds for over weight or diabetic mice.

Pumpkin Seeds
Restrict pumpkin seeds for over weight or diabetic mice.
You can substitute any of the rolled grains above with these grains for variety.

Rolled Spelt
Originally cultivated around 7,000 BC, related to wheat. Spelt has lower gluten content and is less allergenic than wheat.

Rolled Kamut
Originally cultivated in Egypt around 2,000 BC, related to durum wheat. While kamut does contain gluten, it is less allergenic than wheat.

Rolled Triticale
A modern hybrid of rye and wheat. Triticale is basically a wheat substitute, but is considered by some to be nutritionally superior to wheat.
You can also add fish, cooked beans or rice, vegetables and fruit. I recommend starting with uncooked frozen peas and broccoli (both raw and cooked) and dandelion leaves in the spring and summer; apples are often well received. All vegetables and fruit should be given in small quantities, too much can cause diarrhea and dehydration. I would just watch for diarrhea and if it looks like a problem then cut back for a while. You can give fruit or vegetables 2 to 3 times a week. Because of the sugar content, most fruits should be restricted where diabetes is an issue.

I would leave out the sunflower and pumpkin seeds for over weight or diabetic mice. I would strictly control these and hand feed only a couple a days as treats.

For older mice or even mice that are under weight I've been feeding Flax Seed Oil in addition to the flax seed in their solid food. Flax seed oil really seems to help with joint problems in older mice that act a bit stiff and may have arthritis.


Vitamins and Supplements
I also add vitamins and other nutritional supplements to their diet. I don't use any special animal vitamins; I just mix human vitamins in a solution to be added to their water. For generally healthy mice I recommend a good generic multi-vitamin. Other supplements can be added as needed.


Multi-Vitamin (1)
A good generic multi-vitamin should contain most everything required.

Vitamin C - 1000 mg
A strong anti-oxidant. Unlike humans, mice can produce their own vitamin C, but extra doesn't seem to be a problem.

Alpha Lipoic Acid - 100 mg
Alpha Lipoic Acid is an anti-oxidant that helps other anti-oxidants to work.

Chromium - 500 mcg (500 micro grams or 1/2 mg)
Useful in regulating blood glucose levels, particularly help with the management of diabetes.

Vanadium - 10 mg
Useful in regulating blood glucose levels, particularly help with the management of diabetes.
The dosage listed is 1 human dose per day. Normally I would mix this with a quart of water as a concentrate for storage and than dilute that again at 1 ounce to a quart of water. You can crush any hard pills with a hammer. Put them in an envelope so they don't fly all over when crushed. Open any capsules and add the powder to the crushed pills. Use a blender to mix with a quart of water and store in the refrigerator, shake well before using. Mix 1 ounce of the concentrate with another quart of water for serving to the mice. This is good for mice that drink up to an ounce a day. I don't worry about mice that drink less; they are also getting vitamins from their solid diet so a little less doesn't hurt.

If your dealing with a diabetic mouse you should adjust the dose to how much the mouse drinks. My one diabetic mouse, Athena, was drinking as much as 4 ounces a day. I managed to get her down to less than an ounce a day, but this required adjusting the dose as her consumption changed. For calculating dosage I figure an average human weighs about 150 lbs (110 - 190 lbs) and an average mouse weighs 1.5 oz (1-2 oz). There are 16 oz to a pound, so you want to give your mouse about 1/1600 the human dose; every human dose provides 1600 mouse doses (150 lbs * 16 oz per lb / 1.5 oz per mouse). If your mice drink 1 oz a day each, you would want to dissolve 1 human dose into 1600 oz water.

It's more likely that 4 mice drink 1/2 oz per day or 1/8 oz each per day. At that rate you would mix 1 human dose to 1600/8 oz water or 200 oz water (about 3 gallons or 12 quarts). So if you mix 1 human dose into 1 quart of water for storage and than dilute at 12 to 1 you would get the correct mouse dose.

Refrigerate the stored mixture. Of course mice don't always drink the same amount every day and some mice drink more than others. Unless you have a problem like one mouse drinking a lot, I would just take an average on all the mice together. You will need to monitor your mice for average water consumption."






I'm planing to try this out next time i go bulk food shopping. I don't have a problem with diabetic mice so i'm not going ballistic but just keeping with the basic recipe. I already give my mice vitamins in their water, a pre-mix generic for rodents of all kinds.

I also plan to keep giving them the Medi-Cal dog food. You can pick it up at any local vets. My mice prefer the Preventative formula over the Fiber formula... I also noticed a difference in their droppings being better with the preventative. At any rate, dogs and mice have very similar food requirements though mice should never be exclusively fed dog food they also shouldn't really be fed exclusively on seeds either.

Sounds like a good diet, just a few things I would avoid, Wheat is one of the top allergens for mice, next to peanuts and sunflower seeds. Flax is very good for them but high in protien and fat, so I add a small amount too my mix.

Most fancy mice in America can't have more then 15% protien in their diets. Too much protien causes hot spots, itching and hair loss.

Thanks for the tip! I just got the mix together last week and i'm watching them now. We just got back from a 3 day camping trip to Goldstream provincial park (sooo gorgeous!) We did a health check and they all seemed just fine, though perhaps they younger ones had a few nips from alpha (who was probably just bored - he hates not having humans around). Anyway they started fighting all a sudden at midnight and kept us up till 2AM - both alpha and zeta were picking on poor di-gamma so we set up a separate cage so he could recoup from a few cuts. then alpha suddenly decided zeta was getting on his nerves and cut him up a bit on his hind quarters. so the new plan is to keep them all separate and see how it goes, though alpha hates being quartered alone... his own fault though i guess.
Aside from that madness (which I'm sure was mostly because we didn't handle them for so long, alpha gets so damn antsy if we don't) they don't seem to be doing too badly on the new died. no strange marks non mouse made, no strange scratching. I have noticed that they just skip the stuff they don't like and they all don't like different things.
I've mixed in a pre-mix of seeds from a petstore that was just too limited, so hopefully that'll give them an extra choice away from the flax if that'd be a problem.

This good to know, especially about the wheat allergy mice can get/have.
I hope everyone's mice are getting all the good nutrients.
I have never really followed the Suebee Diet at all when I had rats for awhile.
I attempted to make my own but they were too picky.
Not too sure about what "lab blocks" you could find for the mice, unless you found something already.

Miriam you should most definitley keep your boys seperated.

I remember when my 3 brothers were together - lasted until they were about 2 or 3 months old and then one night at 2 in the morning I seperated them all because they were fighting non stop and I thought it might be the final round for one of them.

They are all perfectly fine living alone so far.