Hello,

Ya know, ole roy might look ok on the bag, but you might as well
feed field corn for all the good it does. I will not even get into
what "meat by products" means.

If you want to get a handle on this and still want to come in at a
good price bottom line there are a few protein choices you could go
with.
Boiled chicken is a very good choice ( around 0.50 per lb for leg
quarters) pre cook and divide into serving size ( yes the bones are
good too)and freeze. 5 lb of chicken skin bones and all will make a
lot of feeding for preg or nursing females, & only cost a few
dollars.

Scrambled egg is another good cheap choice.

butchers bags of dog scraps are another good source you might want
to look into, these will tend to have marrow bones and other beef
scraps bagged up only needing cooked and fed.

The main thing is that the protein you offer has to be from a good
animal source not corn or soy or ground up animals from the pound
flea collars and all. feathers though a protein are not a good
source either.

The next thing is do not let your rats smell any predators.

And record keeping, does not need to be a big production but does
need to be done. Number of kits, date of birth size at weaning.
Only keep kits from females that have good litter size that do not
eat their kits and that have the biggest kits at weaning. This goes
for choosing males as well, if you keep a male from a female that
killed her kits it is likely that his female pups will do the same
thing if they are kept as breeders.

Clean tanks, fresh water, plenty of room, good air flow, and good
health, good food source, and well choosen breeding stock will have
you with a plethora of kits before you know it.

Thank you

Best wishes
Brandy
Plenty Paws Mousery


--- In Breeders_of_Feeders@yahoogroups.com, <banges721@...> wrote:
>
> Yeah, that is what I usually do with the females that eat their
young. They become gator food.
>
> Yes, there is protien in their diet. I feed them Old Roy dog
food. Noadditives or dyes and 21% protien. And they are in the
work shop side of my gagare. No cars no noise.
>
> I guess I was just wondering if anyone else had the problem. It
seems to happen a lot lately. I had 4 cages with babies and now,
after only a week/10 days half of them are gone. I know the one
cage was kinda ditry and added more shredded newspaper but they are
gone. Well I guess it is time to grow some females to breeding size
and trade out the nasty ones.
>