What do you guys feed your feeders, if you are raising your own, or even if you are gutloading?
i know that for me feeder nutrition is important. Whenever i breed roaches i grind up some dry dog food and add a little sugar and some calcium to the mix. My girlfriend and myself breed our own rodents. We feed out guys mazuri rodent chow, but we add high quality dog food to the mix. The rats, mice and hamsters love it!

When I bred roaches, I gave them whatever was cheap from the produce section and decent dog food and cricket chow. Pretty good results.

For mice I used a seed mix and mazuri.

Actually had a similar discussion with some well known Northern CA colubrid/feeder breeders recently on the merit of "high quality" dog food. The higher the quality of dog food, technically speaking, has little to no grain (grain free such as Taste of the Wild, etc...i work at an independent pet shop haha) and is mostly meat based. I was under the impression that "high quality" meant better feeder food. I was wrong, as stated by the breeders (AND from my own experiments at work with feeding the feeder mice). "Cheaper", lower quality dog food that is mostly grain flavored in animal fat seems to be the most relished. Take for instant using Mazuri lab blocks. Mice LOVE that stuff. They love grains, plant matter, etc. So wouldn't one think that a diet higher in grain would technically be "better" in terms of yield, use, and cost effectiveness?

I am not really into feeding anytype of dog food, though. Not because it doesn't "work", but rather, I can't stand the smell haha! At work, if I can use a rodent block and seed/grain mixture, that is it-much like Paul White's feeder diet.

I gave up on my mouse project last year, that was a disgusting disaster. Never again XD

My roaches always have dry cat food available, not crushed. They are also provided a bowl of water gel. They get fresh fruits or veggies at least twice a week. They also get an occasional sugary snack, maybe twice a year I'll throw a piece of leftover cake in there or something similar. They also get any table scraps I deem somewhat nutritious (wheat bread toast, salad leftovers, steamed veggies, rice, etc). I've also thrown in flake fish food, old turtle stick food, and other old grain-based or freeze dried pet food items.



Also, I like to feed my animals roaches that have just shed. They seem to digest them better when they don't have hardened wings or exoskeleton.

I feed my two rat colonies the cheapest dog food I can find, and then I give them Wild Bird Seed mix in equal portions. A few times a week I give them an apple, carrots and whatever veggies scraps I've collected. I have babies nearly nonstop and fat little rats that seem pretty happy. I did take some advice on here a while back.

I use pine pellets and cover those with wood chips. This seems to work really well for me so far.

I actually never really thought about that. The expensive stuff is grain free, they usually make sure to put it in large type on the front of the bag. The only reason we use expensive dog food such as blue buffalo and the like, is that i get it for free. Sometimes i get 5-7 30lb bags of the stuff for free. I figured it would make the rodent chow last longer if we mixed the two. I don't really watch the mice very much but i know the rats and the hamsters love the dog food. They also get other stuff depending on what i have on hand (anything from strawberries, pine nuts, cashews, hazlenuts, popped popcorn, etc). My girlfriend breeds her own superworms and feeds them whtever dog food we have ground up, and carrots for water.