Vegetarian Rat and Mouse Cubes
A vegetarian fixed formulation diet for Laboratory Rats and Mice, free of any meat or fish products, fortified with vitamins and minerals to meet the requirements of breeding animals after the diet is autoclaved or irradiated.
- This formulation excludes all meat and fish meals but has very similar nutritional specifications to the Standard Meat Free Rat and Mouse
- All nutritional parameters of this diet meet or exceed the NRC guidelines for Rats and Mice.
- The diet has been designed as a general ration for breeding and early growth in all rat and mouse strains. The total fat content has been deliberately kept low at around 5%, to maximize the long term breeding performance of most strains.
- The formulation is designed to be fed ad-lib to rodents of all ages. There is some indication that growth performance in a minority of strains can be improved by increasing dietary energy (fat content). BalbC mice, DA rats and some of the modified strains appear to be most susceptible to this problem. Please contact us if you are concerned about this issue.
- Mammalian meals have been excluded from the diet, however the diet does contain fish meal. We have formulated totally vegetarian diets, and maintained colonies for some time on these diets. Please contact us if you require such a diet.
- The feed is manufactured in a cylindrical form with a diameter of around 12 mm, length is variable from 10 mm to 30 mm. We have found that this form is ideal for overhead hopper feeding, maximizing the ease of handling whilst minimizing fines formation and the risk of bridging in the feed hopper. Pellet strength has been kept lower than conventional pelletised diets. While this leads to a slight increase in transit and storage damage to the diet (fines generation), we have found that juvenile mice often have a lower feed intake on harder pellets.
- The diet is packed in permeable bags suitable for direct loading into an autoclave. It is recommended that the diet be autoclaved at 120o C for 20 minutes with a post autoclaving vacuum drying cycle. Some clumping of the diet can be expected, but the diet clumps can usually be easily broken. Modifying the drying time to leave some residual moisture in the diet can minimize the clumping. Do not autoclave at 135o C as this will result in significant clumping that will be difficult to break.