Mice are rodents that live both in the wild and at home. They feed mainly on plant foods, although they will not refuse from some food of animal origin. The diet of mice living in captivity should be as close as possible to nutrition in natural conditions. However, the menu of rodents living in the wild depends on several factors: areol, time of the year, the type of mouse (forest, meadow, steppe, and t.D.).
Key nutritional features in the wild
The power of rodents depends on their habitat and season. As food, they choose food with a high content of carbohydrates. For example, fruits, grains, seeds. It is worth noting that mice are able to eat in small portions for a long time with a shortage of food for a long time. However, in special cases, hunger forces them to engage in cannibalism, eating their cubs.
Newborn mice feed on mother’s milk. It lasts until the moment they cannot chew on hard food on their own. The mother brings food to the nest, accustoming them to her diet. Matured mice begin to get their own food.
Wild rodents living in the city are omnivorous. They eat both plant and animal food. Mice are not averse to enjoying worms, snails, crickets and slugs. Also in urban conditions, rodents feed on waste thrown out by people.
Rodents eat no less than their weight per day. The amount of food of pregnant and lactating individuals increases. The peculiarity of the nutrition of all mice is that they do not eat the product completely, but gnaw it from above.
Types of mice and their preferences in food
There are several types of mice in nature. The diet of each of them is slightly different. For example, cereal crops and larvae of small insects prevail in the menu of the steppe rodents, and meadows, berries and root crops prevail. Forests prefer mushrooms, acorns and bark of trees. Rodents living near reservoirs eat mainly spiders, caterpillars and plant roots. Another type of mice is taiga. The basis of their diet is lingonberries and cranberries.
Rodent diet at different times of the year
In natural conditions, the diet of mice is determined by the time of year:
- In summer and spring, rodents eat plant foods.
- In the fall, mice prefer ripe fruits of fruit trees. There are also many grain crops and seeds remaining in the ground after harvesting in their diet.
- In winter, it is quite difficult to get food in the animal. In search of food, he is selected closer to the inhabited land, destroying people’s reserves. As food, the mouse choose carrots, potatoes, beets.
In the wild, rodents use little water. Most of it they get from food. That is why most often rodents choose juicy fruits, vegetables and fleshy leaves of plants.
Power at home
The mice breeders do not know how important a balanced and correct diet is important for a rodent. Not only the health of the pet depends on it, but also its appearance. Mouse menu at home should be as close as possible to how the animal eats in the wild.
The easiest way to provide the mouse with the right diet is the finished food. You can purchase it in any pet store. When choosing industrial production, attention should be paid to its composition. It should not have husks, rude herbs, chemical additives, and dyes.
The rodent should not be given food in which peanuts, oats, caraway seeds, sunflower seeds prevail. These products contain a large amount of fat, which will provoke obesity.
Natural diet
Mice has a rather quick metabolism. Every 3 hours the rodent is in the need for food. Based on this, you should regularly pour fresh food to it. If this is not done in a timely manner, then the animal may have health problems.
A mouse living at home should receive 14% of proteins daily, 9% fiber and 10% fat. When compiling a diet, it is necessary to take into account the natural needs of the body of the rodent. The following food should be present in the menu:
Often mice living in captivity experience protein deficiency. For its replenishment, it should be included in the diet of dried freshwater crustaceans, boiled quail eggs, insects. With a lack of calcium and amino acids in the body, it is recommended to enter canned crickets in the menu.
You should not forget about the young branches that need a rodent for grinding teeth. The mouse will not refuse mountain ash, apple and coniferous branches. It is also necessary to provide a pet access to clean and fresh water.
As a treat, you can treat the pet with black bread and dried fruits. Everyone knows that mice love cheese. However, this product should be extremely careful, since its excessive use leads to obesity.
Please note that mice love cockroaches. If these insects are in the house, then the rodents will lead to them.
What is forbidden to give mice
The mouse can gnaw everything that comes across in her way. However, many products are able to cause irreparable harm to her health. To avoid this, it is necessary to exclude the following food from the diet:
The choice of herbs should be approached with special responsibility. It is forbidden to give the mouse medicinal herbs with a bitter taste: celandine, wormwood, bitterness, and t.D.
Diet of mice living in wild and home, approximately the same. Rodents are quite unpretentious in food, so it is quite easy to keep them. The most unfavorable time for mice living in captivity is winter. It is difficult to find food at this time.
