Solid Gold.

Solid Gold Holistique Blendz -- it's the one I use.

I've been feeding two varieties of high quality dog foods with my mix for the past few months. Solid Gold Holistique Blendz is one of the 'staples', while I switch out the second variety (Canidae, Chicken Soup, Innova). I really like the SG and am definitely seeing the benefits. I thought that I would see additional pros/cons to feeding this mix once I started raising litters on it. Well, I've recently had my first litter where the mother had been fed this mix and now they will be eating it as well. They are nice sized pups, best I've seen in awhile and the mother is doing great too. With her first litter she experienced some weightloss during the last bit of her nursing but this time she is just as 'fit' as before she was bred. Loving it!

 My males have matured better on this than males I've had previously. I've not noticed any fur or skin problems, Heather? They are definitely not oily.. just smooth and soft coats.

 At this point I am seeing more pros than cons to feeding SG along with my mix, along with an alternate dog food. The only con is that I have to continuously make up new batches of mix every few weeks vs plopping block out of a bag into a bowl. Oh woe is me  

-Melina

i have a question about my rat food. i dont no alot about rats, ive only had my 2 baby boys for 3 days now. from the pet store the gal suggested (and i bought) kaytee forti-diet, it says for mice, rats, & hamsters. is this food okay? should i use something else?
thanks alot!!

Connor

well im going to try to get some "real" rat food ahha as SOON as possible, cause i dont want my ratties unhealthy.
thanks!

Connor

When fed with a good quality grain mix, dog food is MUCH better than lab blocks. ALL lab blocks (including Teklad) are chock full of fillers and not very good ingredients.

People have varying opinions on the quality of different lab blocks vs. high quality dog foods. The dog food being discussed in this thread is *excellent* if you can get it.  If you would like, I can sell you a couple pounds of HT to get you started and then you can use that with some of the ingredients I mentioned above.  You can go to your local grocery store and buy rolled oats, Total flakes, Kashi puffed grain cereal, and tri-color pasta. If you mix those ingredients with a good lab block or high-quality dog food, and offer fresh fruits and veggies every other day or so, your ratties will be getting a good diet.

If you use the Solid Gold dog food and the other ingredients I listed, they should be in good shape. If you do a search on the forum (or even Google) Suebee's Mix, you'll see other ingredients that you can use in your mix. The dog food would be fed as the staple diet, and then you'd supplement that with the other mix ingredients and fresh fruits and veggies.

I just bought a bag of Wellness Core - Reduced fat....no corn, by-products, grains, ect. It looks like great food. I made up a new mix tonight and added it in.

I was using SG Holistique, but now the bag is finally gone and I wanted to try something different. I was happy with it, but the Wellness looks much better to me.

okay suebee I'll try to do that pretty quick so my poor little ratties dont have to eat kaytee anymore 

Connor

I have to buy it at the local Natural Foods store. Not a chain. I haven't seen it in PetsMart (the only thing I buy there is bedding, honestly), and I don't do Petco, so I have no idea what they sell.

You can try this:

http://www.solidgoldhealth.com/stores/

I just tried it for me, with a 10-mile radius... one Petco in the area came up, but not the one closest to me. Weird. Two other small stores in my area also came up, in addition to the store I shop.

I don't usually buy that big a bag! LOL! I did once, because the smaller bag was out of stock, but I don't recall what I paid for it.

i hope they have it at either my local overwaiti or extra foods.