What do mice eat?

However, mice fed up to 68 percent wheat bran or up to 43 percent oat hulls grew at rates similar to those fed lower fiber concentrations. When cornstarch was replaced by barley bran, oat bran, rice bran, or soybean fiber in amounts supplying 7 percent fiber (TDF) to diets containing 30 percent ground beef, growth of mice was not affected (Hundemer et al., 1991). Addition of 10 percent guar gum, bagasse, or wheat bran to a natural-ingredient diet did not affect feed intake or growth of mice, although guar increased and bagasse decreased liver lipogenic enzymes (Stanley and Newsholme, 1985a,b; Stanley et al., 1986).

The meat vaguely reminded him of frogs’ legs and rabbit in texture and flavour. The previous recommendation (National Research Council, 1978) was 0.3 percent dietary linoleate, based on the n-6 requirement of the rat. However, the present recommendation for a standard rat diet is 0.68 percent of dietary ME as linoleate; therefore, the current recommended amount of dietary linoleic acid for mice is 0.68 percent. So, scent repellents repel these rodents from entering your home by taking advantage of just about the only item they don’t want to chew.

It is not possible to specify a maintenance energy requirement for the average growing mouse without sufficient information about the mouse and its environment. Genetics and diet can have a substantial influence What do animals eat in the desert on the estimated maintenance energy requirement. Although the genetic background of these mice is different than those discussed previously, other factors influence estimates of maintenance energy requirements.

The idea of rearing and eating rodents as “mini‐livestock” might sound unpalatable to many Westerners, but rodent meat has a long culinary tradition in other parts of the world and could become an important component of sustainable global agriculture. Mice are generally attracted to aromatic foods with high sugar, fat, or protein content. Chocolates, peanut butter, vegetation, roaches, fruits, pet food, and all sorts of meat are only some of the things that mice like to eat. Signs of Vitamin B6 Deficiency Vitamin B6 deficiency signs include poor growth, hyperirritability, posterior paralysis, necrotic degeneration of the tail, and alopecia (Beck et al., 1950).

Trostler et al. (1979) found that male C57BL/6J mice fed a diet containing the equivalent of 62 µmol RRR-α-tocopherol/kg diet (lower dose not used) had a growth rate equal to or greater than that observed with mice fed 124 µmol/kg diet. However, more than 124 µmol/kg diet was required to prevent the accumulation of malondialdehyde in liver and adipose tissue. Yasunaga et al. (1982) gave daily intraperitoneal injections of all-rac-α-tocopherol to BALB/c mice and measured their response to mitogens. The best responses were obtained in mice injected with amounts equivalent to 7.8 to 28 µmol RRR-α-tocopherol/kg BW. Based on these data the vitamin E requirement for mice is estimated to be 22 mg/kg or 32 IU/kg RRR -α-tocopherol/kg diet (50 µmol/kg diet) when lipids comprise less than 10 percent of the diet.

No systematic effort has been made, however, to establish the requirements of iodine, selenium, and molybdenum for the mouse. The purified diet formulations presented in Table 2-5 have been developed and evaluated by a committee of the American Institute of Nutrition (AIN) as new standard reference diets (Reeves et al., 1993b). These diets replace the widely used purified diet referred to as AIN-76A shown in Table 2-4 (American Institute of Nutrition, 1977). An electronic trap will make animal activists queasy, but there’s no doubt about it—the high-voltage shock kills mice and rats on the spot quickly. It may not be their first choice, but mice and rats eat grass, twigs, and bark. When people think of the differences between mice and rats, size usually comes to mind.

Kligler et al. (1944) showed that riboflavin-deficient mice had lowered resistance to Salmonella infection. Hoppel and Tandler (1975) reported striking increases in the size of hepatic mitochondria and a greatly decreased capacity for ADP-stimulated respiration in riboflavin-deficient mice. In some animals, livers were yellow and the cytoplasm of the cells was engorged with small lipid droplets. In other animals, the livers were redder than normal, and their hepatocytes contained few lipid droplets. Genetically diabetic (KK) mice had a higher riboflavin requirement than Swiss albino mice based on activity coefficients of erythrocyte glutathione reductase (Reddi, 1978). Riboflavin deficiency during gestation led to brain, orofacial, limb and gastrointestinal malformations in the offspring.

No studies were found regarding estimated amino acid requirements for gestation and lactation. Concentrations similar to those listed for growth can be expected to meet the requirements for gestation. It is recognized, however, that mice are similar to other mammalian species in that optimum nutrient requirements differ for growth, reproduction, lactation, and maintenance. Unfortunately, published data are not available for estimating nutrient requirements for each stage of the life cycle. The estimated nutrient requirements presented in Table 3-3 provide guidelines for the adequate nutrition of mice maintained in conventional animal facilities. However, mice subjected to stress, such as drug testing or surgery, or mice maintained in a germ-free environment may have altered nutrient requirements.

Mice increased the concentration of calcium-binding protein in the duodenal mucosa and reduced skeletal growth. Decreased growth rather than osteoporosis was the more prominent sign of deficiency. Rodents represent a vast group of mammals characterized by a unique set of incisors that continually grow throughout their lives.