Protein Levels for mouse food???

Over the years I have kept and bred thousands of mice, some as snake food others as pets. I have always strived to keep my mouse colonies healthy, and one of the ebst ways I knew to do that was through proper nutrition. Whenever purchasing mouse foods I would look for ones, among others, labelled as complete diets. A complete diet for mice used to mean that the food being sold as such contained at least 20%, up to about 25% crude protein. They usually averaged about 21 to 23% depending upon the brand. Over the past couple of years I have seen the big companies such as L&M, Kaytee and others, selling mouse and rat diets (usually bags of mixed seeds and grains) that I seem to recall as being labelled as a complete mouse diet that contain only about 15 to 18% crude protein. Yet these same companies still produce mouse & rat pellets with the higer percentages of crude protein. What gives with this? Has the subject knowledge improved in that someone discovered htat mice only require a diet with the lower percentages of protein, or is it just that this food is cheaper to market thereby supplying more profit for the pet food manufacturers, or is it just so much hooey that the diet with the lower protein is really a complete diet, or is it something else?

Enlighten me please...

All the best,
Glenn B

I think it is the whole cheaper product same cost deal.

Then again...I use mazuri 9f in my colonies and love it more than any other food yet it has the following stats...


<TABLE border=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(128,128,192) 1px dashed" width=225>Crude protein not less than</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(128,128,192) 1px dashed" align=right>16.0%</TD></TR><TR><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(128,128,192) 1px dashed">Crude fat not less than</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(128,128,192) 1px dashed" align=right>9.0%</TD></TR><TR><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(128,128,192) 1px dashed">Crude fiber not more than</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(128,128,192) 1px dashed" align=right>5.0%</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Not really sure all the tech specs, but it works for me all around...

I agree that it is just to keep the cost cheaper. I don't like for my mice to have less than 26% protein. It really makes a difference in their health.

What brand food do you use? Can you post the stats on the food?