Higgins vita seed parakeet

[homesweethammyhome]

Any thoughts about this food?

Higgins Vita Seed - Parakeet

Its recommended on a mouse care guide someone gave to our rescue when we took in our first mouse.

Thank you!

[Flora]

It doesn't seem all that great, I would recommend the rat and mouse diet by them over that. It has much better variety and a better guaranteed analysis. Generally a fortified block is best with a mix for some variety.

[Robin]

Hello!

I decided to review this food and put it into my ever-growing article on it, which can be found here. If you use ctrl+f and search it up in there it should pop up.

In general, though, this food appears to be very low in true variety, so I would really only use it to boost a high-variety seed mix low in smaller components. I also never recommend feeding a bird seed by itself--it's not fortified for mice so there's a strong chance of malnutrition. Instead, you can either use a high-variety mouse seed mix (such as Higgins Sunburst) or a bird/hamster mix in addition to a high-quality rat/mouse pellet like Oxbow Adult Rat.

[homesweethammyhome]

Thank you Flora and Robin! I should have mentioned we are feeding all the mice Science selective rat food as a main staple and I was looking for a tiny seed to feed baby mice because they are such little ones with little mouths! The pellets are the size of their heads. As they grow I am thinking of feeding the Higgens Rat and Mouse along with the Science Selective. Thank you so much for the thoughts you both have! Feeding these mice properly is important to us!

[Flora]

Have they weaned yet? Do they eat the science selective pellets? They should be fine as the babies will just chew the pellet into baby sized pieces. If they are just weaning you can ease them into the hard food by soaking it in water. If you have any troubles with them eating I would suggest looking for a smaller pellet designed for young mice as this will provide correct nutrition and a smaller sized piece that will be easier for them to eat!

[homesweethammyhome]

Yes they have weaned and are eating fine, there are some tiny babies and some are a little bigger, with a litter of 12 we learned this is normal. The tiniest 3 only weigh 15 grams so until they grow some I was wanting a smaller seed for them. The Higgens Vita Seed for parakeets was recommended so I thought I would research it. Apparently many people feed this one as a seed mix because it's easy to get at our petstores and easy for baby mice to eat plus has no grit. I supplement alot of fresh food anyways so I know they are nourished I just need to establish a proper seed mix, buy it for our foster homes and the rescue plus encourage adopter's to continue feeding it. With each adoption I am giving a full bag of pellet and a full bag of whichever seed mix I decide on in hopes the babies will eat well in their new home. I am leaning towards Higgens Rat and Mouse and our established pellet food, Science Selective Rat. I appreciate your feedback, I have been researching for days!