question about food for my mouse.

Question
Hello Natasha,
my name is Kimberly Ramsey. I have a pet field mouse who we rescued.  Infact I sent a few questions to you quite a few weeks ago when we were dealing with hair loss. you were so helpful then and I thank you for the advice.  Well she is doing much better now.  They treated her for mites, as well as possible food allergies, and as of now her hair has grown back and she is doing great.  She is SO cute and so sweet.  Anyway She is now 2 1/2 months old and the vet said to reintroduce lab block back to her again.  For a while now the vet has told me to feed her brown rice, apple and carrot pieces, and dry oatmeal incase she had a food allergy to the last lab block (which was a Kaytee lab block at that time). So after a lot of research I found that Harlan Teklad seems to be the best lab block out there for mice. I don't know what kind of lab block you use for your mice, but I want to buy her the harlan teklad lab blocks, but am a little unsure which block number to buy her.  They have a couple different block numbers with different protein levels. The 2018 said it was good for growing and lactating, or pregnant mice, it has 18% protein. The 2016 and it said it was good for growing and maintence at 16% protein, and then the 2014 said it was good for adults 9 mo and older at only 14% protein.  SO I was thinking the 16% might be good for this little 2 1/2 month old field mouse. Since she's not a tiny baby mouse anymore I didn't want to give her too much protein at the 18% block and she is a little chubby(not a lot just a little) actually when she had the hair loss issue you told me at that point she might be getting too much protein then too, so I don't want that to happen again.  so I thought the 16% might be great.  I was afraid the 14% block might be too little protein.  I will also be supplementing with some fruits/veggies, and some rice/wheat (non sugar) cereals as treats, but I wanted to check with an expert so my question is what block number to you recommend for her age?  

Also I checked out your site that you sent me before on the food for rats (which I assume I can follow this with mice too) thanks for sending me that link.  It has a lot of good info on there.  My only question now is what protein level lab block to choose?  

Thanks for your help,
Kimberly Ramsey

Answer
Sorry for the delay. I just spent a few days in the hospital (I had the laptop with me but no energy to really mess with it though) and I have pneumonia in both lungs. Pretty bad case too. I was stunned when the ER doctor told me I was staying when you have to be half dead these days to be a patient at the hospital. That scared me actually.  But I am ok, just super behind on answering questions on here so I am sorry again if I took too long.


I would go for the 14% protein. This would not be too little and in fact some experts suggest it is even less than 15%.   The higher proteins are for rodents with different needs, lactating or ill etc...



As for Mousie (I would love to see her photo!!!)