Cost of making your own blocks [Archive]

SamtheSquirrel2018

08-20-2023, 09:56 PM

As my squirrel family grows (I just had two more babies drop a couple of days ago), I am thinking of making my own squirrel blocks. It looks like it would cost about 10$ equivilent to a bag of henrys to make with pecans, the henrys vitamins, and the other ingrediants. Does this sound about right? Not sure if it's worth the effort to save only a few dollars so just curious if anyone makes their own and can comment on the costs.

Hi LovesSuirrels1:
Sorry that you have not had a response of yet and I'll tell your right up front, I cant give your the definitive figures to answer your question but here are some comments anyway.

Option 1: Henry's Blocks but they are expensive! They are also very concentrated and only two blocks (if eaten in their entirety) will provide for all of an average sized Squirrels nutritional need for the day! The maximum number of Henry's Blocks that a medium to large Squirrel might eat would be three. NO more! Two Henry's Blocks weigh approximately 10 Grams. Again, referring to the "average" sized Squirrel, that is not very much and there is more to eating than just getting complete nutrition and one of those factors is satiety or the feeling of being "full." Ten Grams is not going make your Squirrel feel full and he will probably be quite hungry. Henry's recommends supplementing their Blocks with healthy vegetables and other food based upon their Healthy Diet Pyramid ( https://henryspets.com/healthy-diet-for-pet-squirrels/ ). This will help with satiety as well as provide additional safe and healthy nutrition.

Option 2: Feed another healthy Block such as Harlan-Teklad 2014 or 2018 which is now Envigo 2014 or 2018 (the difference between the two is primarily the percentage of protein, 14% or 18%), Mazuri Rat and Mouse Diet. These have the advantage of being able to be free-fed which means that you can give your Squirrel all he or she would want to eat. The "average " Squirrel will probably consume somewhere around 50 Grams in a day. These also are a complete diet and the Squirrel does not require anything else but water diet although we all like to give our Squirrels added treats as long as they have consumed an adequate dietary intake.

Option 3: Use one of the healthy Blocks such as Envigo 2018 as a base and make your own block using this as the primary ingredient. Further vitamins are usually not needed but it is essential that the resulting food contains an adequate amount of Calcium and other minerals, carbohydrates and protein. The closer you get to using 100% heathy Blocks, the closer you are to not needing to worry about any additional minerals or other nutritional constituents. This is the option I use and others on TSB use this option as well but I accurately calculate the amounts of any additional nutritional constituents that will be necessary and diligently mix the these with the base blocks. I use Envigo Blocks as my base and also use the the nutritional percentages listed on the the Envigo website that pertain to the original blocks as a guide to have my blocks provide full nutrition while also permitting me to add some additional ingredients for my own preference and for taste and/or consistency of the final mixture.

Option 4: Make your own Blocks. You will need a source of vitamins and Henry's does have that available. Then you will need a valid and scientifically supported recipe.

I have tried at one time or another, all of these options and I still like option 3. After all this, I am not really answering your question and that is; do you save significant cost by making your own (options 3 and 4). I cannot give you the actual figures but when you have only few Squirrels or one Squirrel, I don't believe it makes a whole lot of difference. If you opt for Henry's, you will still need to purchase healthy vegetables and other foods as two blocks don't go far in satisfying hunger. If you care for many Squirrels, this option will definitely be the most expensive and those who do take care of a large Squirrel population may have some Henrys blocks lying about but I doubt if any of them use Henrys as the primary diet for their Squirrels! The less expensive option overall, would be to use a Quality Block such as the Envigo Blocks and give occasional treats if desired. I get my Envigo blocks from EcoSandy on eBay and buy as much as I need as I would be required to buy a huge bag of these blocks if I got them directly from Envigo or from a Feed Store.

I'm sure that more than you signed up to hear but that's what happens when I have 15 minutes of free time!
Regards,
SamtheSquirrel