I am all for diversity in the diet of aquaria fish but some foods just aren't necessary for the long term health of our fish and in fact can have negative effects. Mammals are nasty in terms of fish food, they have a high fat content and are very messy. I have fed little bits of meat to my turtle before and it leaves the most nasty looking film on the water surface, I cannot imagine what an entire duckling or mouse would do. Most fish, being cold blooded, don't digest the meat of warm blooded animals very well. The fat ends up stored in the liver and the result...fatty liver disease. Also, with all the fish foods produced today saying "I want to feed my bass a mouse because it's natural" is just an excuse to watch it kill something. Mice do not make up a large part of a wild bass's diet. On top of all the different pellets, frozen foods and freeze dried foods there are other live foods that are more natural. Crayfish, worms, insects, properly maintained feeder fish even. If you must feed your fish something alive these are the things to use, insects are 80% protein...much more healthy then some fatty, hairy mouse. If you're trying to maintain a natural lifestyle for your fish I would suggest putting in through a cool wintering period, allowing it to spawn, giving it enough territory to roam in, matching the water with that from where in came from...all of that would be better for your fish then a mouse being tossed into the tank. Some say it's healthy...it's not healthy. Just because a bass might take the oppertunity to eat a duckling or mouse in the wild does not mean it needs to be a part of it's diet or even should be. A bass does not know what's healthy, they eat to survive and won't pass up a "free meal". After they eat said meal they spend their day burning it off by protecting their territory, spawning, evading predators or chasing more food...something a LMB in a 4-6' pampered tank does not have to do. They don't burn off the meal the same way and instead the opposite of your intentions happen, the fish becomes unhealthy. There is simply no single good reason to feed these animals to your fish, bass or otherwise. Everything anyone will say is just an excuse to try and justify what's really on their mind, aquatic blood sport. Cat's eat mice but guess what my cats eat...cat food and i'm sure everyone who has cats feeds them the same. You don't go out and buy feeder mice for your cat, or rabbits for your dog so you most certainly don't need to do it for a bass.
