Please help!! - Customized feed

[margaret8]

Thanks, Margaret, you are kind to say so.

I looked up "alfalfa meal" on the internet, and most of what I could find was stuff used as a garden fertilizer.

I did find quite the site for feed ingredients, though, and it showed alfalfa pellets, saying it also came in meal form.  I really liked the photos of the different feed ingredients next to the descriptions, I think that helps tremendously.

http://grainmillers.com/Feed_Ingredients.aspz

Is that the same as chops?

 

[Garden Peas]

Is that the same as chops?

no, I don't think so. I think the alfalfa meal is a more pulverized form... it may be what alfalfa pellets look like before they are compressed into pellets.

I think the "chops" are not so pulverized... chopped up but not ground/pulverized into meal. The stuff that alfalfa pellets are made from is a lot smaller particle than the handful of stuff in @KsKingBee 's photo of "chops." Might be a preliminary stage of the milling process?

 

[Garden Peas]

The other thing I noticed when I was trying to find "alfalfa meal" information is that apparently the version of it that goes into fertilizer might be fermented (at least in some versions of it).

The whole fermented feed discussion is WAAAY beyond my nominal understanding of feeds. I have no clue about fermented feeds, but I think there are folks here that do use them.

 

[Garden Peas]

Of course, I overlooked the website prominently displayed on the bag of "chops" posted by @KsKingBee , cuz that would have been TOO EASY.

Here it is:

http://usalfalfa.com/

click on the tab "US Alfalfa Product Information"....

 

[margaret8]

Of course, I overlooked the website prominently displayed on the bag of "chops" posted by @KsKingBee
, cuz that would have been TOO EASY.

Here it is: 

http://usalfalfa.com/

click on the tab "US Alfalfa Product Information"....

TY

 

[KsKingBee]

The production process was interesting. I had wondered how they kept from losing the leaves and why the fiber content is higher in pellets. I hadn't thought about being able to identify the feed chopped as opposed to hiding filler hay in pellets and cubes.

 

[Trefoil]

Never seen the "chops". I've fed rabbit pellets,the cubes, and alfalfa meal- should be available at any elevator that grinds feed. alfalfa meal I think is somewhat bitter because unless molasses is used to both sweeten and bind it in, a lot will be left uneaten in the bottom of the dish.. My birds don't especially like it except in loose form from bales. When I feed processed alfalfa, I ferment it in with everything else. Alfalfa will lose some of its nutrient value in processing, so I would think if you have access to baled alfalfa hay, its probably better for them.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Alfalfa is essental for vitamin B. My birds leaves it at the bottom of the feed bowl,so I think if it could be pelletized it would be better accepted.

 

[Trefoil]

Brewers yeast is a good source for B vitamins.

 

[Southshore]

Hey Garden Peas here is the list of ingredients on cat food pack:

Wholegrain cereals ( corn n rice) Poultry byproduct meal
Vegetable protein (soybean n corn) Fish meal
Cassava
Chicken fat
Brewers dry yeast
Fish digest
Shrimp meal
Squid byproduct meal
Iodized salt
Taurine
Vitamin and minerals
Antioxidant
Food coloring