Do Not Feed The Animals!!!!!!!!******UPDATE*******

[saddina]

What I taught my kids was there's a picture on the bag of who gets that food. (a chicken with eggs on the layer feed, a chick on the mash bag, a quail on the gamebird feed, rabbit on the bunny bag, etc.) If your bags are similarly designed, it's a simple matter to match picture to bowl.

 

[Tala]

I honestly wouldn't expect even my hubby to know the difference between Flock Raiser and Layena.

He just doesn't even care to find out, and he wouldn't remember anyway.

He can manage to feed the dog and cats though, and my adult bird food feeder is a 5 gal bucket.

I don't think it would be too hard to explain to feed the chicks the crumbly stuff instead of the pellets if there was an emergency.

I agree about the lock though. I've never seen a feed room that wasn't locked.

Could be for various reasons, I always figured the #1 reason was mainly to keep the door from getting left open and rodents getting in.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Mine is locked to keep the horses out, that way they don't get in the feed and colic themselves.

 

[Laney]

I would have been having a fit as well, not just because of wrong feed to wrong animal... but because of what too much feed can do to certain animals.

Your PIGmy Goat for example. And I misspelled that on pupose this time because that goat will just keep eating until it gets to the end of the bucket. Then you have a goat with bloat...and chances of a goat alone surviving Bloat folks????

On top of that I have no idea what the "medicated" feed will add to the chance of surviving the bloat.

Ducks are piggy too so how much of that medicated feed would they eat? And the Sheep? Turkeys?

But, now that's it's OVER, invite your Relative over. Thank him for thinking so much and so kindly of your animals. Apologize for getting so angry with him and explain why you acted that way. Tell him you know his heart was in the right place and that you LOVE how interested he is in the animals. Let him know what time of day YOU feed the animals and that he's welcome to give you a call and come by to help you feed them one day at that time. (This leaves the ball in his court, that way if this was a one off and he's not really interested you are both spared any further "teaching")

This way he won't feel like he's not welcome back at your farm. There was obviously no malice intended. Just ignorance applied, and we all know how dangerous that is.

Laney

 

[gaited horse]

Quote:

 

[Eggs4Sale]

Copper is toxic to sheep, and our pig feed has copper listed on the label. A lot of other feeds have copper. Most salt blocks contain copper.

I don't know what medicated starter feed has in it....

Everyone is right, especially on the gorging.

He was trying to be nice, but........... he was trying to be nice.

Good thing you didn't have to pay the price.

 

[Royd]

I guess I'm going to have to quit feeding my chickens, dogfood.... I noticed that one of them is starting to chase me, and bite me on the leg.

Really, aren't you being a little overwrought? Why would starter mash kill any fowl...They are all basically the same stuff, with minor differences?

 

[Mahonri]

Chillax... poor guy.

 

[Knight Hawk Ranch]

I have all my feed in metal garbage cans to keep the rats out of it. Since, my horse feed is pelleted and looks similar to layer pellet, I have all the cans marked with a sharpie marker, HORSE, COW, CHICKENS, and DOG.

My DH knows which is which, however, sometimes when I clean out my feed room, I switch the cans to the other side of the room in order to clean under them.

It helps too, when I have to go out early and feed and am not quite conscious.

 

[kuntrygirl]

My feed is in large barrels that is located in my garage that is locked. I live alone, so the feed is not labeled because I knew what's what. I am the only person who feeds my animals on a daily basis. This relative is a brother and he has a key to my house in the event something happens to me, my siblings have access to my house. He used his key to get in to the garage area. When I told him that I was out of town (2 hours away) and that I would not make it in until later that night, he thought that he would help me out by feeding the animals. As much as I appreciated the fact that he wanted to help, I feel that he should have asked me if I needed help feeding. I would have told him no because I was going to be home in time enough to feed all of the animals. Instead, he took it upon himself to feed the animals the first feed that he saw. In his mind, he thought that feed was feed regardless of the type of animals. He thinks that the manufactures make feed to feed any and all animals. He doesn't understand the different medications, minerals, etc. can be toxic to certain animals. He doesn't understand bloating, pigging out on food etc. He is clueless and that is understandable.

As far as the feed possibly doing harm to some of the animals.......well, yes, it is possible. I have read and know that medicated feed can kill ducks. I have read and know that copper can kill sheep. I have read and know that goats can become bloated and die. Well all of the truths were things that could have happened. The starter/grower feed was medicated and did have copper. When I got my first sheep years ago, 2 lambs got into a bag of medicated feed and died within 3 days of eating the medicated feed that contained cooper. I learned my lesson then. It was a hard lesson to learn and ever since then, I have felt guilty and fully responsible for them losing their lives. That is why I am so afraid of anyone feeding ANYTHING to any of my animals.

There are only 2 people that are trained to feed my animals when I am out of town for days at a time. And 1 of those 2 are my 5 year old nephew. My nephew will tell his father (my brother) what animal gets what feed and my brother will follow his instructions and directions. He knows the feed to an exact science (it's scary) but I trained him VERY well.

So this is why I was asking for a Do Not Feed The Animals sign. In addition to placing a sign on the fence, I will also place stickers on the storage containers that hold the feed so that no one else will try to do me a favor and feed the animals.

P.S. I think my brother is afraid to call me. I think he thinks that I'm upset with him. He had my other brother to call to tell me that he fed the animals "chicken feed".

Am I over-reacting?