Feed bill....opinions please ?

[Rozzie]

Quote:
600

That's pretty much my reaction. Must be a team of sled dogs or a bunch of show dogs or something.

I have a BIG dog who eats $40 a bag Science Diet and she still only costs $40-60 a month in feed costs.

 

[CityChicker]

Quote:
I am going start doing that! I have found a mill (actually a farmer that operates a private mill) that can do a mix for us that is very similar to the custom mix we currently do. Doing it myself has just become too hard. This place sells it by the tote I think he said? I guess it holds like 1,000 pounds? Something may have been lost in translation as some of my contact with him came through a third party. Bulk is the way to go though I think. It comes out to like $10 per HUNDRED pounds and includes some stuff like fish meal that I want for our waterfowl.

 

[chickerdoodle]

Our sweet little (OK they aren't little anymore) 5 pullets are pets first so we get the best feed we can--for them AND us! Its locally made, organic, soy and corn free. I don't mind organic corn but its not grown locally and sustainability as well as putting our money into the local economy is important to us. Its human grade so we could make a bowl for ourselves but I have never done that (it has fish meal protein-

yuck). Its a whopping $25 for 50 lbs

but we only need about a bag a month. I know there is other organic feed available but its not soy free and I want to use a different protein as soy is so ubiquitous that I worry about eating too much as it can mimic hormones. Then again I am a kook.

 

[TennesseeTruly]

My hubby figured out last month that between our parrots, chickens, geese, ducks, guineas, dogs, and cats, our feed bill is about $700 a month. The largest cost, I believe is for the parrots @ $250 a month and that's without their fresh fruits and veggies.

Laurie

 

[Rozzie]

Quote:
THUD.

 

[NYREDS]

Mine is too high every week. If I was smart enough to reduce the size of my flock I'm sure the situation would improve.
My wife went with me to get the taxes done for the first time a couple of years ago. When we were doing the farm portion of the return she turned to me & said "you spent how much on chicken feed?".

 

[SunAngel]

Quote:
Omgosh and I am fretting over the $70 a week I spend on chicken food lol

In an month my cats eat maybe 2 bags of food- $20, Dogs eat a bag- $12, some wet food- $20, Bird food-$20, Crickets for Lizard- $15, one bag of food for the Chinchilla- $8...so total approx $375. With wild bird food, treats and cat litter, you can probably round that up to an even $450 a month. Yikes! I honestly had no idea! I could really do a lot with an extra $450 a month...now I am bummed!

These chickens better make me some money in egg sales in the Spring! Cause the $40 or so I make at the auction twice a month is not cutting it!

 

[Beekissed]

I have 30 free range chickens and I go through about $22 of feed every 50 days or so when its winter time, much less in the warmer months. Right now they are eating next to nothing. If I had to average my monthly feed bill for the whole year it would be around $10 a month or less. Sheep? $10 per month for the year.

Dogs get $18 dollars of feed every 30-40 days and the cats go through about $5 a month, if that.

If I were broke all the time, I would definitely be getting rid of something! Its really not worth it to be strapped over animals....they then become more of a burden or stressor than something to enjoy.

Total approx. monthly feed bill for 30 chickens, 3 sheep, 2 cats, 2 dogs and one puppy: $43

 

[Chickenaddict]

Mines up there for us anyway... over winter it is all out of pocket but in the spring and summer with selling chicks and eggs they pay for themselves and free range cutting the feed bill wayyy down. Layer crumbles here are $12 a bag. I get 2 bags of layer and a bag of gamebird @ $13 a bag and a bag of scratch at $13 as well plus 6 bags of pine shavings at $5.99 each (really picky about a clean coop)

total for 2-3 weeks is about $86.00

Cat food is about $24 a month plus the cost if their litter added in is about $48 a month

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

Feed Bill: $40.00 a month
Scratch Grain: $20.00 a month
Treats: $15.00 a month
Egg sales: $30.00 amonth

Enjoyment I get in return Priceless
So it depends on what your "to high" level is, ine is when I reach 200 bucks a month then it will be time to rehome some of the flock.