Have you seen pellet game feed?

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:

LOL @ still no barking.

The only thing that I found at TSC was Sportsman Catfish Pellets. I bought some just to try it out until I can get the Purina Catfish Diet. No barking on this end either. However, I thought that I did hear a meow.

 

[PeepsCA]

LOL... meow

What size is the kibble in the Sportsman's brand?

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
They are about the size of a green pea but a little flatter (if that makes any sense). I will take a pic when I get home and post it.

Here are the ingredients.

Ingredients:

Grain Products, Palnt Protein Products, Processed Grain By-Products, animal Protein Products, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D Supplement, Vitamin E Suupplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Niacin Supplement, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Folic Acid, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Ascorbic Acid, Calcium Carbonate, Salt, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide, Cobalt Sulfate.

Guaranteed Analysis
Nutrient Min. Max.
Crude Protein 32.0% -
Crude Fat 2.5% -
Crude Fiber - 7.5%
Phosphorus 0.8% -
Vitamin D 204 IU/LB -
Vitamin E 30 IU/LB -
Vitamin B6 1.2 MG/LB -
Ascorbic Acid (Vit. C) 20 MG/LB -
Folic Acid 1.0 MG.LB -​

 

[jcatblum]

Instead of searching for hours for pellets or feeding the birds fish feed-- which sounds like a very good choice--- I went to the local farmers co-op mill. I had them mix 2 separate recipes. One at 16.9% protien -- for my chickens & one @24.9% protien for the guineas. They will mix with a min order of 100lbs. Since it is an hour drive for me I ordered 3 months worth of feed. So after all was said I came home with 1945lbs of feed today. They bag the feed for an extra $1 per bag--- which is worth it to me since I don't want to shovel feed out of the back of the truck & don't have enough containers to put almost a ton of feed in. Even with the $45 for bagging the feed total cost came to 20c a lb for 24.9% protien. He protien is actually one of the cheapest ingredients, only 25c a lb for soybean meal. So it wouldn't cost but an extra penny a lb to up the protien. I know ordering feed in bulk isn't for everyone, but it came to being half the price of the feed store.

Keep in mind I am currently using at least 12lbs of feed a day for my guineas & have more in the incubator!!!!

I originally spent a few hours calling all the farmers coops to find one that would mix feed. Then some one else locally got a full list of the available ingredients thy had @ the local mill. Took it to the extension office & the extension office created the recipe. There are lots of recipes online, but the problem was our mill doesn't have all the ingredients of most recipes.

For those that aren't using as much feed as I am it might be worth finding someone to split an order of custom milled feed considering it was half the price. Figure I am saving at least $1000 a yr. Or more.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
I wish that we had a local farmer's co-op mill.

 

[PeepsCA]

I wish I could buy in bulk like that (even buying feed by the pallet would save me a bunch of money), but the problem with buying that much feed at one time for me is keeping it fresh. With the extra moisture and temperature fluctuations here in my area, especially this time of year, most of that would go moldy, attract rodents and/or be infested with insects before I could use it all, even if I kept it in a climate controlled sealed up building!

Where and how are you going to store that much feed jcatblum? Any tips for storing large amounts of feed would be much appreciated!

 

[jcatblum]

We are going to use an old nonworking freezer for a bunch of it. Won't hold it all but will hold over half. The rest I should be able to put in the metal trash cans I normally use. I don't figure I will have too many bags left out of storage. We do have a couple metal storage type lockers I can also put feed in.

I have yet to find any other critters in my feed. Now that the weather is cooling off that could change but between 4 dogs, my 100 or so birds & the hawks, owls & coyotes we don't find many small critters alive. Plus we have 0 moisture this yr so no worries of mold! If we were having a rainy season I would prob only gotten half the amount. It is about a 40 mile drive & @ 11 mpg in the gas guzzling 3/4 ton truck I would prefer to buy 10-12 wks at a time!

 

[melroseladi]

So far my guineas are not impressed with the catfish food and are pretty much snubbing it BUT my peafowl LOVE it so I know it won't go to waste at least.

 

[casuarius]

Quote:
You'll have to force them into it, when they get hungry, they'll eat it. They may go a day without eating it, 2 at the most, but that won't hurt them.

 

[PeepsCA]

My peafowl like it also, and they are housed with a flock of Guineas they grew up with, so I've just been mixing it in gradually... some Guineas like it, some don't

They know what they need, and so it's there if they need it.

One thing I have DEFINITELY noticed is that more protein = more odor, and messier coops... ick! And more freqient cleaning, blah