how to make fish meal?

[nurturingnaturally]

thanks sydney!

 

[mark1guy]

I usually just fry up 15 capelin whole, mush the fish and give to 13 birds twice a month. The capelin spawn on the beaches every summer by the thousands.

 

[sydney13]

does anyone know how to make blood meal?

 

[Gypsi]

having lost small tilapia again, after dumping pounds of them in the compost over the last month, I gutted some and put them on to boil this evening. Hoping to salvage enough meat to make it worth the trouble, feed it to chickens or even to fish

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Before it silted in I had a small pond that I raised shiner minnows in for fish bait. In the late Spring and early Summer I could catch shiners in minnow traps faster than I could empty the traps. I never worrying about making fish meal, I fed my chickens whole fresh minnows.

The smaller ones that could go down whole I fed to birds in pens. The minnows to big to swallow whole went to the hens on the yard were I was sure they would get pecked, tenderized, and broken up before they were eaten. In over 10 years I never had a problem feeding live minnows.

I doubt shrimp or crawdads are any different.

 

[jasongm]

Hi,
I would think you would have to eat a lot of fish to accumulate enough fish bones to make the process worthwhile.
Recently I read a post describing feeding cat food to chickens. I don't have a cat but I would think cat food per pound is a lot more expensive than a high protein chicken crumble such as the type fed to Cornish-Rock crosses.
Is any one feeding cat food? If so what are you using and is it cost effective?

Joe

a person could easily have enough fish material if they raised fish in an aquaponics system or some such setup. I'm curious about how a person would do this on a homescale as well. eHow had a tutorial, but it mentioned parts (perforated tubes to squeeze moisture out, etc) that a homeowner probably won't have and won't have made. I wonder if you could grind it, press it into jerkey like forms, dry it out and regrind it and than feed that to your animals. Regarding the cat food, it works, but it's usually more expensive (a year or so ago, anyway) and eggs will taste like cat food to some extent. not sure if the meat would be flavored. That probably wouldn't be so good.

 

[jasongm]

Before it silted in I had a small pond that I raised shiner minnows in for fish bait. In the late Spring and early Summer I could catch shiners in minnow traps faster than I could empty the traps. I never worrying about making fish meal, I fed my chickens whole fresh minnows.

The smaller ones that could go down whole I fed to birds in pens. The minnows to big to swallow whole went to the hens on the yard were I was sure they would get pecked, tenderized, and broken up before they were eaten. In over 10 years I never had a problem feeding live minnows.

I doubt shrimp or crawdads are any different.

are there special instructions to be aware of regarding raising minnows? or do you just put some in a pond and let them at it?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

are there special instructions to be aware of regarding raising minnows? or do you just put some in a pond and let them at it?

It's best to have a variety of micro environments in the pond. Like a sandy/gravelly area and areas with plants to support more varied aquatic life.

If you have larger fish in there already, they'll need lots of cover till they can start reproducing.
One option is to put down stakes in a circle in a shallow area, wrap it with twine and drape straw or hay over it. That will give them protection and encourage the growth of insects and other fauna for the minnows to feed on.

 

[Gypsi]

I lost a bunch of tilapia when my tank in the greenhouse got too cold and I made dog/chicken treats with them. I used fish, eggs, wholewheat flour and something else, I think oatmeal. Couldn't get them to harden off, but the flour and eggs thickened so it was like a custard. The critters loved it. I did cook the tilapia, dumped them in a pot of boiling water and cooked a couple of minutes. I did not use the inner organs, just the muscle meat outside the skeleton.

I just got done letting my 8 largest tilapia go to waste after they died when the last freeze hit, despite my best efforts to heat their tank. They went one or 2 fish at a time over a few days and I refrigerated but they did not smell safe to cook so I tossed in trash yesterday. I have a couple of channel cats in another one of my smallish ponds that I will be using for aquaponics this year

 

[chickengeorgeto]

are there special instructions to be aware of regarding raising minnows? or do you just put some in a pond and let them at it?

I don't really know the husbandry behind it. I had the ponds leftover from iron ore mining days and I dumped my leftover shiner minnows in one pond and my leftover chub minnows in a different pond. I guess that they then did what comes "Natural" to minnows. Each pool was from 1/8 to 1/4 acre and up to 4 feet deep. Sometimes in the late fall and summer I did toss in a slice or two of loaf bread supposedly to increase the carrying capacity but mostly just to amuse myself and to see how the minnows were fairing.