Sodium Bentonite Clay in homemade chicken feed

[countrygoddess]

Bentonite when included in large amounts like 50% of diet makes for something that looks and feels like play doe while lower levels it can help the fines (finer particles which can include vitamins and minerals) stick to bigger parts. At lower levels in diet the bentonite can still make for a turd that does not fall apart as easy. Carboxy-methyl cellulose also can make for a better turd but it is expensive relative to the clay.

I'm very interested in this centrarchid. Can you expound? How exactly is this put into practice? To clarify, I am NOT seeking to make pellets. I am simply wanting the fines to be so stuck to the grains/seeds that the birds are forced to eat everything. Like granola cereal. =)

 

[centrarchid]

The bentonite can be mixed with the vitamin and mineral premixes and then mixed with coarser ingredients. The bentonite then behaves like a dispersant as well making so the premixes do not clump so much to selves as to coarser ingredients. Very little moisture is required for bentonite to become sticky which helps. It operates with respect to my interest as a surfactant.

Actual inclusion rate you will need to determine by trial and error if no similar formulation can be identified as example.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Have you tried using vegetable oil? Premix manufactures use vegetable or mineral oil to help bind vitamins to the rice hull carriers with a low rate or about 1% of the mixture. You can accomplish the same in your mix with a small amount of vegetable oil.

 

[centrarchid]

I have a hard time getting the oils to distribute uniformly by hand mixing.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

I'd rather attempt to get the feed to "stick" together with oil than the amount of a non-nutritive product like bentonite that would work.

In the pelleted feeds I design I do not use a pellet binder unless necessary. When I do use a binder I typically use a lignosulfate. In my almost two decades in the feed industry I have never used bentonite as a pellet binder. I have used bentonite in an attempt to bind aflatoxin that might be present.

Jim

 

[centrarchid]

I'd rather attempt to get the feed to "stick" together with oil than the amount of a non-nutritive product like bentonite that would work.

In the pelleted feeds I design I do not use a pellet binder unless necessary. When I do use a binder I typically use a lignosulfate. In my almost two decades in the feed industry I have never used bentonite as a pellet binder. I have used bentonite in an attempt to bind aflatoxin that might be present.

Jim

I don't think the OP's intent is to use the bentonite as a binder to create pellets. If correct then amount involved would be much less and serve a similar purpose as something like wheat mids, fishmeal or calcium carbonate with respect to simply helping with getting vitamins and minerals more uniformly dispersed through feed.


I have played around with larger amounts of clay in feeds and monitored feed intake. Within limits the animals will simply ingest more feed as the proportion of clay increases to conserve the amount of nutrients ingested. For folks doing the back yard / small scale thing feed conversion may not be as critical as with more intensive operations, especially if forages are available as supplement.

 

[centrarchid]

I'm wondering if anyone has any knowledge of how Sodium Bentonite clay works best when used as a binder. I know it is used to bind pellets, but what if it is put in homemade chicken feed? Will it help bind the premix and grains/seeds together so the chickens will eat the premix? I suppose some amount of moisture would have to be added.

Premix being left behind has been the bane of my existence. Yes, I have soaked my feed. Yes, I have ground it all in a food processor after it has all been soaked overnight. Yes, I have tried adding lard. All that wasn't too difficult when I had 12 chickens. I now have 55 and soaking buckets now cover my kitchen counters. My wonderful 2 year old KitchenAid food processor is being aged before its time and I already have to buy it a new blade. When I can afford it, I want to order a feed grinder from Premier One Supplies, but I have a feeling that won't completely take care of premix being left uneaten. If anyone has any experience with this and can tell me what cured this problem for them, I'd love to hear from you!!!

Could you go at this from a different route? Consider giving the birds two formulations, one that is course bulk feed ingredients (intact seeds where practical) assumed to be deficient in vitamins and minerals at least, and another containing the premixes possibly with elevated protein / lipid fractions that is applied as a wetted / moist mash. The former would store well long-term and be suitable for free-choice application while the latter would be assumed to have a much shorter shelf-life and be applied as a daily ration. I already do similar to compensate for seasonal variation in energy needs. My adult birds get a consistent complete formulation year round with respect to amount per unit weight of bird but I adjust the amount of energy sources such as corn, oats and BOSS where energy sources are increased as cold stress increases. My birds operate under much more variable environmental conditions that production birds in thermally controlled buildings so had to ignore research findings when they do not apply to my flock during winter. I had to work out variations in the energy sources by trial and error.


Your explorations would have to be with respect to the wetted / moist mash. They should have little trouble cleaning all of that up especially if a highly palatable feedstuff makes up a significant proportion of the formulation.

 

[countrygoddess]

Could you go at this from a different route? Consider giving the birds two formulations, one that is course bulk feed ingredients (intact seeds where practical) assumed to be deficient in vitamins and minerals at least, and another containing the premixes possibly with elevated protein / lipid fractions that is applied as a wetted / moist mash. The former would store well long-term and be suitable for free-choice application while the latter would be assumed to have a much shorter shelf-life and be applied as a daily ration. I already do similar to compensate for seasonal variation in energy needs. My adult birds get a consistent complete formulation year round with respect to amount per unit weight of bird but I adjust the amount of energy sources such as corn, oats and BOSS where energy sources are increased as cold stress increases. My birds operate under much more variable environmental conditions that production birds in thermally controlled buildings so had to ignore research findings when they do not apply to my flock during winter. I had to work out variations in the energy sources by trial and error.


Your explorations would have to be with respect to the wetted / moist mash. They should have little trouble cleaning all of that up especially if a highly palatable feedstuff makes up a significant proportion of the formulation.

Hmmm... I think I understand. Let me make sure, though. You're saying that I might think about putting out their whole grains/seeds as free choice and then on a daily basis I would bring out a wet mash (wetted with cultured milk, perhaps?) of their premix. My premix is Fertrell Nutribalancer, limestone, fish meal, sesame seeds, kelp, Diamond V yeast, and Redmond salt. In the winter I add alfalfa meal. Might they not simply fill up on the grains/seeds and ignore the premix mash? They really love their whole grains and corn. The peas they tend to leave behind, only eating them when they're desperate because I refuse to feed them again till they've finished them. We also have a maggot bucket in their yard (which my husband just refilled yesterday) and they go for that like it's crack!

 

[countrygoddess]

The bentonite can be mixed with the vitamin and mineral premixes and then mixed with coarser ingredients. The bentonite then behaves like a dispersant as well making so the premixes do not clump so much to selves as to coarser ingredients. Very little moisture is required for bentonite to become sticky which helps. It operates with respect to my interest as a surfactant.

Actual inclusion rate you will need to determine by trial and error if no similar formulation can be identified as example.

Yes, I am going to experiment with this.

 

[countrygoddess]

Have you tried using vegetable oil? Premix manufactures use vegetable or mineral oil to help bind vitamins to the rice hull carriers with a low rate or about 1% of the mixture. You can accomplish the same in your mix with a small amount of vegetable oil.

I've used organic rendered pork leaf lard. I melt it then pour it over the feed and stir. The premix appeared to stick nicely to the larger bits, but when I looked in the dish later on, there was still loads of premix left that they weren't eating.