The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

I stole this from the Michigan thread.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Come On Spring!

 

[ki4got]

I've been noticing lately that many processed food items have propylene glycol in them. This includes human and animal food items, vitamins (including vitamin drops/drenches routinely used for poultry and sold on farm store shelves), etc.

This is somewhat disturbing to me as I work in an industry that uses these chemicals and they are definitely not something that you would want to ingest. In fact, propylene glycol is one of the glycol products that is used in anti-freeze (along with ethylene glycol which is very toxic), paints and other chemical products.

So...I did a little looking around and decided to post a few quotes on propylene glycol just to raise awareness on the NATURAL Chicken Keeping Thread about this item.

I encourage you to read the labels - especially on vitamin preparations, food/feed bags and other items that you may be either feeding or using around your chickens. It is one of those things that I think we should all think long and hard about before giving these items to our animals - or ourselves.



On to the quotes:

​

Quote: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/09/19/recalled-cat-treats.aspx

As I noted in my July 27 update on the FDA's investigation into contaminants in chicken jerky dog treats from China, one of the findings was the presence of undeclared propylene glycol in a dozen tested samples.

The recalled VitaKitty treats were suspicious for the presence of high amounts of propylene glycol, an additive that keeps food soft and chewy. This compound is actually antifreeze. Propylene glycol is considered less toxic than ethylene glycol and is used in newer automotive antifreezes. The FDA has approved it for use in dog food, but I do not recommend feeding food containing propylene glycol to any animal.

The FDA has banned propylene glycol in or on cat food because it can cause a serious blood disease in kitties known as Heinz body anemia. This disease causes the destruction of red blood cells. Symptoms include fever, sudden weakness, loss of appetite, dark colored urine, pale mucus membranes in the mouth, and skin discoloration.

From the MSDS

It is also interesting to note that the FDA considers propylene glycol "GRAS" (Generally Regarded as Safe") to be used in food and cosmetic products. However, there is plenty of evidence that adding this chemical to your food source would not be a wise thing to do.

This is one of those things that I choose to avoid for myself and my animals.

one thing to consider tho... look at the dosages for it to be considered unsafe for animals... most things have very small amounts of it, when it's present. to put that into perspective, you'd probably have to drink a gallon of the stuff (antifreeze mix) , to reach toxic levels (in people...) it's a common carrier for a lot of medications that are not water soluble but are sugar soluble... (ivermectin is one of them).

cats are especially susceptible to a lot of things that work just fine for other animals and people...

not arguing, just pointing out the other side of things...

most liquid vitamin mixes have it, because while many vitamins are water soluble, some are only fat or sugar soluble... propylene glycol is one of those carriers that mix a variety of things together into one suspension... so if you add 2-3 drops of a vitamin liquid, that's maybe 10 mg of a substance that requires 1800 times that dosage to become toxic... for the vitamin mix, you'd have to feed one animal the entire bottle to get that toxic dosage, and then it's more likely going to be a vitamin overdose that causes damage first.

 

[RedRidge]

Some of you may already be aware, but I'm working on a Rhodebar breed improvement project. The Rhodebar here in the US are awful in type and color. They "should" basically be a HRIR that is autosexed and barred. In using my HRIR genetics to improve them. So my first generations are on the ground. These are not pure Rhodebars but just the F1 step toward improved genetics.
They are cute as buttons so I wanted to share...

 

[Alibabe]

Some of you may already be aware, but I'm working on a Rhodebar breed improvement project. The Rhodebar here in the US are awful in type and color. They "should" basically be a HRIR that is autosexed and barred. In using my HRIR genetics to improve them. So my first generations are on the ground. These are not pure Rhodebars but just the F1 step toward improved genetics.
They are cute as buttons so I wanted to share...

They are too cute.

Can you tell the girls from the boys like you would from Legbars; girls have chipmunk stripes and boys don't?

 

[Leahs Mom]

one thing to consider tho... look at the dosages for it to be considered unsafe for animals... most things have very small amounts of it, when it's present. to put that into perspective, you'd probably have to drink a gallon of the stuff (antifreeze mix) , to reach toxic levels (in people...) it's a common carrier for a lot of medications that are not water soluble but are sugar soluble... (ivermectin is one of them).

cats are especially susceptible to a lot of things that work just fine for other animals and people...

not arguing, just pointing out the other side of things...

most liquid vitamin mixes have it, because while many vitamins are water soluble, some are only fat or sugar soluble... propylene glycol is one of those carriers that mix a variety of things together into one suspension... so if you add 2-3 drops of a vitamin liquid, that's maybe 10 mg of a substance that requires 1800 times that dosage to become toxic... for the vitamin mix, you'd have to feed one animal the entire bottle to get that toxic dosage, and then it's more likely going to be a vitamin overdose that causes damage first.

I don't have any problem with folks posting "the other side of things". That's what good discussion is about! So keep the discussion going


This is a good point when talking about single dosages. But there is also some evidence that it can accumulate over time, slowly building to a toxic accumulation level with repeated exposure. "accumulates in the heart, liver and kidneys causing abnormalities and damage." (From quote above.)

There are many items that can become toxic to us over time through an accumulation (some of the heavy metals are good examples). A single, low-level exposure may not seem like a big deal. It is the repeated, low-level exposure that may begin to take a toll.

So....I prefer to err on the side of caution.

 

[RedRidge]

Some of you may already be aware, but I'm working on a Rhodebar breed improvement project. The Rhodebar here in the US are awful in type and color. They "should" basically be a HRIR that is autosexed and barred. In using my HRIR genetics to improve them. So my first generations are on the ground. These are not pure Rhodebars but just the F1 step toward improved genetics. They are cute as buttons so I wanted to share...

They are too cute. Can you tell the girls from the boys like you would from Legbars; girls have chipmunk stripes and boys don't?

Yes and no... I have suspicions about the F1 generation so they have been marked and categorized into groups. I suspect the group above are all pullets. True Rhodebar males will have a head spot. Because these chicks in the F1 generation carry one wheaten gene and one wildtype (e+eWh), they are not accurately marked as they would be for guaranteed autosexing. (Not to mention barring genes required, etc - But I won't go into that). But ultimately they will be autosexed. I have six groups I have divided them into based on down color and markings. Here is another group. .. I suspect this group is male.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Come On Spring!

What area of MI are you? I'm guessing your weather is much like mine.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@RedRidge

Beautiful babies. I hope you keep posting updates on your project here!

 

[armorfirelady]

@RedRidge


Beautiful babies.  I hope you keep posting updates on your project here! 

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