UltraKibble

[bdfive]

Hello Featherhead, I have some Mazuri but have read the soy isn't good to give the peafowl. I've only been able to get the 28% here where we are. Is it bad to feed that much protein? Zazouse, you're right. The Ultrakibble is a suppliment to be added to daily feed rations. The fact it has very good ingredients listed I intend to continue feeding them some. I also picked up some 4Health cat food at Tractor Supply. I swear, I think my dogs and birds eat better then my husband and myself, haha!! Thanks everyone for your input. I appreciate the good and the bad. I still believe from everything I've read that UltraKibble is beneficial to poultry/fowl diets.

 

[featherhead]

To my knowledge, the only clinical feed trials conducted on peafowl have been by Ranchway Feeds in Denver. I'll have to go thru my files to see what their feed ingredients are. The way I see it, it's easy to "over-think" the feed issue. We often compromise to supplement our birds' diets. I mean, really, who would consider cat chow an appropriate peafowl diet additive? But it works for a lot of people. I don't think there's any one magic bullet feed that covers all the bases.

Personally, I believe that nutritional requirements can vary depending on environment and season, sometimes even heredity. It makes sense to me because what wild peafowl eat will vary according to their environment and seasonal availability. I see this with my own birds. Do you? So I really don't stress a lot about their feed. I shoot for about 18%-20% protein, a little higher during the winter because those proteins often come packaged with fats. My birds get greens every day, even when the temps are in single digits.This is based on the region where I live, the climate here, and the type of birds I have. Their instincts seem to tell them what to eat, and how much. It's kind of like the resident deer that we feed. Suddenly they will stop eating corn and focus solely on the acorns for about 2 weeks. They only go after certain varieties of my tomatoes. And although deer aren't peafowl, it's the same concept. Sorry to be so long-winded and vague, but this is pretty much how I see it. And just like you, peafowl STILL take my breath away after all these years.

 

[deerman]

To my knowledge, the only clinical feed trials conducted on peafowl have been by Ranchway Feeds in Denver. I'll have to go thru my files to see what their feed ingredients are. The way I see it, it's easy to "over-think" the feed issue. We often compromise to supplement our birds' diets. I mean, really, who would consider cat chow an appropriate peafowl diet additive? But it works for a lot of people. I don't think there's any one magic bullet feed that covers all the bases.

Personally, I believe that nutritional requirements can vary depending on environment and season, sometimes even heredity. It makes sense to me because what wild peafowl eat will vary according to their environment and seasonal availability. I see this with my own birds. Do you? So I really don't stress a lot about their feed. I shoot for about 18%-20% protein, a little higher during the winter because those proteins often come packaged with fats. My birds get greens every day, even when the temps are in single digits.This is based on the region where I live, the climate here, and the type of birds I have. Their instincts seem to tell them what to eat, and how much. It's kind of like the resident deer that we feed. Suddenly they will stop eating corn and focus solely on the acorns for about 2 weeks. They only go after certain varieties of my tomatoes. And although deer aren't peafowl, it's the same concept. Sorry to be so long-winded and vague, but this is pretty much how I see it. And just like you, peafowl STILL take my breath away after all these years.

lot of good point, myself where i'm at just a good feed mix worked thru breeding season , before and after is when they got their treats. i let the big feed company do the adding supplements , i have found with starter and grower feed turkey feed works great.
Sherri you are right way to much thinking about their feed

think northern birds need more corn in the winter for fat.

i did find it odd that unltrakibble main ingredient was corn base...when thats what most feed have in it..why add more as a supplement

ZAZ i think you meal worms would be nice treat for them

 

[featherhead]

Re whole corn: I've been told by an avian nutritionist that poultry burn all the energy provided in whole corn just to digest it. It takes as much work to digest it as the energy/carbs it provides. Don't know if it's true, but she knows a helluva lot more than I do so I'm taking her word for it. And if they like it and it keeps their crops full, there's probably no harm done. Yes, I give my birds some whole corn when it gets really cold because that's the only time they will eat it. Go figure!

 

[Bigcreekpeafowl]

Have heard a lot of opinions regarding feeding whole corn to peafowl.
Our birds won't touch it in the warmer months but will eat it in the cold.

Why? I think it is for fuel and it keeps them warmer. Corn being a natural source of fuel (consider ethanol, alcohol, etc.) it digests or burns hot and keeps them warmer. The more intense energy it takes to digest the whole corn is the value of that process in heating.
As we know humans don't digest corn very well either...you know what I'm saying here.

I do see that the corn helps them hold their weight at a even level too which is all good when it is cold.
Some of our birds gain weight even in the coldest parts of the year which I am all for that.
They need it.
Unfortunately feeds, medications, wormers have not been made or indicated "For peafowl".
So owners have to go by what others in the past have been doing. Read what few articles they find.
The internet is huge in it's ability to get information on just about anything.

 

[Resolution]

Now that we've destroyed the notion of this being a decent feed for our poultry/fowl can you post what is a good feed with content analysis? Are there any available with animal protein? What do you feed your birds? Thanks as always.

My sentiments exactly. There isn't a better product on the market than UltraKibble and no nationally distributed feed has ever been trialed specifically with peafowl but UltraKibble.

It's the preferred supplement of most zoos with large avian collections and also used by conservation groups working with endangered species including cranes and prairie chickens, even birds of prey.

I have to admit it's a bit galling this misinformed notion that a person that went to the considerable trouble to actually create a feed line -would be do so for any other reason than to improve the health of our collective flock.

It's fairly simple really. I love peafowl and have kept peafowl my entire life. (The flock of peacocks on the ranch I grew up on have been there since the 30's so I can't take any credit in keeping them healthy!) I became an aviculturist with my own flocks by age 13. Regardless, there was no feed specifically formulated for peafowl on the market. I mixed and matched my own for decades and eventually invested in an education that helped objectively inform me about the topic at hand. The rest is history.

All bird feeds, even those for parrots, ducks and ostriches are based on data derived from poultry science. The fact that chickens and turkeys have such a disparity between them nutritionally is of interest- and it fueled the development of feeds formulated for each respective species. Production requirements of major companies and farms alike were added to the equation. Profit margins and marketing were the guiding hand. New families of feeds were created that further divided rations for greater growth and yield. This is how poultry and gamebird feeds were created. And they are awesome!
Look how many billions of people in the world have eggs and poultry in their diets. And then there's immunology and collagen and all the other uses of poultry byproducts we use and never think about.

Once upon a time, during the Great Depression for example, and in developing nations around the world, no such discrepancy is/was recognized. Turkeys and chickens are fed the same course grain and it obviously keeps them alive. These are very hardy species with a long history of domestication. They are also derived of wild species that subsist on fedstuffs of low nutritional value like seeds and shoots for the greater portion of their year, every year. The turkey and chicken are also fast maturing species with high reproductivity rates, that is, they lay a large clutch and hatch lots of chicks, which mature rapidly. The survivability of the chicks is low. Domestication exploits the high reproductivity rates and removes the attrition that predators normally generate- and so individuals that would never survive in the wild are nurtured in captivity where they reproduce and so on.

Obviously a parrot or an ostrich, a swan, have different requirements than a chicken or a turkey. Data is gleaned from what wild birds consume. Amino acid ratios are collected from both wild and domestic birds (over the course of their lives) and their captive rations are tweaked until some semblance of "normal" is achieved. Nothing of the sort had been done with peafowl. Peafowl have low reproductive rates (in nature). They mature slowly. Parents and older siblings invest in juvenile offspring for extended periods. They are opportunistic predators and are at least seasonally highly insectivorous.

In captivity, the husbandry of peafowl has tended to mirror that of turkeys. Can they subsist on turkey feed? Yes. Is it bad for them? Not really. Is it ideal? No. Turkey and gamebird rations are certainly not ideal for peafowl (or any species that you intend to breed from), especially in the long term.


People want brighter colours, richer and more enduring pigments, longer reproductive seasons and healthier, longer living birds. This is what this product does. Better food= better birds and that fact is threatening to some people.


edited by staff

 

[featherhead]

Ranchway Feeds did not trial Ultrakibble. They trialed their own formula, which is currently available.

 

[AugeredIn]

...And apropos of nothing, certainly not the ultrakibble discussion, and not intended to be part of any argument, here is the label from the 4health cat food that someone asked for.

Chicken, chicken meal, cracked pearled barley, egg product, ground rice, powdered cellulose, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), salmon, potatoes, millet, natural chicken flavor, flaxseed, ocean fish meal, sodium bisulfate, potassium chloride, methionine, choline chloride, dried chicory root, taurine, kelp, carrots, peas, apples, tomatoes, blueberries, spinach, dried skim milk, cranberry powder, rosemary extract, parsley flake, yucca schidigera extract, L-Carnitine, dried fermentation products of Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum, dried Trichoderma longibrachiatum fermentation extract, zinc proteinate, vitamin E supplement, niacin, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, zinc sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin A supplement, biotin, potassium iodide, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, manganous oxide, sodium selenite, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.
Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein 32% (min.), Crude Fat 14% (min.), Crude Fiber 8% (max.), Moisture 10% (max.), Magnesium 0.1% (max.), Zinc 120 mg/kg (min.), Selenium 0.4 mg/kg (min.), Vitamin E 150 IU/kg (min.), Taurine 0.1% (min.), Omega-6 Fatty Acids 2.2% (min.), Omega-3 Fatty Acids 0.4% (min.)
Caloric Content:
3,450 kcal/kg (323 kcal/cup) Calculated Metabolizable Energy.

 

[deerman]

did find it odd Ultrakibble first ingredient was corn base, then use that to add to a feed with a corn base.

You also stated how so many zoo use it for their birds. Then in another post that the avg. life of peafowl in zoo was 5 yrs and 8 yrs. when most breeders feeding premix feed like myself have birds living and breeding into their 20 s.

must be something about this ultrakibble....i don't know and really don't care. but most of the big time breeders and member of the UPA DISLIKE IT.

myself i just don't think my birds ever need fed Ultrakibble.


edited by staff


edited to say ...guess i should have said....like me ...choose not to feed it.

 

[AugeredIn]

I would probably try ultrakibble if it were readily available at TSC but it is not yet.

I would humbly submit that I can tell a difference when using the 4health brand over generic cat/dog food as the supplement.

I do supplement with corn during the winter. Winter is the only time my peafowl will readily take corn.