Re: [AlpacaTalk] alpaca feed
Wheat Midds:
http://beef.
I see no value in using this by-product in alpaca feed over a forage
base such as alfalfa or hay.
DDGS (Distillers Dried Grain Solids):
This feed product is primarily for finishing meat animals. That means
fattening them up for slaughter. I won't use this as a feed product
since I have no intention of slaughtering my alpacas, and some of them
ten toward the chubby side already.
Again, please read the excellent article a tthe Alpaca
ResearchFoundation website regarding alpaca nutrition, and do pay close
attention to the section on grains.
http://www.alpacare
Basics%20of%
"The problem with overfeeding grain to alpaca primarily deals with the
microbe population. Remember that the microbes in Compartment I
digest/ferment the cellulose from forages. They also ferment the starch
in grains. Starch is much easier to ferment than cellulose, and if too
much grain is fed, then the microbes ferment it very fast producing
large proportion of lactic acid rather than the traditional fatty acids
we talked about earlier. The pH of lactic acid is very low and can
actually burn the inside of Compartment I. In ruminants this is called
acidosis, in camelids it is called "grain-overload.
grain overload in the camelids is that by the time you see any
symptoms, it is probably too late to save the animal even with drastic
surgical measures. "
We put nothing on our pellet that the alpacas don't like. Therefore.,
we don't have to add molasses to trick them into eating something which
they otherwise would not. Our feed has a much simpler ingredient list
than the label I currently have posted. It now contains only sun cured
alfalfa, flax seed (not meal), organic wheat, oats, or barley mill end
run from Grain Miller's in Eugene, Oregon solely for binding into
pellet form, and the vitamin mineral mix. Our pellet is produced about
once every two weeks. Fresh run, every two weeks. The run date is
printed on the label. While I mentioned that our first run did last us
3 months, as we were the only farm using them at that time, today we
have a fresh batch every two weeks. How many can say that for certain
about their alpaca feed?
Heather
Heather Zeleny
White Lotus Alpacas
Creswell, OR
541.895.0964
Holistic Farm and Elite Fleece
http://www.whitelot
http://tech.
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posted by Chaddo at 6:00 PM
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