Dried cat food

Drew Smith · **Posted:** Wed Aug 20, 2008 11:54 am

yep feed them dry they love the stuff
Cheers Drew

rusticular · **Posted:** Wed Aug 20, 2008 5:28 pm

Hi folks,
thanks, everyone, for your input.
I've tried feeding cat food wet, and dry.
Mine don't exactly go for it. Could it be because it's beef and chicken with vegetable flavour? Should it be fish?

They won't take dried cat food from me, and only seem to eat it if there is no wheat (of which the young drake will hoover up nearly 3/4 of a cup by himself) or layer mix left. If I throw it to them they treat it with disdain (do muscovy ducks disdain?javascript:emoticon(':-?')).

They also won't eat stale bread.

They love chickweed, duckweed, (anything I bring them from the fishpond, which they don't have access to) thistles, fenugreek, borage, dandelions, flatweeds. I have them penned and want them to breed. They only get what I feed them, so I am keen to get them eating the dried cat food to balance their diet, and the drake is already treading the ducks.

Bourke · **Posted:** Sun Aug 24, 2008 8:50 am

Fussy ducks :-D

just keep feeding it to them they will eat it sooner or later.

Bourke

duckie · **Posted:** Sun Aug 24, 2008 1:33 pm

All my geese, ducks and chooks love cat and dog food. The rooster and his favourite girls raid the dog bowl every chance they get. I got a 20kg bag of cat food from the produce store and fed it to my birds no worries. Just sneak it in with their grain and they will eventually eat it. Its good for them.

greenaus · **Posted:** Sun Aug 24, 2008 5:07 pm

This thread is about waterfowl, so I will keep it brief.

I mashed up the egg shells from this afternoon's quiches, poured in a heap of dried dog food, added some hot water, stirred it every few minutes, diced up the bacon fat from making the quiches, added the bacon fat, stirred and shared that amongst the pens.

My chooks ate it all...I hope they liked it.

The dog food is the You'll Love Coles Adult Beef and Rice and minimum crude protein is supposed to be 22%. The pieces are round, about 7mm. The 3kg bags were being cleared out a few weeks ago for $3.99. They soften quickly in warm/hot water.

By comparison, the 1kg Home Brand dried cat food lists minimum crude protein as 26% and costs about $3.00.

rusticular · **Posted:** Sun Aug 24, 2008 6:52 pm

Hi Greenaus,
I worried about the salt content in bacon fat, so I had a look at the typical analysis of the cat food I'm feeding:
26% protein, 1.5 % salt!! But wait, there's more, Potassium chloride, Choline chloride (an organic compound), Taurine (essential for the health of cats, they cannot synthesize it), colour and antioxidant. My chooks don't like it either. I've sneaked it in with the duck's grain.mmm I'm sure that as they will eat styrofoam and cellophane, they will come to like cat food.
thanks for your input
Rusticular

fuzzfly · **Joined:** Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:42 pm **Posts:** 253

Kitten food is generally better quality food. You could try dry ferret food, ferrets need a good quality food high in protien.
My chooks and ducks will eat anything that fits in their mouth more or less :roll:

. I quite often catch my poultry chasing the cats away and eating their food!

Bourke · **Posted:** Sat Aug 30, 2008 8:12 pm

Good points fuzzy, kitten tucker is higher in protien and minerals so would be better for young ones.

Bourke

Drew Smith · **Posted:** Mon Sep 01, 2008 10:51 am

Its also a little smaller so they seem to take to it quicker.
Cheers Drew Smith

rusticular · **Posted:** Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:21 am

I just borrowed "For the love of ducks" (Nyiri Murtagh, Bolwarra Press, 2000, ISBN 0958559031) from the local library, and he says "I feed pig finisher to my ducks" p.87, and "Pig pellets are one of the few feeds that contain fishmeal and bloodmeal. I guess the proof is in the pudding". p.88. I reckon I might give that a go.

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