Comments on: The sweet taste of chicken feed

By: Moon Over Martinborough

Moon Over Martinborough — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:50:14 +0000

Thanks for the explanations, Jim and Neko. I never truly understood the reason.

By: Neko

Neko — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:02:50 +0000

Some kind of feeds whit low content in fiber can low the pH in rumen. That can kill the microbes in rumen and the animal may die.

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:53:24 +0000

Thanks, Jim, for the explanation. I see that the sheep industry has experimented widely with using methionine supplements to enhance the quality and quantity of wool production, but they must have been using lower levels of the amino acid as an additive. Rumen microbes rapidly degrade amino acids so rumen-protected methionine has been used. Anyway, it is interesting how different feeds are used in the animal industry.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:27:22 +0000

@Peter: The problem with poultry feeds is that they have a amino acidin them, called Methionine. Methionine makes the birds healthier, but is poisonous to mammals in the concentration that the feeds contain. The problem could be worse for ruminants, like Sweetie, since the additive stays longer in the system.

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:31:00 +0000

I’ve been scratching my brain wondering how chicken feed can kill sheep and why there would be a warning on the chicken feed bag saying “NOTICE: Not to be fed to Sheep, Cattle, Deer, Alpacas, Goats, or other ruminant Animals”. One possibility, although still not sure, is the Ruminant Feed Ban, http://bit.ly/dksH08, because of Mad Cow Disease. If the chicken feed contains animal meal, then perhaps the spread of Mad Cow Disease to sheep is a major consideration???

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:43:04 +0000

Well, the goats here refer to the soaked beet pulp–intended for the horses–as “bleat pulp”, while their own sweet feed is “goat meal”. Bleat pulp wins over goat meal every time. You might offer some to Sweetie, if they carry it at your feed store–or perhaps a Hershey bar.

By: melissa

melissa — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:24:09 +0000

Hilarious. I love sheep. The best part was when you were both going for the chicken run door – I saw you in slow-motion with “Chariots of Fire” music …

By: AareneX

AareneX — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:04:45 +0000

Baaaaa–hahahaha! Great story!

Yes, chicken feed is pretty much poison for everything except chickens…and my dogs, goats and horses are crazy for the stuff. It’s nice to hear that the addiction isn’t limited to my little postage-stamp of a farm.

Thanks for the laugh!

p.s. my goats are also crazy for horse food, which is perfectly fine to feed them–maybe you could offer that to Sweetie as an alternate drug-of-choice?

By: Oswald Bastable

Oswald Bastable — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:40:22 +0000

We kept one at Trentham Camp that used to eat chocolate bars and meat pies!

It was SUPPOSED to be getting fattened for the end of year barbecue, but the bloody softies who organized it couldn’t do the business!

By: Oswald Bastable

Oswald Bastable — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:37:30 +0000

Pet sheep- the ones that go to ‘live on another farm’

Usually for the exchange of mutton ;-)