My turkeys are wild for Jakes dry dog food, is it o.k. for them? I must admit to giving in and adding some to each feeding, they eat the dog food first. I mean they really love it! Thanks in advance.

-- Tina (clia88@newmexico.com), July 27, 2000

Answers

Assuming it contains a high-enough protein level for turkeys, the question would really seem to be one of economics. For example, on a per pound basis, how does it compare to your other feeds.

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), July 27, 2000.

Alot of dog foods have so much corn filler in them that it probably wouldn't matter anyway. My chickens love my cat's food but I keep them away from it since I found pieces of hard food in the eggs. Yuck!

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), July 27, 2000.

I have fed dry dog food to hogs with good results. My Dad had a Grocery Store and at that time you could not get people to buy a product in a damaged package so any dog food bags that were cut or torn open he brought them home and we fed them to the hogs. Nowadays damaged Grocery products are a a big business.

As to feeding dry pet food to chickens we also did that with good results. I find it hard to belive that you would find any food particles in the eggs. Eggs are part of the reproduction system not the digestive system. I could be wrong but I still find it sort of odd about feed particles in eggs.

-- Mark (deadgoatman@webtv.net), July 27, 2000.

I agree with Mark. Food pieces in eggs just dont happen.

-- Terri Perry (tperry@stargate.com), July 28, 2000.

My turkeys keep heading into the pig pen and cleaning the bits when "chops" is finished. Since it's a non medicated food I am not worried about it, by the time we are close to finish size they won't be able to get through to it so they will be finishing on only turkey ration. Maybe there is something in the pig/dog food that is missing in their own rations?

-- TerriYeomans (terri@tallships.ca), July 28, 2000.

Terri and Mark

I can't believe the food can get there either but when you see the little X shaped food in the eggs and fellow farmers agree that it happened to them...well, experiment for yourself. Happens most in large breed

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), July 28, 2000.

Have never had anything unexpected turn up in the chicken eggs, but I've sure had a lot of cat and dog food get sucked down by chickens. And geese, sheep, assorted wildlife. I haven't raised a bottle lamb yet who didn't eat dry cat food by the pound. I wouldn't feed it exclusively to an animal it wasn't intended for, but I don't get overly excited when the "wrong" animal gets into someone else's food. Except for the cost. That excites me. I've found that animals, even when they've got plenty of their own food to eat, will often eat the most unexpected things. I've got a cat who would kill for popcorn. Other cats who love melon. A sheep who adores banana skins, no matter how black and ishy (yes I know they're sprayed with all sorts of junk). The neighbors' cat eat sweet corn cobs. I used to have a dog who loved strawberries, preferably the ones I'd picked, but she'd root around the patch when times were hard. Another dog loved green peppers. In some cases, I'm sure it is a nutritional deficiency, but mostly I think it is just because they like whatever it is. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), August 02, 2000.