Animal feed

“ They are then fed on equal parts of corn meal, wheat-bran and low-grade flour, with about twelve or fifteen per cent. of animal food. One fourth of this food should be composed of vegetables cooked—say, small potatoes, turnips, etc., with all the green rye and refuse cabbage they will eat. We feed this compound morning and evening with a little corn, wheat and oats at noon. Feed all the birds will eat clean and no more. The birds, young and old, may be expected to lay in three weeks from the time they are housed. ”

“ Food.—As the animal suffers from want of space in the chest, so the distension of the stomach with an undue quantity of food tends much to increase the difficulty. Hence the most condensed form of food is best, plenty of oats and little hay, but no chaff, straw, or bloating feed, water in moderate quantities, but never to repletion until the day’s work is over. Green food, carrots especially, are always useful. ”

“ Those that remain may be grouped according to the kind of food upon which they subsist during the winter: first, birds that eat animal food; second, birds that eat vegetable food; and third, 2 those that eat the eggs or young of insects on tree-trunks and branches, or chisel them from the wood.
To the first group belong six species of owls and eight species of hawks, eagles, crows, gulls, shrikes, and about eight species of ducks. They feed on mice and other small rodents, on smaller birds and poultry, and on seafood such as fish, clams, mussels, and scallops. ”

“ Again, as to food, the land birds will be more closely pressed than those which can at all times fish in the sea. There is great scarcity of land food in the winter, while in summer whole flocks of newly-born fledgelings are clamouring for their daily bread. So we shall find that every kind of eatable thing is turned to account, and we have among land birds seed-eaters, vegetable-feeders, and fruit-eaters; insect-devourers, and feeders on slugs and worms and snails; and flesh-eaters which feed on other birds, or on mice, bats, and larger animals ”

“ Poultry that have a big run and plenty of grass require no more than two regular meals a day, viz., soft food early in the morning, and a feed of grain just before going to roost, but do not give more than they will pick up readily; directly they cease to run for it cease feeding.
HINTS ABOUT POULTRY.
Give your hens sulphur in their food occasionaly—just before laying is a good time; give it every second morning for a week. It will brighten their feathers and purify their blood. ”

“ With the lion and the wolf he will eat of fresh slain animals; with the dogs and the vulture he will feed on putrid flesh; [5] [8] with the ox and the guinea-pig he will devour raw vegetables, under the name of salads; with the squirrel and the mouse he will feast on nuts and grain; with birds of prey he feeds on fowl of almost every species; with fishes he feeds on fish; and with insects and reptiles he sometimes lives on insects and reptiles. Nor is he satisfied even with this abundant variety, but must go to the mineral kingdom for salt, as a condiment before he can furnish out his meal. ”

“ When the food is changed, he should be moderately fed at first, till he becomes accustomed to it, as there is otherwise danger of cloying, which is always injurious. The moment the animal has done feeding, the remainder of the food ought to be at once removed. ”

“ A generous diet is necessary, to keep up the spirit and ability of cattle, when there is hard work to be done. The horse and mule are fed with their daily rations of grain when at hard [Pg 43] service, and if the spirit of the ox is to be maintained, he should be equally well fed, when as fully employed. Great and permanent injury is the result of niggardly feeding and severe toil, exacted from the uncomplaining animal. ”

“ There is not much to be said on feeding young stock that has not already been touched in the other chapters upon feeding. There is a need for serious consideration, however, of the matter of feeding green feed. ”

“ The animal must consume a certain amount of food merely to keep up its stationary condition, and to supply the materials for waste, respiration, perspiration, and the evacuations. These must first be provided for in all cases, before the farmer can expect any thing for the food.
Frequent observation has shown, that an ox will consume about two per cent, of his weight of hay per day, to maintain his condition. If put to moderate labor, an increase of this quantity to three per cent., will enable him to perform his work, and still maintain his flesh. ”

“ The stall ought to be kept clean and dry, and a deep bed of clean straw is of decided advantage.
The ox should be first fed the inferior and most perishable roots with his grain and dry forage, and his food should be gradually increased in richness, as he advances towards maturity. The food and water should be given three times a day, from thoroughly cleaned mangers or troughs. The animal likes a change of food, in which he should be indulged as often as may be necessary. If he refuses his food, a temporary privation, or variety is essential. ”

“ In breeding-time, great cleanliness should be preserved in the lodgings of the fowls, and the quantity and quality of food should be attended to. They should not be suffered to feed to repletion, and such kinds of food as are most nutritious should be carefully provided. Variety of food is essential ”

“ The young seem to depend entirely on vegetable food, but as they grow older, though still preferring the products of the plant, they will eat a variety of animal forms, such as insects, mollusks, crustaceans, worms, birds and their eggs. When driven by hunger they will kill and eat larger prey, such as deer and domestic cattle. ”

“ Not only does man eat the cereals and pulses, which are the richest in nutriment of almost all seeds, but many earlier and lower animals, such as harvest-mice, rats, chipmunks, deer, antelopes, horses, cow-kind, and even prairie-dogs commit great depredations upon them, both in the wild and cultivated states. Still more particularly have large numbers of animals, such as the squirrels, dormice, monkeys, parrots, nut-hatches, and even many grubs, taken to feeding off the fruits and seeds of forest-trees or woodland bushes. ”

“ In a state of nature the food consists chiefly of herbage, including seeds and fruits; in captivity the diet is of every description, and even in a wild condition small mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects are eaten, with a quantity of grit to aid digestion. In confinement the birds become very tame, and will then swallow bones, nails, and the like–in fact almost anything they can pick up. They can exist for a long time without water, but drink regularly when opportunity offers ”

“ Of the season and nature of boar and of other beasts, [Pg 144] I have spoken here before. And if men ask him of a boar's feeding, it is properly called of acorns of oak's bearing, and of beechmast, the other feeding is called worming and rooting of the roots out of the earth that feed him. The other kind of feeding is of corn and of other things that come up out of the land, and of flowers and of other herbs; the other kind of feeding is when they make great pits, and go to seek the root of ferns and of spurge within the earth. ”

“ Yes, Sheep eat grass, and because they have such tiny mouths they have to take small mouthfuls. The Lambs have different food for a while,—warm milk from their mothers' bodies. When a mother has a Lamb to feed, she eats a great deal, hay, grass, and chopped turnips, and then part of the food that goes into her stomach is turned into milk and stored in two warm bags for the Lamb to take when he is hungry. ”

“ It is important that no great interval should elapse between the hours of feeding. The digestive apparatus of the young animal is small, and its powers of assimilation are very energetic. The food with which it is supplied should, therefore, be given in moderate quantities, and very frequently. This is, in fact, what takes place when the calf is allowed free access to its dam; for the instant it feels a desire for aliment, the supply is at once available. ”

“ Their food consists mainly of mice, eggs and young birds and insects, but they are also fond of poultry and almost any kind of flesh, fresh or tainted. They are not strictly carnivorous as they feed on persimmons, paw-paws, polk berries and other wild fruits. ”

“ In general the rodents feed on roots, vegetables, seeds, nuts, bark, leaves, or fruit; but some of them, as the rats, are fond of meat, and indeed devour anything in the shape of food, and are as ready to eat carrion as fresh diet. ”

“ All kinds of poultry and most of our common wild birds are omnivorous eaters, but the proportion of different foods usually taken is not the same in different kinds of birds. Some eat mostly grains, some mostly animal foods. Some can subsist entirely on grass if they can get it in a tender state; others eat very little grass. The scratching birds like a diet of about equal parts of grain, leaves, and insects. Pigeons and canaries live almost entirely on grains and seeds, but like a little green stuff occasionally. ”

“ Avoid hæmaturia pastures and the fodder grown on such lands. Drain and cultivate such soils. When animals must feed on the products of such soils supplement the food by grain, oil cake, cotton seed meal, etc. ”

“ It is highly advantageous to fowls to allow them a reasonable quantity of animal food for their diet, which should be fed to them in small pieces, both for safety and convenience. Bones and meat may be boiled ”

“ This is proper when slops or indifferent food has been given, and meal cannot be conveniently procured; but when fattened on sound roots and meal, it is a wasteful practice, as the animal thus falls behind his accustomed growth. ”

“ They should be provided with whatever they most crave, if it be adapted to the secretion of fat. Cutting, crushing, and grinding the food; cooking, souring, and mixing it, are each by themselves an improvement for feeding ”

“ The food supply of the animal is the largest passive factor in his development; the processes by which he obtains his food supply, the largest active factor in his development. It is these activities, the incessant repetition of the exertions by which he is fed, which most modify his structure and develope his functions. The sheep, the cow, the deer, differ in their adaptation to the weather, their locomotive ability, their means of defence; but they agree in main characteristics, because of their common method of nutrition. ”

“ If, however, special fattening is resorted to, the birds should be confined in a clean warm pen or run, and fed three or four times a day on as much soft food as they will eat, care being taken to feed them very early in the morning and as late as possible at night. When specially fattened for the market the fowls are kept in the dark, which encourages them to rest—an essential to the laying on of flesh. ”

“ The ourang-outang, on being domesticated, readily learns to eat animal food. But if this proves that animal to be omnivorous, then the Horse, Cow, Sheep, and others are all omnivorous, for everyone of them is easily trained to eat animal food. Horses have frequently been trained to eat animal food, [267] and Sheep have been so accustomed to it as to refuse grass. ”

“ They had a small orchard to range in, where, in the course of the day, they occasionally picked up worms and other insects; and, I have observed that poultry of all kinds eagerly seek for animal food even after they have satiated themselves with corn: indeed, I conceive a portion of animal food essentially requisite to preserve them in a healthy state. ”

“ They nearly all live on vegetable substances in a concentrated form—natural food lozenges, which are very easily stored away. There is a great difference, for example, between the bulk of nutriment eaten in the form of grass by a rabbit and the same amount of substance in the ‘special preparation’ in the kernel of a nut, or the stone of a peach, or the bulb of a crocus, off which a squirrel makes a meal. Nearly all the storing animals eat ‘concentrated food,’ whether it be beans or grain, hoarded by the hamster, or nuts and hard fruits by the squirrel, nuthatch, and possibly some of the jays. ”

“ They keep the stomach properly distended, the appetite and general health good; and they render their winter forage nearly equal to their summer feed.
Much grain is not suited to store-sheep. It is too rich, and should be given sparingly except to the lambs, the old ewes, or feeble sheep, or to restore the rams after hard service. For the above purposes, oats are the best; and if any other grain, beans or peas are given, it should be in small quantities. When there is a deficiency of hay and roots, grain may be used with straw. ”

“ Though not absolutely essential to them, yet nothing contributes so much to their laying, as unsalted, animal food. This is a natural aliment, as is shown by the avidity with which they pounce on every fly, insect, or earth-worm which comes within their reach. ”

“ They should be daily, yet lightly fed through the winter, on grain and roots, and some animal food is always acceptable and beneficial to them. They are small eaters, and without caution will soon get too fat. One vigorous male will suffice for a flock of 10 or 12 hens, and a single connection is sufficient for each. ”

“ No parallel to his case can be found in the animal kingdom, in relation to the slowness of his growth, the variety of his wants, and the numerous diseases to which he is exposed; and while animals directly adapt to their support the food that is suited to them—the lion his flesh, and the ox his grasses—the greater part of the human aliment, according to the practice of all nations, is subject to preparing processes, more or less rude or perfect, in order to be rendered agreeable and nutritious. ”