#a much more omnivorous diet with most of their protein coming from bugs

[arolesbianism]

Some concepts for the siblings

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Ruggie, Trey: More and More

TWST once again picks the most INCRIMINATING villain shots to display in the picture frames 😭 I am BEGGING the museum curator to do better/j

A Tale as Old as Time.

A lion cub, a warthog, and a meerkat.

It was an odd trio, a group of animals that, under normal circumstances, would never be together. Certainly not like this—not grinning, snuggling up with each other. Carnivore, herbivore, omnivore. Sharing the lives they had, joined in heart and in song.

No worries for the rest of their days.

Ruggie snickered behind one hand. Man, ain't that the dream?

"They've got nice smiles."

The hyena's ears perked. His eyes shifted to a Heartslabyul student gazing upon the same painting. Tall, built well, in glasses.

"Come again?"

"Their teeth," Trey clarified, pointing. "You see? They have different shapes based on their diet. Warthogs mainly eat vegetables, so they have strong, flat molars for crushing plants. But lions are carnivores, so their teeth are sharper for slicing through meat. And meerkats--"

"Okay, I get it already! Now quit it, you sound almost as creepy as Rook." Ruggie groaned. "Can't believe you take one look at this and your first thought is what's in their mouths."

"You don't?" The joke fell flat, and Trey let it go "How about you? What's your first thought when you look at this? If I'm remembering correctly, this painting is based on a story from your country. Does it have significance to you?"

"Eh, it’s some story about a warthog and a meerkat coming together to raise a lost cub they found."

"Really." Trey's eyebrows raised. "How did they manage to feed a baby lion? They probably need a lot of protein, and I don't think a warthog and a meerkat could hunt enough for it."

"Nah, they figured something out." He pinched his thumb and index finger together, peering through the small gap between them and right at the vice dorm leader. "Bugs."

"Bugs?!" Trey startled.

"Yup, there's plenty of 'm and they're packed full of protein for a growing young prince.”

“Prince?”

“Did I not mention it before? Turns out that the lion cub was a missing prince, and they had no idea. When the prince was all grown up, he returned to claim his kingdom with the warthog and the meerkat. The animals were able to get over their differences and live together in harmony. It all started with bugs—that’s pretty resourceful, isn’t it?”

"I didn’t think there would be a twist that wild from a story that started with eating bugs. We sometimes eat flowers in the Queendom, but usually as a garnish or for a snack, not for a whole meal. Is it a cultural difference...?"

Ruggie shrugged. "Sometimes you don't have much of a choice in what you eat. If life hands you lemons when you're starving, are you going to turn it down? 'Course not."

I can't afford that kind of luxury.

"Well, when you put it like that..." Trey gave a light laugh. "You're going to make me hungry too."

"I'd kill for a big roast pork right about now. Fat, sweet, and juicy, the meat so tender if falls off the bone once ya sink your teeth into it..." Ruggie drooled at the thought. "Yeah, if you just shoved an apple into the warthog's mouth, glaze it with honey, and slow cook it over a fire, I bet it'd be real tasty."

"It sounds like you’ve always got food on your mind.” Trey folded his arms, lips tugging back into a lopsided smirk. “Kinda gruesome when you talk about the prep work like that though.”

“We wouldn’t have any food if we didn’t hunt and gather. ‘S how the circle of life works.”

His gaze slanted toward the painting of the happy trio. A unification, food shared from the same platter—it sparked some desperate hope in him.

A world where kings and hyenas can be friends… Heh, maybe I’m asking for too much.

But he was greedy like that. Seeking more and more, his hunger never fully satisfied.

Ruggie shook his head, letting dirty blonde locks fall across his face. “Maybe it’s news to you, but beastmen don’t exactly see eye to eye with other beastmen. That’s why it’s practically a miracle that those three get along. It’s a tale they tell us in the Sunset Savanna to remind us of what we could be, united under one true kingdom. It’s just that: a story.”

“It’s a nice story,” Trey said simply. “And it would be even nicer if it came true.”

It would.

“It’ll be a looong time before that happens. It’s about as real as my dreams of a roast pork dinner.”

Ruggie sighed as he drew his arms up, hands resting behind his head. He reclined back in that lazy, devil-may-care pose.

Trey watched him, his mustard yellow eyes shifting slightly. “… Are you baiting me to offer to make you some?”

“What?” The hyena feigned shock. “Me, trying to get my hands on free grub? Nooooo, I’d never!”

Trey stared at him indignantly. “You’re not being very subtle there…”

Ruggie showed his teeth. “Was I supposed to be?”

“Maybe you’d have better luck getting a formal invite from Riddle first. I don’t usually prepare whole hams for a single guest either—it’s usually a group meal, so you’d have to share.”

“Tch. Whatever, can’t blame a hyena for testing out a shortcut, can you?”

“Ahahah… I’m slightly concerned that you’d even attempt to have an entire pig to yourself. Your appetite must be legendary.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

More and more—he wanted it all. Gluttony, a sin to the common man. To him, a desire for something greater than this.

He saw it now, a kingdom built upon the jagged cliffs. His kind and other scorned creatures. creeping out from the darkness and into the moonlight. They all looked to the one that stood far above them, the one that would lead them to that shining future.

Someday, it will come.

Ruggie spun, his back presented to the painting. A spotlight upon the trio, and the shadows closing in on his own face.

Even so, his smile was as big and as bright as ever.

“Nishishishishi! Don’t worry so much, Trey-kun~ Just be happy—hakuna matata!”

[dismas-n-dismay]

Hi! It's me again (I'm transferring to a bachelor's in biology this fall and I love the science that goes into the series so I love that you're exploring this)

Do either of them have hoarding instincts or dietary preferences or are they pretty much human in that regard?

They'd possibly be born with baby teeth, at least in Haze/Hazel's case, would that change anything? (Hazel would probably fit better because Falin is half French on her father's side from what I remember from the Adventurer's Bible and it feels even that they'd both get to name a kid but that's just my opinion)

Haru with his mouth full: Checkit!! Blegh!! Haize: Gross. Good job, Haru, you're a natural hunter!

Welcome back to part 10,000 of me talking about my silly ocs. Hi. hello. Thank you sooo much for coming back with more biology questions for these two hehehe >:]c

Diet Preferences?

These two are quite the oddballs. Haru is an insectivore by simple dragon nature while Haize is a carnivore by hers, though their elven and tallman sides balance them out to be closer to omnivores! Light dragons commonly eat bugs as they're the easiest prey to attract when ur big and flashy though this keeps them very lithe and they typically have more slender builds, though the proteins do help a lot. Conversely, red dragons being mostly carnivores results in their larger build and their obvious frequency to be the most dominant and persevering dragon species- y'know. Because they murk the other ones due to their weaker diets and builds.

Haru started to eat bugs right around the time it was warm enough for him to go outdoors without getting sick, I imagine he would've eaten a butterfly or a dragonfly much to Marcille's horror. Like that vine of the pug eating the butterfly with his owner screaming no! Backtracking a bit though to give some cool facts about baby light dragons because I decide the lore. I'm making them weird half mammal half bird-lizards because I think the variety is cool but this also means that - up until baby light dragons can open their eyes and properly attempt to hunt - they drink milk from their parents! (Whether or not this is crop milk like birds produce is entirely up to the reader's imagination, I will not judge but I will choose either one if asked)

So up until he started going outside, Haru was perfectly content just drinking milk like any other baby- Haize was not. Unlike Haru she was born with baby fangs!! Just little milk teeth to help her get a headstart for the world and such, but she grew hungrier for something more diverse than milk very quickly. Red dragons, unlike light dragons, don't do the whole milk thing so Haize was only partially satiated due to being part elf and tallman but the minute she was allowed to eat soft meats she basically refused to go back. So just imagine like a 1 year old eating various lunch meats for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Honestly it was probably for the best, Haize's fangs bit into Marcille a lot and they were worried she might grow a taste for blood if she kept accidentally nicking her mom while trying to eat. She probably would have and it would've been a really bad habit to get rid of because she hadn't developed that big girl brain to be like "Hey maybe drinking blood isn't super cool."

All in all, the Touden-Donato sibs have slightly preferenced diets! Though Haize prefers meats, nectar, and citrus fruits while Haru prefers bugs, ground vegetables, citrus fruits, and any/all milk based desserts (he just really likes them). God if these kids ever got their hands on sorbet it would be a disaster, Falin and Marcille would literally spend a week trying to explain why they cant have ice cream for every meal and have to deal with whining dragonets the whole time.

2. Hoarding Instincts

They do have hoarding instincts! Though this is one of those things that differs from dragon to dragon on how they react with it. Light dragons tend to go for the flashiest treasures to make themselves more appealing and alluring, naturally they like the attention they draw in just from an instinctual standard. They frequently discard rusted, unpolished, or just not as eyecatching treasure all the time. They really just arent particular about the whole thing unless they see you have an interest in something they were previously disinterested in- then they're smug assholes who see their treasure as still having some renewed value. So essentially Envy = Worthy to them, but they arent extremely vain creatures despite their hoarding preference and are actually particularly generous within reason. It's very common for light dragons to gift their young, mates, or siblings with treasures from their own hoards or that they've taken for themselves to gift. Typically though the gifting of treasure is to help younger dragons start their own hoard and have an idea of what to go for when out and about for themselves.

That being said, Haru is a greedly little fucker who wants every single new treasure possible, fuck you. He's very grateful for being part elf and tallman because he's aware that he can make his beautiful treasures last long if he polishes, dusts, and cleans them! So his hoard isn't too huge if only because he's good at maintaining things. Still, if he sees something he tends to want it and is often reprimanded for trying to steal shiny gems, jewels, or artifacts just because he likes them- as Haru often gets tired with his new finds extremely quickly if they begin to bore him or don't compare to his other treasures. When it comes to his hoarding he essentially has the dragon equivalent to having eyes bigger than your stomach.

Haize, however, has your more traditional dragon's hoard of miscellanous treasures, artifacts, coins from birthdays, and prized family gifts. Much of her hoard consists of trinkets Haru grew bored with but that she still saw interest in and wanted to give renewed purpose, she isn't nearly as picky but is very curious and likes to inspect an item before taking it in. She'll often let Haru have a treasure knowing that he'll get tired of it within the hour- though she has been known to assert her place as the eldest sibling if there is a gift for her she particularly wants and Haru usually shies off. Haize doesn't assert herself as the eldest often so he knows it's business if she does for things like food or treasure. Haru keeps her hoard partially in and around the her nest as well as the family nest in Falin and Marcille's room! Her nest in the guardian is where she keeps most of her baby clothes, toys, trinkets, and cloths/blankets. She just feels they're safest there and prefers to sleep near them <3.

Also, fun tid bits on how dragons train their kids to gain treasure!: Typically young dragons get the urge to grab and snatch at shiny things as soon as they're able to crawl around functionally and protect themselves- which is pretty early due to them being predators of a mythical variety- so they'll often try and steal treasure from their parent's hoard! Older dragons use this as stealth training for their young and will often guard their treasure, sitting stop or nearby and continuously removing their children until they manage to sneak by successfully to take a trinket. Typically the larger/shiner/whatever is more impressive for the type of dragon you are is what is most rewarded for by parents but they do punish thinking a bit too big. It's good to know your limits! better to have 5 gold coins than 5 gold bricks you cant carry.

so Falin was very often having to train Haru and haize to amass their own treasures which was much easier for Haize due to her slinky and stealthy body allowing for quicker and quieter movement! Haru had to learn to fight, due to his regular baby limbs and range of movement, which didnt really work because he's so itty bitty but the thought was appreciated by Falin, learning to stand your ground is good too!

[audible-smiles]

ok, we get it, cats can’t be vegan; but why not?

By now, you’ve probably heard people on this website saying that cats are obligate carnivores. That’s true! You have probably also have heard people say this loudly and self-righteously, without offering additional detail. What does it really mean, in nutritional practice, for an animal to be an obligate carnivore? What, specifically, does meat have that cats need? Is there really a bunch of people out there trying to put their cats on vegan diets? Is it actually that bad? This post was written for you, my intellectually curious friend.

Cats have a higher dietary requirement for protein: 

Cats (and I presume carnivores in general) convert protein into glucose and use it for energy at a relatively high rate. That’s a last ditch strategy for humans; if we’re starving, we’ll start using protein for energy, but most of the time we use carbohydrates, because it’s a more efficient process. Cats don’t have that option, because their natural diet (small rodents, birds, reptiles, and even bugs, with occasional nibbling on foliage) is very low-carb, so their metabolisms work differently. The minimum protein requirement in the cat is about 26%, compared to a minimum of 18% for dogs, which are better adapted to digest carbohydrates, and a minimum of 10% for humans, which are true omnivores. If they do not hit this minimum, cats will start catabolizing their own muscles to meet their energy requirements. Their maximum protein intake while hunting can be as high as 62%! 

Can this higher protein requirement be met with plant-based protein? Yes, but it’s difficult. Hydrolyzed protein diets are therapeutic pet foods for animals with food allergies. The protein macromolecules are broken down into peptides or even amino acids, which are actually too small for the immune system to recognize them as a threat. The protein for HP diets can be sourced from anything, and soybeans are often used. These diets are not truly vegetarian, as they usually include animal fats for better palatability, and may also use hydrolyzed protein sourced from animal products in order to hit their minimums. Vegan cat food manufacturers don’t have this option, so they have to add ingredients like yeast and/or molasses to get cats interested, and their protein percentages are often on the low side, which is not ideal.

Cats can’t synthesize arachidonic acid from linoleic acid: 

Arachidonic acid is a fatty acid found primarily in animal tissue. Most herbivores and omnivores can make it in their bodies using linoleic acid, which they get from plants. (Vegetable oils are a good source of linoleic acid for humans!) Cats don’t have the enzyme required to do this, so for them arachidonic acid is an essential nutrient, which means they have to get it from their diet. For a vegetarian cat food, chicken eggs would be a great source, but sourcing vegan arachidonic acid is more complicated.

Can you get arachidonic acid from non-animal sources? Maybe! Fungus in the genus Mortierella have been found to produce arachidonic acid. Theoretically you could farm this fungus and use it in cat food, although I have no idea if anyone is doing this right now. I don’t think its a cost-effective process yet, but someone somewhere is probably working on it. There are also some potential algae/seaweed sources, and those are definitely ingredients found in some pet foods, although I’m not sure if we have well-established science on how bioavailable plant sources of arachidonic acid are to carnivores- sometimes if you’re using a weird ingredient as a nutrient source you have to add more of it than usual, because it might be less efficiently digested/utilized.

Cats can’t synthesize vitamin A from carotenes: 

Vitamin A is another essential nutrient for cats. When people say that eating carrots is good for your eyes, they’re referring to the fact that the orange color of carrots comes from carotene, and our bodies break carotene down into retinol, a form of vitamin A, which is vital for ocular health and function. Just like with linoleic acid and arachidonic acid, cats cannot convert carotenes to retinol; they rely on their prey to do it for them. Butter, cheese and eggs are all potential sources of vitamin A, so we still might be able to make a vegetarian cat food if we use dairy.

Can you get Vitamin A from non-animal sources? Maybe! Please note that many plants listed as a “source of vitamin A” are really a source of carotenes, and not suitable for cats. But synthetic retinoids exist! (They’re used topically for acne, I guess, IDK anything about human medicine.) So I bet someone out there is making a synthetic vitamin A supplement, and I bet a cat food manufacturer could buy it. I also bet it would be significantly more expensive than just putting chicken liver in cat food. 

Cats can’t synthesize niacin from tryptophan:

Are you getting the picture here? Carnivores just aren’t equipped to make certain nutrients. Why bother, when you can get it so easily from your prey? Herbivores can make tryptophan and niacin from seeds, nuts, and legumes, and if they don’t have enough niacin, they can just synthesize it directly from the tryptophan. Carnivores can’t, and using eggs won’t save us this time, sadly.

Can you get niacin from non-animal sources? Probably! Peas, rice, and potatoes all have some amount of niacin, and all those ingredients are present in cat foods on the market today. So perhaps there’s still hope? The question here is whether cats can use plant sources of niacin efficiently enough to meet their daily requirements, which is not something I can tell you. But I’m sure there’s synthetic sources of these supplements as well. 

Cats have a higher dietary requirement for taurine:

Taurine is an amino sulfonic acid, which is basically just a fancy amino acid. It’s found in most animal tissues and is very important for all sorts of body functions. They put it in energy drinks for some reason, although again, humans can synthesize it just fine. Taurine deficiencies in animals can lead to blindness and heart disease (and deficiencies in vitamin A and niacin are no picnic either). Cats need more of it than dogs do, which is why you can’t just feed cats dog food.

Can you get taurine from non-animal sources? Yes! Most of the taurine we get these days is in fact synthesized in a lab. Apparently its more cost-effective to do that than to source it from animal products. 

Theoretically, if you managed to make a vegan cat food with appropriate levels of protein, arachidonic acid, vitamin A, niacin, and taurine, would that work? ...I can’t really say.

Nutrition is complicated. What works on paper doesn’t necessarily work in the body, and the only way you learn that is through trial and error. Personally, even as a vegetarian myself, I wouldn’t risk it. Nutritionally perfect, universally palatable vegan cat food would be an impressive feat of culinary engineering, but there’s so much risk involved. I’d want to see a lot more research than we currently have, with a lot more real-world feeding trials of vegan food.

Yes, there are vegan pet foods available today! Not a lot, because the pet food market has been unreasonably obsessed with high-protein MEAT MEAT MEAT diets for years now, but there’s a few. Looking at Wysong’s vegan formula, I see that its been formulated to meet the established nutritional minimums for both cats and dogs. Protein, 26%. Supplemented with vitamin A, niacin, and taurine, although they’re not legally required to tell me how much they use or where it comes from. I believe they are relying on kelp for the arachidonic acid. Theoretically, it might work. I want it to work. Would I trust it? Absolutely not. 

Look: if you feel strongly enough about veganism that you want your cat on a vegan diet, here’s what you do. Make an appointment with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist. Bring them a bag of the food you’re planning to use. They’re probably going to contact the company to get the typical nutrient analysis (which is more specific than the guaranteed analysis on the bag), cross reference that information with everything they know about cat nutrition (which is a LOT more than I know) and maybe even have a sample of the food sent to an independent feed analysis lab. If you do all of that that, and start a vegan diet trial under veterinary supervision, with the full intention of pulling the cat off of the trial if they show clinical signs of any nutritional deficiency...go for it.

edit: @weredrakka pointed out that sometimes synthetic versions of a molecule turn out not to work the exact same way that the natural version does, which I neglected to explicitly state because 1. I was sort of taking it for granted, and 2. chemistry is waaay above my paygrade. anyway, that’s part of why I’m hesitant!

[hedgehogsofasgard]

Hedgehog Precision diet: a preliminary review

Anyone who has been following my blog for a while knows I’m very interested in hedgehog nutrition and always looking for ways to improve my hedgehogs’ diet.

Diet and nutrition has always been a subject of debate in the hedgehog community, since there is so little known about the nutritional needs of our pets and because there still isn’t a proper hedgehog kibble on the market. With hedgehogs being insectivorous omnivores, creating a diet for them hasn’t been that easy. The current hedgehog foods are made with low quality and species inappropriate ingredients. For that reason many owners turn to dry cat food, as they have done for years. With hedgehogs being hedgehogs however, and not cats, it should be obvious that this diet is far from ideal. You can read more about hedgehog nutrition, hedgehog food vs cat food and more here in my nutrition article.

It shouldn’t be hard to imagine my excitement when Kimberly from West Coast Hedgehogs, who has been a respected member of the hedgehog community for years and author of the book Pet African Hedgehogs - A Complete Guide To Care, started working on developing a proper hedgehog diet.

Hedgehog Precision

Since hedgehogs are primarily insectivorous, the food is insect-based, unlike other hedgehog foods which contain mostly fillers such as soy, wheat and corn which are difficult to digest for hedgehogs.

As the food is still in development, there is no finalized form yet so I cannot give out any information regarding nutritional data or a full ingredient list at this point. There will be three formulas of the staple diet to meet different metabolic needs: a standard diet, a high calorie diet and a weight control diet.

Right now the diet uses black soldier fly larvae meal: these feeders are known for their well balanced Ca:P ratio and their relatively low fat levels. It should be noted that it is likely impossible to make a diet which contains no vertebrate meat or cellulose based filler at all, so I suspect the final product will at least contain some of those - but it should be a huge step up from what’s currently on the market.

On top of the food being biologically appropriate, the insects are raised on pre-consumer food waste and since their feed conversion and water/electricity usage is much more efficient than that of conventional meat production, they’re much more environmentally sustainable! So it’s not just better for your hedgehog, it’s also better for the environment.

Next to the staple diet Hedgehog Precision also sells treats (which are already for sale at this moment): dried mealworms, dried black soldier fly larvae and Bug Blocks, which are small cubes made of 100% insects.

A closer look at the HP food

I got to preliminary test the food - or rather, my animals got to test it. Because who’s a better tester than the hedgehogs themselves?

However they can’t do it without me (although admittedly that would make things a lot easier): first of all it has to be ordered through the website, which is easy to navigate and use. There are different payment options including PayPal, which is a huge plus for an international customer like me. Shipping was $20, which is not terrible for international (although not very cheap either) but it was FAST. Usually orders from the US take 2-3 weeks to arrive, but my HP order got shipped on a Tuesday and arrived next Monday - so within a week! (Shipping within the US costs around $10-$15)

My test package contained a few samples of the Hedgehog Precision formula, a sample of Bug Blocks, and some dried black soldier fly larvae. Let’s take a look at the HP formula and the bug blocks:

The HP formula is a small kibble with pieces in slightly varying sizes. It is relatively hard, but can be crumbled between your fingers by using some force. The bug blocks are easily crumbled or pulverized and are a bit of an odd mix between crispy and soft.

When compared to a standard cat kibble, the small size is very obvious. What is a bit more difficult to see in the pictures but something I immediately noticed is how the HP formula doesn’t have that fatty sheen most cat kibble has. It appears less fatty, is smaller and easier to crumble. This makes it much more suitable for hedgehogs: most cat kibble is too big and hard for hedgehogs, which can cause dental problems, something hedgehogs are already prone to. (Please note that this might not be the final form and shape of the food)

Testing the food

Of course the next step was to have the food tested! I gave it to all my hedgehogs and tenrecs. Tenrecs have similar dietary needs and tend - at least the lesser hedgehog tenrecs - to be very picky when it comes to kibble. Most of my animals are quite the easy eaters, except for Máni (African pygmy hedgehog). He’s extremely picky and trying new foods with him has always been difficult.

I started out by trying the Bug Block treats - and they were a complete hit with everyone except Máni, which was to be expected. Embla (North African hedgehog) is a very skittish guy and doesn’t like to take treats from my hands or tweezers unless they are very tasty morioworms, but he grabbed the Bug Blocks straight from my fingers! Bowie (common tenrec) liked them so much she grabbed the second one together WITH my fingers...

... well, at least she really liked them (and my fingers are okay)!

In the evening everyone got the HP kibble formula added to their regular food. Embla and Bowie hovered it up straight away, and the lesser hedgehog tenrecs have been nibbling from it over the course of several days (they are slowing down for hibernation already and have largely stopped eating). Only Máni didn’t eat any of the HP formula in the first night and picked out his old food between the new. As the “cold turkey” method is usually the only thing that works to get him to eat new food (and even then he doesn’t always eat it), I decided to take out his old kibble on the second night and just fill his bowl with the HP food. The next morning it was all gone, and he has been eating it for several nights until I ran out of my test samples. Usually it is advised to gradually introduce new foods so it doesn’t upset the hedgehog’s stomach, but other than a slightly greenish tint to his faeces the first night there weren’t any issues with switching Máni over. While he has been eating the HP formula, he still refused to eat the Bug Blocks and I haven’t been able to convince him to eat those. Don’t think the others will mind though, more for them!

Conclusion

The food was a huge hit from the beginning with all my animals except for Máni, but even with him being such a picky eater it was actually fairly easy to switch him over. The Bug Blocks could be a good option for people who are unable to feed live insects, although I still think those are a must for hedgehogs due to their nutritional value and since they provide important foraging enrichment. I am not sure if I would use the blocks since I already feed a lot of insects, but I could see them being useful to bring along to the vet or on other trips as it’s much easier than carrying a box of worms around.

If the Hedgehog Precision kibble formula would end up in the direction I’m hoping it’s going - primarily insect based, and with little fillers - I think it could be a great staple diet. As we know so little about what hedgehogs need it should likely have similar nutritional values as high quality cat kibble (with some needed adjustments) since that seems to be working to some extent - but with much better, biologically appropriate ingredients. I can’t wait to see the final formula and am hoping for a chitin-rich, high fibre, high protein and low fat food. I am very excited to see what the end result will look like and with the information I’ve received so far, I think it would definitely be worth feeding and could very well become the best dry kibble option currently on the market. 

The Hedgehog Precision food is currently being developed and will be for sale sometime soon. Right now you can already order the Bug Blocks, dried mealworms and dried black soldier fly larvae on the HP website. Note: this review was not sponsored in any way.

Read more:

Hedgehog Precision website

Hedgehog Precision Facebook page

[pasturedchicken-blog]

Free Range Chicken Newtonville Ontario

Order Free Range Chicken in Newtonville Ontario when organizing family get together

Pasture raised chickens, on the other hand, are raised outside in bottomless pens that are moved daily to fresh green grass in their pasture. The pens protect the young birds from predators while allowing them to roam and feed. In this environment, the chickens scratch the ground and eat bugs and worms and seeds along with their grain. They enjoy the fresh air and sunshine that the outdoors provides. Their manure is spread over the entire pasture as they move around which fertilizes the soil and keeps the pasture lush and green for each subsequent year's rotation.

Many say chickens can not possibly eat grass, that their digestive tract isn't set up for it. They say it looks like chickens are eating grass but really they are just picking at things between the blades of grass. If allowed, chickens will consume maxm of their calories from grass. That is a lot of grass since grass is very low in calories. Chickens also need animal protein. Just like humans chickens are omnivores. The all vegetarian chicken is more of a convenience to the mass-producer, so he doesn't have to worry about the potential of latent animal diseases in poultry feed. They are leery of disease, which might bring about the destruction of their entire laying flock.

Strictly vegetarian fed chickens can potentially be undernourished. An all-vegetarian diet is not natural as stated earlier they need animal protein. Chickens need to be free to roam grasslands that are not stripped by too many animals in one place, allowing them to consume a myriad of bugs and lots of wild plants. When supplemented with grains, and especially with fish meal, these chickens will be the healthiest around, and live and lay eggs for many, many years. Farmers say chickens can lay eggs for twelve years or more. Fish meal is the biggest source of protein for those healthy birds.

Health Benefits of Pasture Raised Chicken in Newtonville Ontario

1. Chemical-free meat. Because of how free-range chickens are commercially raised they are washed with heavily chlorinated water which leaves a chemical residue on the meat. Pasture-raising is actually a more sanitary method of raising chickens, and does not require heavily chlorinated water washing.

2. No antibiotics. Pasture raised chickens are healthier (no overcrowding, natural environment, etc) which translates into healthier meat. Chickens raised on pasture do not need antibiotics or other medication to keep them alive.

Allowing chickens to consume as much living grass as they want as well as other living things in natural grasslands can give significant health benefits to the consumer today. It is being considered more and more that grass-fed or pastured poultry eggs are good for the heart, and that not only should they not be avoided, gut they should be specifically included in the diet. Buy Grass Fed Chicken in Newtonville Ontario for more health benefits.

Did you know that chickens raised on pasture are nutritionally superior to those raised in commercial factory settings? Pastured poultry are chickens (and other birds like ducks and geese) that are raised in bottomless cages on grass where they peck and scratch at the ground and hunt for bugs and seeds along with their grain. Their manure is spread over wide areas of pasture as they are moved. This is better for the birds and the soil. Buy Pastured Chicken in Newtonville Ontario for family get together.

Sometimes they are mistakenly called free range chickens. Free range chickens are still kept in confinement, they are just allowed to "free range" inside their buildings. From egg to plastic wrapped drumsticks, commercial poultry are housed in closed confinement, their feet always in their own manure and do not get the benefits of fresh air and sunshine on pasture.

The beauty of living in the countryside offers the experience of eating organic chicken, but it is also available in the cities in small quantities. Organic chickens usually just roam around to find food. People raising these chickens use rice, corn or any food available to feed them. They simply call the chickens in some distinct way and the chickens come racing as if panicking for the food. They then throw the grains or any food and each chicken picks as many as it can. When the regular meal is over, the chickens roam around and search the ground for any available food which may be plants, insects, seeds, and if the area is coastal, small fish and live small shellfish.

Organic Chicken in Newtonville Ontario has high beneficial fats that lower cholesterol, and higher amount of Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Vitamin A. Their eggs taste much better than those from commercially-raised chickens which receive regular dose of antibiotics, vaccines and other medications. Though it takes longer cooking time for the meat of most native chickens, its taste is incomparable with 28-day broiler confined in overcrowded poultry houses where they also release their wastes.

For organic chicken consumers, eating Free Range Chicken in Newtonville Ontario does not only provide health benefits but also better ecosystem. Chickens raised in the open catch insects that may be harmful to the plants, scavenge crop residue and help in fertilizing the soil through its organic manure. By the way, farms using chicken dung as fertilizer do not necessarily produce organic crops. Chicken dung are bought from commercial poultry farms that use chemicals and medications which are proven to be harmful to the human body.

A true free-range chicken gets to forage naturally for food typical to their diet which includes insects, worms, various kinds of seeds and green plants. This natural diet my also be supplemented with grain or laying mash. In addition, free-range chickens are exposed to a natural source of lighting (the sun) and fresh air outside the coop.

You can raise pastured chickens easily right in your backyard. Even in urban areas, one can raise free-range chickens by simply utilizing a portable chicken coop with run. This will allow your birds room to roam more freely with the added benefit of foraging naturally for their food.

There are several reasons why people are raising free range chickens. The first reason is that chickens, especially free range chickens, give you an endless supply of high quality food. Chickens are easy to raise and they do not require much room. A person that lives in an apartment can purchase a portable chicken coop and raise several chickens. All that is needed is for the chickens to be taken out several times a day for sunlight, exercise, and food.

Click This Site for getting more information related to Pastured Chicken in Newtonville Ontario.

[agrarianradfem]

(1/2) Um. I hope this doesn't come off as combative, but as an agricultural scientist, what is your view on a vegan lifestyle (not just diet) purely from an environmental and sustainability point of view (excluding the ethical and health concerns)? Also do you believe rural animal husbandry can supplement the demands of the animal industry in absence of factory farms (which I believe are known to treat animals pretty brutally)?

(2/2) And also, in absence of a purely vegan diet, would a vegetarian focused diet (not excluding milk, eggs, honey etc) be more environmentally friendly? (I read that statistic somewhere about animal industry being a major contributor to global warming?)Hey don’t worry! It’s not combative! I’m going to give what is really just a general overview of some of the arguments. This is not an endorsement of industrial agriculture (who tf would defend that?). Instead this is a end-goal vegan vs sustainable agriculture argument. Under a cut because it’s long: 

From an ecology of agriculture standpoint, a vegan lifestyle (and diet) make no sense. How can this be true, when we’ve been told every day for years that the best way to reduce our carbon footprint is to eat less meat? Because of the nature of nutrient cycling. Stay with me because this will get long. We all learned about the water cycle growing up, right? Precipitation -> Evaporation -> Condensation. Simple! But the other nutrient cycles are largely skipped over (in my experience).  First we have the nitrogen cycle: 

And the phosphorous cycle: 

If you notice, animals (in this case, cows fro simplicity) are present in both diagrams. Why? Because animals are required to close nutrient cycles - especially the phosphorous cycle! When a cow eats some grass, the grass sheds it’s roots to about the equivalent of the grass length above ground. These shed roots are immediately set upon by bacteria and fungi to break it down, turning the roots into available carbon and into a useable form of nitrogen. In addition, when a cow eats some grass, the cow processes through fermentation the cellulose, starches, and sugars in the grass and returns (via feces) bacteria rich, nutrient rich, water rich organic matter to the soil. It’s a short cut to what’s already happening underground! The cow also pees, giving urea and ammonia to the soil, not to mention water. As long as the soil isn’t disturbed (ex. plowed), then the fungi (mycorrhizae) in the soil can build a glomalin network. Why is this network important? “Mycorrhizae constitute a considerable sink of C [here C means carbon] into soil ecosystems, as plants allocate significant amounts of their photosynthates to their fungal partners (Finlay, 2008; van der Heijden et al., 2015).” This means that glomalin networks are carbon sinks! Additionally, the glomalin network stabilizes the soil and helps make nutrients bioavailable to plants. What does all this have to do with veganism?Veganism, especially a vegan lifestyle, seeks to remove animals from the land. No cows, no chickens, no sheep, no pigs, no goats. But without animals, you cannot nutrient cycle and are dependent on artificial nitrogen (a scientific byproduct of war) and mined phosphorus. Mining phosphorus is a harsh job and is environmentally disastrous. But even more concerning, is we are approaching ‘peak phosphorus’, where we cannot mine for any more. And we’ll have let it all run into the ocean where we cannot access it. Even more concerning, veganism is a diet founded upon annual crops - crops that grow in one season, then die. Annuals are the primary colonizers of disturbed soil. This is why fields are plowed for things like grains (which are annuals). Plowing releases huge amounts of carbon and nitrogen into the atmosphere that had been locked in the soil. Then the seeds are planted, the plants grow quickly (stripping minerals from the soil), harvested, and plowed under. The bare soil is then left exposed to the elements over winter, experiencing huge amounts of erosion. Even if you cover crop (the practice of sowing a winter annual like rye to hold the soil), you still have to plow the soil twice a year. Every time you plow, the glomalin network is destroyed, carbon and nitrogen are releases, and the soil becomes extra susceptible to erosion. As the soils are stripped of their minerals over and over, artificial and mined fertilizer is applied to the soil. There’s no way around this. Even leaving fields fallow, following a rotational planting schedule with nitrogen fixing legumes, and practicing no-till, you still have to add fertilizer. And in a vegan world, there are only bagged fertilizers to fulfill this need. Another common vegan argument is that too much total land space is taken up with agriculture and that more calories can be produced in a vegan world on less land. This is true, to a point. But humans, one, require more to survive than just calories. Humans require nutrients and a lot of them for optimum health. Rice, wheat, and corn (the most consumed foodstuffs) provide lots of calories, but not a lot of omega-3s (ESPECIALLY in comparison to the omega-6s), not much iron, not much choline, not much vitamin A or D or E, not adequate levels of B vitamins, etc. Soy too, though higher in protein, is not a nutrient dense food. Calorie dense, not nutrient dense. Additionally, crops like grains and broccoli and strawberries can only be grown in a few places. Places not too cold, not too hilly/mountainous, not too wet/dry, and not with soil that’s too rocky. That’s most of the world. You know what thrives on this marginal land? Animals. Cows, sheep, and goats are, between them, amazing adept at living off this marginal land and turning scrub plants into nutritious food and high quality clothing for people. A vegan lifestyle require artificial fibers, like polyester, or intensive cropping (like cotton) for clothing. But a sheep or a cow or a goat can produce 4 things over it’s life: clothing, meat, milk, and labor. That’s much more useful, not even including the nutrient cycling and marginal land maintenance! And synthetic fibers are accumulating in the bodies of fish. Synthetic fibers are not a neutral choice. So let’s talk about the negative environmental impacts of animals. Animals that are restricted to containment feeding operations are force fed huge amounts of corn and soybeans (as a sidenote - we only started feeding these to animals in large amounts once we had already overproduced huge amounts of grains, this is not what they should be eating and in fact it makes them sick and nutritionally less than they are naturally). These animals have their feces made into slurries that decomposed anaerobically or spread onto leech fields that cannot take the nutrient load so often (you can ‘burn’ a field of it’s microorganisms doing this) and so it becomes runoff. This is a shit system! No one is defending this! But take a cow off a feedlot and put it into a mob grazing/rotational grazing system (which mimics the natural evolutionary symbiotic relationship with grasses grazers have that created the huge topsoil deposit of the American prairie, for example) and the cows suddenly don’t have methane producing poop - birds (or chickens if you’re extra smart) come a couple days after the cows to eat the bug larva in the cow patties, spread it out, and add their nitrogen rich poop to the mix. Getting milk, beef, chicken, and eggs out of the same amount of land! All while storing carbon and building nutrient rich topsoil that grows nutrient rich grasses that become nutrient rich animal foods. Vitamins A and E and D are abundant. Choline is abundant. B vitamins are abundant. Iron is abundant. Vitamin K2 is abundant (not found in plant sources, vitamin K2 is what helps prevent your body from calcifying your arteries). DHA and EHA and omega-3s are abundant. Complete, easily digestible proteins are abundant. The ideal vegan world cannot compete with the ideal omnivorous world. It just can’t. It defies the laws of nature. A vegetarian diet is ‘better’ but is still largely a cop out. You want to eat eggs and drink milk, but in order to produce those foods, you have to continue to support animal populations so why not eat animals? Do we not eat them and instead let food go not towards sustaining human life and instead just be composted? This is how I view food: :

We can feed more people well by being smart about what we grow where, setting up systems to make the most of the animal link in nutrient cycles, and using science to improve agriculture by studying more efficient ways to store carbon through rotational grazing, study the ways in which is prevent desertification through grazing (yes it can be done!), and how to make sure that humans everywhere have access to nutritious food. Sources: Defending Beef, Allan Savory and the Savory Institute, Righteous Porkchop, Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal, The Soil Will Save Us, Cows Save the Planet, The Third Plate, The Hungry World by Cullather, and The Land Institute.  

[frogsandfries]

Oh

So my younger sister finally got into the military (or whatever) but--okay story time: When she was in third grade, a fat girl told her she was fat, so she started exercising all the time--like she'd have gym, exercise after school, and come home and exercise even more, then maybe have like a bowl of food or a couple spoonfuls of food on a plate, definitely not enough to fill up an active kid. I was in, I think seventh grade, and had a little more experience with body stuff, obviously. I initially tried to discourage her, it was redundant for her to exercise so much since she was already healthy, and she'd exercise the same muscle groups every day, never giving them a chance to rebound. Nothing was going to stop her, so I started trying to give her hints. She ignored me and she obviously ended up hurting her body. A lot. Then some time in high school, I think, I came back from college at some point, and she was a vegetarian or whatever. Point being: She's skinny. She couldn't do track and field in college because the coach didn't want some issue my sister had, from years of misinformed, self-directed exercise, to be exacerbated to the point of injury. She had trouble putting on weight to qualify for military training stuff, and now she's having trouble developing muscle to push up to that next level she needs to reach. Now, I strongly believe that there is something in meat that humans can't synthesize in our own bodies. My belief is firmly rooted in my passion for biology. Humans are omnivores, this is simply scientific fact. While we can live on a fraction of the meat that most Americans guzzle down daily, and honestly it isn't crucial for adult humans to consume meat, there's just stuff in meat that isn't in plant matter, stuff that when we consume meat in moderation, helps bridge gaps that an entirely vegetarian diet inherently has. And I'm not just talking about protein. I strongly believe in order for my sister to reach this tier she's been struggling for, she's going to have to set aside her morals, understand that yes, animals have to die to be eaten, no not all animals suffer a brutal end to make it to your plate. I advised her to start very slowly and very carefully, since her system needs to readjust after not having meat for almost two years. I recommended a weak white fish like mahi or tilapia, but I think she decided on canned tuna. I wonder if bug flour would help her, but that's probably out of her budget. I wouldn't even know where to get some. Speaking on human diet, maybe now that I'll be back to making food for myself, I'll try to cut down my own meat consumption and up my vegetable intake. I think cauliflower is evil, but I wanted to try integrating it into my diet, plus like, other vegetables I don't really eat, leeks, artichokes, more squash. I know I've wanted for a long time to try making large quantities of food on the weekend and divvy it into frozen meals. I'll need freezerware. Also, I'm so enamored with banana-based ice cream, I wonder if I couldn't use it to up my vegetable consumption--ooh, frozen squeeze pouches yuussssssss!!! I'm so excited. And then I thought about that again.....

[josephkitchen0]

A Pig Feeding Guide for Raising Hogs

Many times the only pig feeding guide you can find states that pigs can eat everything. While this may be true, pigs shouldn’t necessarily eat everything. Most homesteaders are raising a hog or two for the family’s meat needs. What you feed the hog will contribute to the quality of the pork product you eventually serve to your family. This doesn’t mean that feeding the backyard pig has to be expensive. Pigs are omnivores. Omnivores are able to eat a varied diet and thrive. Chickens and humans are omnivores too. Different types of management styles will also determine what is the best pig feeding guide for you to follow.

Methods of Raising Pigs

Confinement raising of pigs is one that most homesteaders are trying to get away from. In the 1970’s this was the new bright and shiny method. People were beginning to raise pigs on concrete slabs, in confined spaces. All food was brought to the pig and they were not able to range and forage for roots, bugs, and tasty greens. The growth was fast and the turn around quick. The pigs were fed a lot of grain and supplemented with garbage from the home.

Free Range/Pasture Raising

Much like grazing herbivores, pigs can forage in the pasture. Raising pigs on pasture results in a lean, healthy pork product. The hogs do tend to root up all the ground though, so this is usually a rotational grazing type of management. After the pigs go through, the land can be rested, then tilled to prepare for planting. Since pigs are omnivores, the parasite situation needs to be monitored. Using the same pasture for other species to graze too soon after the hogs can lead to parasite problems.

Combination Raising

We use a modified free range set up. Our pigs have a few acres of fenced land. They quickly eat any growth and vegetation in the spring but we provide some grain, hay, milk, vegetable scraps from grocery stores, and table scraps and kitchen compost. The meat from our hogs is lean and tasty because they are eating a varied diet and getting fresh air and exercise.

How Much Does a Pig Need to Eat?

This will vary depending on the type of food you are feeding the hogs. Pigs will not over eat. They are smarter than the human omnivores in this way! Automatic grain feeders are a possibility for pigs because they will only eat what they need. I have seen this with our pigs too. We don’t use an automatic feeder but will put the carcass from a successful hunting trip in the pig pen. The pigs will eat all of it, but not necessarily right away. The geese carcasses sat for two days before they were all gone.

Making a homemade hog feeder is another optional way to feed the pigs. Placing it near the fence line can help you deliver feed without going into the pen, with the pigs.

What Vegetables Do the Pigs Eat?

Almost any vegetable you can grow is suitable for a pig. One year we raised a bumper crop of turnips, only to find out that no one in the family liked turnips at all! No problem! The pigs were happy to oblige us and ate every turnip we provided them.Overgrown greens, lettuces, spinach, and kale are good to toss to the pigs. Any garden produce that has some deer or other damage done to it can still be food for the pigs. Tomatoes, potatoes, overgrown cucumbers and squash are all good treats for the pigs. In a pig’s thinking, all vegetables should be included in a pig feeding guide.

Dairy, Eggs and Cheese

Excess or expired milk is a good way to add calories to the pig’s diet. Cheese is a huge treat for our breeding pigs. Since we also raise a lot of layer hens, occasionally I will have extra eggs. When eggs have been around for a couple weeks in my refrigerator and more eggs are piling up, I will treat the pigs to hard boiled eggs.

Baked Goods and Refined Grain Products

This is a matter of choice I suppose. We limit the breads, cakes, and any refined grain products we give to the pigs because it makes their waste products smell even more than normal. We all know pigs are a bit smelly. When we feed a large quantity of bread type products, the smell seems to reach a new level. When we cut this food group out or limit it, the smell is more tolerable.

Nuts and Meat

Nuts are a great source of protein for pigs. Most pig feeding guides will mention how much pigs love acorns, and other foraged nuts. If you have this available, definitely give your pigs nuts.

Meat scraps are usually fed raw if we have them. We don’t feed much other meat other than scraps from the kitchen or the carcass from hunting.

Note that not all countries permit the use of garbage as pig feed. In some countries, disease concerns and previous outbreaks have led to certain legislation being put in place, that limits the food fed to a pig. This can pertain to backyard pigs. As always, know your local laws and check with an agriculture extension office if you have any questions.

Pig Feeding Guide on Commercial Feed Bag

The feed stores have products that are specifically designed for hogs. Some carry specific show pig formulas. The bag will carry a pig feeding guide for that ration. This can get expensive but will ensure that you meet the nutritional needs of your hog. In addition to the foods we provide for our pigs, we also feed some commercial grain products. This means that our pigs are getting some GMO corn but that is a choice each of us has to make. The land you have, the management style you use and your resources are going to be factors in the decision to feed commercial grain. A general purpose livestock feed is the most inexpensive formula to purchase in most cases. Some people will buy just corn.

Check with Local Groceries

Not all grocery stores can or will be able to donate the scraps to you for your pig. If you can find a store that will, it’s a good deal! This may be offered on a first come, first serve basis as others in your community will be searching for the garden compost too.

Visit your local farmer’s market and ask to purchase seconds, or produce that is past it’s prime, at a reduced rate. The vendor might be very interested in working out a regular arrangement that benefits you both.

When you are raising pigs for meat it may require getting creative about their feed. It’s not too difficult to come up with your own pig feeding guide. List the foods available to you, including any kitchen waste, donations from grocery stores, pasture plants, and other sources of vegetation. Decide if you will need to supplement with commercial grain in order to keep the pigs well fed. Enjoy the pigs as they grow and soon enough you will have raised healthy delicious meat for your family.

What’s on your pig feeding guide? We’d love to hear in the comments below.

A Pig Feeding Guide for Raising Hogs was originally posted by All About Chickens

[organiclifestylemagazine]

A Guide to Finding and Choosing The Healthiest Eggs

They are fooling you. The words on the egg cartons don’t mean what you think they do.

“Vegetarian-fed”, “cage-free”, “omega-3 enriched”, “free-range”, “organic”, “humanely-raised”, and “pasture-raised” all seem like healthy choices, but they don’t accurately reflect how healthy the eggs are.

The egg aisle of a grocery store is like a political primary debate. Every egg carton is saying what you what to hear to get your vote. But they are just words.

Words that are used with the intent to make you buy the eggs, but they don’t provide you with the answer to the question:

Which eggs are the healthiest?

To find the healthiest eggs, you must find the healthiest hens — hens that eat what they are biologically designed to eat.

Chickens are Not Vegetarians

Among the dozens of different egg cartons, you think you’ve found the holy grail. Eggs from 100% vegetarian-fed chickens. Vegetables are healthy, so these must be the healthiest, right?

The only problem is that the healthiest chickens eat omnivorous diets. Chickens love to munch on green plants, wild seeds, earthworms, and insects. In fact, many chickens prefer insects over plants.

Every time I see “vegetarian-fed” on a carton of eggs, I am reminded of the time I held a big juicy worm four feet above a group of chickens. They jumped with vigor — flapping their wings, doing anything to get the worm before their hen friends.

Surely, they’d do the same for any kind of food. They are probably just hungry. But when I tried the same with sunflower seeds and fresh organic vegetables, they turned away and continued scraping the ground with their claws to find bugs and worms.

Related: Animal vs. Plant Protein – What’s Better?

The Truth About Vegetarian-fed Chickens

“Vegetarian-fed”, however, does not mean the chickens are roaming around an organic vegetable garden oasis. In most cases, the egg companies didn’t change anything, but how they label their eggs.

For example, an egg carton that is labeled 100% vegetarian-fed and cage-free indicates that the chickens were raised indoors in a confined space with hundreds of other chickens.

To give you some perspective, imagine you are in a subway car during rush hour. Packed so many people that you almost kissed the guy next to you. Now imagine living your life in that subway car — no one gets out unless they die. (But at least you are not in cages, and you get free food!)

The chickens are, however, provided with food that is scientifically designed to cover their needs. Here’s an example of a typical “vegetarian” diet reported by Mother Earth News:

Here’s the ingredients list from “16 percent Layer Crumbles,” a feed designed for hens raised in confinement: “Grain Products, Plant Protein Products, Processed Grain Byproducts, Roughage Products, Forage Products, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Choline Chloride, Folic Acid, Manadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex, Methionine Supplement, Calcium Carbonate, Salt, Manganous Oxide, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Chloride, Zinc Oxide, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide, Sodium Selenite.”

This feed may seem like it is covering all of the nutritional needs of the chicken, but studies show that vegetarian-fed chickens that live in confinement lay eggs that have:

1/3 more cholesterol

1/4 more saturated fat

2/3 less vitamin A

2 times less omega-3 fatty acids

3 times less vitamin E

7 times less beta carotene

50 percent less folic acid

70 percent less vitamin B12

50-112% less Vitamin D

But what are they comparing these eggs too? Eggs from chickens that are free to roam the outdoors and eat all types of plants and insects — the healthiest eggs. Words like “pastured”, “pasture-raised”, and “free-range” on egg cartons seem to reflect this healthy lifestyle, but they do not guarantee that the chickens were raised in this way. In fact,  “pastured”, “pasture-raised”, and “free-range” eggs just mean that the chickens had some access to the outdoors — regardless if it is a lifeless mud pit or a luscious green pasture.

But does it really matter if the chickens are outdoors? If we feed them a wide variety of seeds, plants, and insects, then they’ll be healthy, right?

Not so fast. Like humans, chickens don’t solely rely on diet for health. Sun exposure matters as much to chickens as it does to us.

Chickens Sun Bathe Too

If we don’t get any sun, our vitamin D levels drop, followed by less energy and depression. When we are chronically vitamin D deficient, our bones can become brittle and break easily. The same happens to chickens who have little access to the outdoors. (That’s right, they synthesize vitamin D from the sun just like us.)

Vitamin D deficient chickens will also lay brittle eggs that provide us with less nutrition. But the vegeterian feed has vitamin D in it — shouldn’t that cover their vitamin D needs?

Two animal researchers, Heuser and Norris, showed that 11 to 45 minutes of sunshine daily were sufficient to prevent rickets in growing chickens, but no improvements were obtained with vitamin D supplementation. This suggests that chickens are much better at using sunlight to synthesize vitamin D than using supplemental vitamin D.

Related: Vitamin D – The #1 Vitamin You Need: From Treating Depression to Preventing Cancer

What About “Omega-3 Enriched” Eggs?

Don’t fall for the hype. Although they do have higher omega-3s, these eggs are just as bad as conventional eggs.

Omega-3 enriched eggs usually come from chickens that are fed omega-3 supplements like krill oil, flaxseed oil, and algae oil on top of their unhealthy vegetarian diet. These oils are most likely rancid and unhealthy for the chickens.

The healthiest way to enrich eggs with omega-3s is by letting the chickens eat what they are designed to eat. Chickens that naturally feed on pasture have significantly increased amounts of omega-3s in their eggs compared to conventional eggs.

Related: Everything You Should Know About Fat

The Healthiest Egg

Now, we are beginning to put it all together. Chickens are omnivores that need access to the outdoors whenever they choose. Eggs that come from chickens who live the way that they are supposed to live are the healthiest.

This contention is even backed up by research that Mother Earth News conducted. They tested the nutrient content of eggs from chickens who lived under natural conditions. The editor-in-chief of Mother Earth News, Cheryl Long, commented that:

“Our test results reveal that the unnatural and inhumane conditions of factory farms are giving us substandard food. Consumers will get more nutritious eggs if they pay a premium for true free-range eggs from birds raised on pasture.”

How to Know if You Have The Healthiest Eggs

It doesn’t matter how many catchy words an egg carton throws at you. It could say “pasture-raised”, “non-GMO”, “humanely raised”, “organic”, or “I swear to God these are healthy — please trust me,” but that doesn’t mean they are the best eggs you can get.

This is because claims like “pastured” “pasture-raise” “cage-free” and “free-range” don’t mean what you think they do. Labeling laws allow egg products to display these terms even if the egg-laying chickens spend little or no time outdoors in a pasture setting.

Non-GMO and organic eggs are also promising, but organic and non-GMO eggs may still be fed a vegetarian diet with little access to the outdoors. Bummer. So what can you do?

The only way to find the healthiest possible eggs is to connect with the farmer of the chickens that made them. Visit or reach out to the farm/company that produces the eggs that you normally buy and find out how they raise their hens. I’ve personally done this for Handsome Brook Farm’s pasture-raised eggs and found out that they were making false claims on their packaging. Their eggs are no better than cheaper “cage-free” eggs.

To find the healthiest eggs, it is best to stay local and get to know the farmer. Do a quick search on localharvest.org and eatwild.com to find a farmer that has quality eggs.

The Quickest Way to Know if You Have High-Quality Eggs

If you are not sure that you can trust the eggs you are having now, you can test them in two ways.

The Egg Shell Crack Test:

If the egg shell is very brittle and has little to no membrane on the inside, then it came from a chicken that is vitamin D deficient (and probably deficient in other vitamins and minerals as well). This indicates that the chickens didn’t have much access to the sun.

The Egg Yolk Color Test:

Egg yolks with a deep orange color are higher in vitamin A and beta-carotene. This deep color indicates that the chicken has access to a diverse array of different plants. A pale, yellow yolk tells you that the chicken ate a diet consisting of mostly white corn and other nutrient-depleted grains that aren’t as healthy for the chicken.

Does Your Egg Pass The Test?

If the egg shell is resilient, and the yolk is a dense orange color then you have some healthy eggs. Conversely, if the shell shatters easily and has a pale yolk then it most likely came from an unhealthy chicken.

The Best Way to Prepare Eggs

If you have high-quality eggs, it is best to eat the yolk raw and cook the egg whites.

Eggs yolks should be eaten raw because cooking them will oxidize their cholesterol (rendering it unhealthy), and denature many of the vitamins (rendering them useless). If you don’t like the taste of raw eggs, then put a couple yolks into your morning smoothies with some lemon juice. This way you won’t taste the raw egg, and the lemon juice will prevent some of the nutrients from denaturing.

But before you eat the yolk, make sure you separate it from the egg white. The egg white has proteins in it that bind to the b-vitamins, making them useless. If you want to get the extra protein that the whites provide, then you can cook them until they turn white (but not brown). Cooking the egg white will deactivate the proteins binding to the b-vitamins, so you can get all of the vitamins out of the raw yolk and all of the protein from the whites at the same time.

The Takeaway

The healthiest eggs come from the healthiest hens.

Don’t blindly trust the words on the egg carton. The only way to know if you have healthy eggs is by finding out how the chickens are raised. Do your research, and get to know your egg farmer.

If you are looking to get the most nutrition out of your high-quality eggs, it is best to have the egg yolks raw and the egg whites cooked.

Recommended Reading:

Homemade Calcium and Magnesium

Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included

The Benefits of Backyard Chickens

Pasture-Raised Eggs Are a Nutritional Powerhouse

Sources:

Egg Labels: What To Look For — 100 Days of Real Food (Image Credit)

Raising Backyard Chickens Part 3 – Pastured Eggs vs. Store Bought — The Dabblist (Image credit)

Meet Real Free-Range Eggs — Mother Earth News

Eggs, pasture-raised — The World’s Healthiest Foods

Beware of Misleading Omega-3 Claims — Mercola

Vitamin D �� DSM

Important Update on Eating Raw Eggs — Mercola

Vitamin B12 bioavailability from egg yolk and egg white: relationship to binding proteins. — NCBI

Free-Range Eggs Contain More Vitamin D According to Mother Earth News Study — Organic Consumers Association

False Egg Labeling Case Against Handsome Brook Farm Can Proceed, Court Rules — Animal Legal Defense Fund

A Guide to Finding and Choosing The Healthiest Eggs was originally published on Organic Lifestyle Magazine

[barefoodangel]

What Do Chicken Feed Labels Mean?

In Unscrambling the Egg (Carton) post, we covered why eggs are nutritious, how with big ranching production follow questionable and inhumane practices. We went over the difference between conventional/battery cage,  cage free, free range and pasture raised eggs. We covered what kind of eggs pack the most nutrients and least amount of inflammatory properties (because of how they are raised).

In this article, we’ll cover the basics of the kind of feeds that chickens consume, what is the best kind and how to find out from your rancher if they practice humanely and sustainably.

Vegetarian Fed

Chickens are omnivores. They were designed by nature to eat bugs, worms, and insects. Sometimes they will even consume mice and snakes. It is best if their diet is mainly from foraging their food eating all the above and cereal grasses. Foraging this way allows the chickens to have more omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin E, B12, A, folate than their caged and stressed out counterparts. Because of exposure to natural outdoor sunlight, they have higher level of vitamin D. Pastured eggs are higher in the anti-oxidants lutein and zeaxanthin which helps in prevention of macular degeneration.

If given grains, it should only be in supplemental form and amount.

Pasture raised chicken that is free to pasture and roam and consume its native food will have a 3:1 ratio of omega 6 and 3. Most people are consuming far too many omega-6 fats compared to omega-3 fats. 
The ideal ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats is 1:1. And the typical Western diet is between 1:20 and 1:50 ratio. This kind of ratio causes inflammatory reactions in our bodies.

Most grains are loaded with omega-6 fats that disrupt the omega 3:6 ratio. Our diet is unbalanced in its ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids because of the abundance of soy and corn in our diets today.

The Omega 3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3s are so good for you because of their anti-inflammatory properties, especially the omega-3s from animal sources.

The end of the fatty acid chain, opposite the acid end, is the “omega end.” The location of the first double bond from the omega end dictates whether a fatty acid is an omega-3, omega-6, omega-9 (oleic acid), or another member of the “omega family.”  Both omega-3s and omega-6s come in both short-and long-chain varieties.

“Essential fatty acids” (EFAs) is a term referring to the PUFAs your body needs but cannot produce (or convert from other fats), so they must be obtained from your diet.

According to Dr. Mercola, traditionally, only two fats were considered “essential”—ALA (an omega-3 fat) and LA (an omega-6 fat). However, we now know it’s the long-chain derivatives—arachidonic acid, DHA, and EPA—that your body needs the most.Omega-3 Fats.

Plant Based: The shorter-chain form of omega-3 is alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), the only omega-3 found in plants (except for some algae). Foods rich in ALA include flaxseed oil (53 percent), canola oil (11 percent), English walnuts (9 percent), and soybean oil (7 percent). ALA is considered essential because your body can’t make it, so you need it in your diet—or its long-chain derivatives.

Animal Based: The longer-chain forms of omega-3 are found mostly in animals and they are eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids (EPA and DHA) and are highly unsaturated, mainly found in fish, shellfish and krill. DHA is the primary structural component of your brain and retina, and EPA is its precursor.

Why Omega 3 (essential fatty acid) enhanced label may not mean much?

Your body can make some EPA and DHA from short-chain ALA, but does so inefficiently. Recent studies suggest less than one percent of ALA is converted, if you are consuming the typical Western diet. DHA is found in cod liver oil, fatty fish, and in smaller concentrations in the organs and fats of land animals.

Some ranchers understanding how this works, feed their chickens high quality fish meal and crab meal that come from clean sources. This fish source contains almost twice as much of Omega 3 fatty acids as organic “Omega 3” eggs that derive their Omega 3 fatty acids from flax seeds.

Certified Organic

If certified organic by the USDA’s national organic program, the birds are fed an organic, all-vegetarian diet, free of antibiotics and pesticides and GMOs. Most likely their feed will include soy and/or corn.

Why not Corn and Soy?

Furthermore, if given supplements, I seek ranchers who avoid soy and corn for the following reasons:

Doing this contributes towards a healthier balance of Omega 6 and 3 ratios. This eliminates a major source of Omega 6 fatty acids that are contained in soy and corn.

Because corn and soy have been genetically modified for a couple of decades, it has had plenty of time to cross contaminate the organic kinds. Additionally, most soybeans are grown on farms that use toxic pesticides and herbicides. Some companies stopped using corn because they actually found alarmingly high amounts of GMOs and glyphosate in the corn that was included in the poultry feed.

Soy and corn being one of the most common food allergens, many people may be sensitive to consuming eggs where chickens were fed soy and corn.

Some undesirable products contained in soy are:

Goitrogens:Unfermented soy whether it’s organic or not, are substances that block the synthesis of thyroid hormones and interfere with iodine metabolism,thereby interfering with your thyroid function.

Phytoestrogens (isoflavones) is a plant compound resembling human estrogen which mimic and sometimes block the hormone estrogen. There is evidence it may disturb endocrine function, cause infertility, and promote breast cancer

Phytates (phytic acid) binds to metal ions, preventing the absorption of certain minerals, including calcium, magnesium, iton and zinc. It block the body’s uptake of minerals

Enzyme Inhibitors, which hinder protein digestion

“anti-nutrients” — Soy also contains other anti-nutritional factors such as saponins, soyatoxin, protease inhibitors, and oxalates. Some of these factors interfere with the enzymes you need to digest protein.

Haemaggluttin, a clot-promoting substance that causes your red blood cells to clump together inhibiting oxygen absobtion and distribution to your tissues.

pesticides and herbicides, and GMO

Studies have shown unfermented soy may:

Increase the risk of breast cancer in women, brain damage in both men and women, and abnormalities in infants

Contribute to thyroid disorders, especially in women

Promote kidney stones

Weaken the immune system

Cause severe, potentially fatal food allergies

Impaired fertility

Danger during pregnancy and nursing

Some research is showing that the soy isoflavones from chickens fed diet concentrated with soy feed are transferred into the yolks of chicken eggs.

Professor M. Monica Giusti of The Ohio State University has done research on soy isoflavones appearing in commercial egg yolks. In 2009 one of her graduate students conducted some research on soy protein in egg yolks for a thesis, and Tropical Traditions supplied some of their Cocofeed for the study. Their research found: “Egg yolks of hens provided with the soy free diet, showed a rapid decrease of isoflavone concentration. From an initial isoflavone content of 52µg ± 0.73/100g it quickly diminished until at day 7, the concentration reached individual aglycone undetectable levels.”

High concentrations of estrogen mimicking hormones may end up in the yolks causing disruption in human fertility by upsetting the delicate hormonal balance. It may cause irregularities in sexual development.

Have your chicken and eat your eggs.

Here are great reasons to have your own backyard chickens.

It was the best decision we made when the kids were younger. Unfortunately our HOA is not tolerant and understanding of the value that it brings. I live in the suburbs and the community follows rules even if it doesn’t serve them anymore.

If your community is open minded and open hearted about it, I highly recommend it.

BareFood Angel’s Bottom Line

When buying eggs, choose:

Pasture Raised

Meet Sustainable Standards (no pesticides, herbicides, GMOs)

Preferably Soy Free *

Preferably Corn Free *

*usually if it is certified organic, it will include corn and soy. Best option is to purchase soy and corn free eggs that are pasture raised. In this case usually the rancher has developed their own feed that is GMO free. Second best option is to Pasture Raised Organic eggs.

Some questions to ask your egg rancher:

Get to know the rancher. Visit the farm if possible.

Contact the rancher through website if you can’t visit the farm.

Make sure chickens have free access to sunshine

Chickens have ability to forage for bugs and cereal grasses

Rotated to new grass periodically

Supplemented diet with leftover greens

Applied natural bug repellents like Diatomaceous Earth and garlic in their water

Humanely treated without beak or toe clipping

“Certified Humane” label is helpful

Organic is important but not a sole criteria

Ask if rancher has developed their own feed that is GMO free.

“Animal Welfare Approved” is a good label

“No Antibiotics” label is important and regulated.
Sometimes organic is not enough

Marketing plows to watch for:

“Cage free”, “free range” and even “pasture raised” are mainly just buzz words and not regulated

Flax feed or plant based feed used to create ”high omega-3″ is not efficient since the EPA and DHA cannot adequately be converted by humans

Vegetarian Fed (chickens are not vegetarians)

Organic may include a large amount of corn and soy which is not ideal

Organic chickens can still be overcrowded and have inhumane conditions

Pictures of barns and farms on cartons are just marketing propaganda

“No hormones” is not helpful since hormones are not allowed to be used on chickens by the USDA

“No antibiotics” is a helpful label and is regulated by USDA

USDA Organic can be used if a product is only 95% organic

“Pesticide free” has no regulation

“Natural” also has no regulation

Sources and References:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/05/12/is-omega-6-more-important-than-omega-3.aspx

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/71/1/179S.full?ijkey=5c7af875f3dc71a303f7df78c52145e8b7c31643

http://www.mercola.com/article/omega3.htm

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/substance/omega-3-fatty-acids

www.fatsoflife.com/fat-basics.php

https://healthytraditions.com/grassfedtraditions/soy-free-eggs.html

ajcn.nutrition.org/content/71/1/179S.full?ijkey=5c7af875f3dc71a303f7df78c52145e8b7c31643

https://healthytraditions.com/grassfedtraditions/soy-free-eggs.html

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2000/08/20/soy-dangers-part-two.aspx

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11758913

https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/childrens-health/eat-your-eggs-and-have-your-chickens-too/

Studies Showing the Toxicity of Soy in the US Food & Drug Administration’s Poisonous Plant Database (7.5M PDF)  FDASoyReferences

Studies Showing Adverse Effects of Dietary Soy, 1939-2014

Studies Showing Adverse Effects of Isoflavones, 1950-2013

Leave your thoughts and ideas directly in the comment section below. Remember, share as much detail as possible in your reply. Your comments may provide insight and inspiration and your experience may help someone else have a meaningful breakthrough. Links to other posts, videos, etc. will be deleted as they come across as spammy. Thank you as always, for watching, sharing and allowing me to be a part of your world. It’s a true honor. Feel free to share this post. Ask your friends and family to sign up through this link to automatically receive my latest posts/recipes/practical healthful ideas.

I would really appreciate it if you could share this post socially. If you hover over the main image (the very top image), it will show you the social sites to choose from. Click on any of the social site buttons and share.

To Your Health,

You want practical and real food solutions that meet the modern world demands? Then sign up to receive healthful tips and recipes! 

We will never spam!

CountryUnited StatesCanadaUnited KingdomAfghanistanÅlandAlbaniaAlgeriaAmerican SamoaAndorraAngolaAnguillaAntarcticaAntigua and BarbudaArgentinaArmeniaArubaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBermudaBhutanBoliviaBonaireBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswanaBouvet IslandBrazilBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryBritish Virgin IslandsBruneiBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombiaComorosCook IslandsCosta RicaCroatia (Local Name: Hrvatska)CubaCuracaoCyprusCzech RepublicDemocratic Republic of the CongoDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEast TimorEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Faroe IslandsFijiFinlandFranceFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabonGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGibraltarGreeceGreenlandGrenadaGuadeloupeGuamGuatemalaGuernseyGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHeard Island and McDonald IslandsHondurasHong KongHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIranIraqIrelandIsle of ManIsraelItalyIvory CoastJamaicaJapanJerseyJordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKosovoKuwaitKyrgyzstanLaosLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMacaoMacedoniaMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMarshall IslandsMartiniqueMauritaniaMauritiusMayotteMexicoMicronesiaMoldovaMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMontserratMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmar (Burma)NamibiaNauruNepalNetherlandsNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNiueNorfolk IslandNorth KoreaNorthern Mariana IslandsNorwayOmanPakistanPalauPalestinePanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPitcairn IslandsPolandPortugalPuerto RicoQatarRepublic of the CongoRéunionRomaniaRussiaRwandaSaint BarthélemySaint HelenaSaint Kitts and NevisSaint LuciaSaint MartinSaint Pierre and MiquelonSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesSamoaSan MarinoSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSint MaartenSlovakia (Slovak Republic)SloveniaSolomon IslandsSomaliaSouth AfricaSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSouth KoreaSouth SudanSpainSri LankaSudanSurinameSvalbard and Jan MayenSwazilandSwedenSwitzerlandSyriaSão Tomé and PríncipeTaiwanTajikistanTanzaniaThailandTogoTokelauTongaTrinidad and TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluU.S. Minor Outlying IslandsU.S. Virgin IslandsUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUnited StatesUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVatican CityVenezuelaVietnamWallis and FutunaWestern SaharaYemenZambiaZimbabwe

StateAlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareD.C.FloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew MexicoNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyomingAlbertaBritish ColumbiaManitobaNew BrunswickNewfoundland and LabradorNova ScotiaNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioPrince Edward IslandQuebecSaskatchewanYukon(AU) Australian Capital Territory(AU) New South Wales(AU) Victoria(AU) Queensland(AU) Northern Territory(AU) Western Australia(AU) South Australia(AU) Tasmania(AF) Gauteng(AF) Western Cape(AF) Eastern Cape(AF) KwaZulu Natal(AF) North West(AF) Northern Cape(AF) Mpumalanga(AF) Free StateMy State is not listed

I am a health/wellness practitioner

The post What Do Chicken Feed Labels Mean? appeared first on Barefood Angel.

[barefoodangelblog]

What Do Chicken Feed Labels Mean?

In Unscrambling the Egg (Carton) post, we covered why eggs are nutritious, how with big ranching production follow questionable and inhumane practices. We went over the difference between conventional/battery cage,  cage free, free range and pasture raised eggs. We covered what kind of eggs pack the most nutrients and least amount of inflammatory properties (because of how they are raised).

In this article, we’ll cover the basics of the kind of feeds that chickens consume, what is the best kind and how to find out from your rancher if they practice humanely and sustainably.

Vegetarian Fed

Chickens are omnivores. They were designed by nature to eat bugs, worms, and insects. Sometimes they will even consume mice and snakes. It is best if their diet is mainly from foraging their food eating all the above and cereal grasses. Foraging this way allows the chickens to have more omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin E, B12, A, folate than their caged and stressed out counterparts. Because of exposure to natural outdoor sunlight, they have higher level of vitamin D. Pastured eggs are higher in the anti-oxidants lutein and zeaxanthin which helps in prevention of macular degeneration.

If given grains, it should only be in supplemental form and amount.

Pasture raised chicken that is free to pasture and roam and consume its native food will have a 3:1 ratio of omega 6 and 3. Most people are consuming far too many omega-6 fats compared to omega-3 fats. 
The ideal ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats is 1:1. And the typical Western diet is between 1:20 and 1:50 ratio. This kind of ratio causes inflammatory reactions in our bodies.

Most grains are loaded with omega-6 fats that disrupt the omega 3:6 ratio. Our diet is unbalanced in its ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids because of the abundance of soy and corn in our diets today.

The Omega 3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3s are so good for you because of their anti-inflammatory properties, especially the omega-3s from animal sources.

The end of the fatty acid chain, opposite the acid end, is the “omega end.” The location of the first double bond from the omega end dictates whether a fatty acid is an omega-3, omega-6, omega-9 (oleic acid), or another member of the “omega family.”  Both omega-3s and omega-6s come in both short-and long-chain varieties.

“Essential fatty acids” (EFAs) is a term referring to the PUFAs your body needs but cannot produce (or convert from other fats), so they must be obtained from your diet.

According to Dr. Mercola, traditionally, only two fats were considered “essential”—ALA (an omega-3 fat) and LA (an omega-6 fat). However, we now know it’s the long-chain derivatives—arachidonic acid, DHA, and EPA—that your body needs the most.Omega-3 Fats.

Plant Based: The shorter-chain form of omega-3 is alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), the only omega-3 found in plants (except for some algae). Foods rich in ALA include flaxseed oil (53 percent), canola oil (11 percent), English walnuts (9 percent), and soybean oil (7 percent). ALA is considered essential because your body can’t make it, so you need it in your diet—or its long-chain derivatives.

Animal Based: The longer-chain forms of omega-3 are found mostly in animals and they are eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids (EPA and DHA) and are highly unsaturated, mainly found in fish, shellfish and krill. DHA is the primary structural component of your brain and retina, and EPA is its precursor.

Why Omega 3 (essential fatty acid) enhanced label may not mean much?

Your body can make some EPA and DHA from short-chain ALA, but does so inefficiently. Recent studies suggest less than one percent of ALA is converted, if you are consuming the typical Western diet. DHA is found in cod liver oil, fatty fish, and in smaller concentrations in the organs and fats of land animals.

Some ranchers understanding how this works, feed their chickens high quality fish meal and crab meal that come from clean sources. This fish source contains almost twice as much of Omega 3 fatty acids as organic “Omega 3” eggs that derive their Omega 3 fatty acids from flax seeds.

Certified Organic

If certified organic by the USDA’s national organic program, the birds are fed an organic, all-vegetarian diet, free of antibiotics and pesticides and GMOs. Most likely their feed will include soy and/or corn.

Why not Corn and Soy?

Furthermore, if given supplements, I seek ranchers who avoid soy and corn for the following reasons:

Doing this contributes towards a healthier balance of Omega 6 and 3 ratios. This eliminates a major source of Omega 6 fatty acids that are contained in soy and corn.

Because corn and soy have been genetically modified for a couple of decades, it has had plenty of time to cross contaminate the organic kinds. Additionally, most soybeans are grown on farms that use toxic pesticides and herbicides. Some companies stopped using corn because they actually found alarmingly high amounts of GMOs and glyphosate in the corn that was included in the poultry feed.

Soy and corn being one of the most common food allergens, many people may be sensitive to consuming eggs where chickens were fed soy and corn.

Some undesirable products contained in soy are:

Goitrogens:Unfermented soy whether it’s organic or not, are substances that block the synthesis of thyroid hormones and interfere with iodine metabolism,thereby interfering with your thyroid function.

Phytoestrogens (isoflavones) is a plant compound resembling human estrogen which mimic and sometimes block the hormone estrogen. There is evidence it may disturb endocrine function, cause infertility, and promote breast cancer

Phytates (phytic acid) binds to metal ions, preventing the absorption of certain minerals, including calcium, magnesium, iton and zinc. It block the body’s uptake of minerals

Enzyme Inhibitors, which hinder protein digestion

“anti-nutrients” — Soy also contains other anti-nutritional factors such as saponins, soyatoxin, protease inhibitors, and oxalates. Some of these factors interfere with the enzymes you need to digest protein.

Haemaggluttin, a clot-promoting substance that causes your red blood cells to clump together inhibiting oxygen absobtion and distribution to your tissues.

pesticides and herbicides, and GMO

Studies have shown unfermented soy may:

Increase the risk of breast cancer in women, brain damage in both men and women, and abnormalities in infants

Contribute to thyroid disorders, especially in women

Promote kidney stones

Weaken the immune system

Cause severe, potentially fatal food allergies

Impaired fertility

Danger during pregnancy and nursing

Some research is showing that the soy isoflavones from chickens fed diet concentrated with soy feed are transferred into the yolks of chicken eggs.

Professor M. Monica Giusti of The Ohio State University has done research on soy isoflavones appearing in commercial egg yolks. In 2009 one of her graduate students conducted some research on soy protein in egg yolks for a thesis, and Tropical Traditions supplied some of their Cocofeed for the study. Their research found: “Egg yolks of hens provided with the soy free diet, showed a rapid decrease of isoflavone concentration. From an initial isoflavone content of 52µg ± 0.73/100g it quickly diminished until at day 7, the concentration reached individual aglycone undetectable levels.”

High concentrations of estrogen mimicking hormones may end up in the yolks causing disruption in human fertility by upsetting the delicate hormonal balance. It may cause irregularities in sexual development.

Have your chicken and eat your eggs.

Here are great reasons to have your own backyard chickens.

It was the best decision we made when the kids were younger. Unfortunately our HOA is not tolerant and understanding of the value that it brings. I live in the suburbs and the community follows rules even if it doesn’t serve them anymore.

If your community is open minded and open hearted about it, I highly recommend it.

BareFood Angel’s Bottom Line

When buying eggs, choose:

Pasture Raised

Meet Sustainable Standards (no pesticides, herbicides, GMOs)

Preferably Soy Free *

Preferably Corn Free *

*usually if it is certified organic, it will include corn and soy. Best option is to purchase soy and corn free eggs that are pasture raised. In this case usually the rancher has developed their own feed that is GMO free. Second best option is to Pasture Raised Organic eggs.

Some questions to ask your egg rancher:

Get to know the rancher. Visit the farm if possible.

Contact the rancher through website if you can’t visit the farm.

Make sure chickens have free access to sunshine

Chickens have ability to forage for bugs and cereal grasses

Rotated to new grass periodically

Supplemented diet with leftover greens

Applied natural bug repellents like Diatomaceous Earth and garlic in their water

Humanely treated without beak or toe clipping

“Certified Humane” label is helpful

Organic is important but not a sole criteria

Ask if rancher has developed their own feed that is GMO free.

“Animal Welfare Approved” is a good label

“No Antibiotics” label is important and regulated.
Sometimes organic is not enough

Marketing plows to watch for:

“Cage free”, “free range” and even “pasture raised” are mainly just buzz words and not regulated

Flax feed or plant based feed used to create ”high omega-3″ is not efficient since the EPA and DHA cannot adequately be converted by humans

Vegetarian Fed (chickens are not vegetarians)

Organic may include a large amount of corn and soy which is not ideal

Organic chickens can still be overcrowded and have inhumane conditions

Pictures of barns and farms on cartons are just marketing propaganda

“No hormones” is not helpful since hormones are not allowed to be used on chickens by the USDA

“No antibiotics” is a helpful label and is regulated by USDA

USDA Organic can be used if a product is only 95% organic

“Pesticide free” has no regulation

“Natural” also has no regulation

Sources and References:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/05/12/is-omega-6-more-important-than-omega-3.aspx

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/71/1/179S.full?ijkey=5c7af875f3dc71a303f7df78c52145e8b7c31643

http://www.mercola.com/article/omega3.htm

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/substance/omega-3-fatty-acids

www.fatsoflife.com/fat-basics.php

https://healthytraditions.com/grassfedtraditions/soy-free-eggs.html

ajcn.nutrition.org/content/71/1/179S.full?ijkey=5c7af875f3dc71a303f7df78c52145e8b7c31643

https://healthytraditions.com/grassfedtraditions/soy-free-eggs.html

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2000/08/20/soy-dangers-part-two.aspx

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11758913

https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/childrens-health/eat-your-eggs-and-have-your-chickens-too/

Studies Showing the Toxicity of Soy in the US Food & Drug Administration’s Poisonous Plant Database (7.5M PDF)  FDASoyReferences

Studies Showing Adverse Effects of Dietary Soy, 1939-2014

Studies Showing Adverse Effects of Isoflavones, 1950-2013

Leave your thoughts and ideas directly in the comment section below. Remember, share as much detail as possible in your reply. Your comments may provide insight and inspiration and your experience may help someone else have a meaningful breakthrough. Links to other posts, videos, etc. will be deleted as they come across as spammy. Thank you as always, for watching, sharing and allowing me to be a part of your world. It’s a true honor. Feel free to share this post. Ask your friends and family to sign up through this link to automatically receive my latest posts/recipes/practical healthful ideas.

I would really appreciate it if you could share this post socially. If you hover over the main image (the very top image), it will show you the social sites to choose from. Click on any of the social site buttons and share.

To Your Health,

You want practical and real food solutions that meet the modern world demands? Then sign up to receive healthful tips and recipes! 

We will never spam!

CountryUnited StatesCanadaUnited KingdomAfghanistanÅlandAlbaniaAlgeriaAmerican SamoaAndorraAngolaAnguillaAntarcticaAntigua and BarbudaArgentinaArmeniaArubaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBermudaBhutanBoliviaBonaireBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswanaBouvet IslandBrazilBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryBritish Virgin IslandsBruneiBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombiaComorosCook IslandsCosta RicaCroatia (Local Name: Hrvatska)CubaCuracaoCyprusCzech RepublicDemocratic Republic of the CongoDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEast TimorEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Faroe IslandsFijiFinlandFranceFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabonGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGibraltarGreeceGreenlandGrenadaGuadeloupeGuamGuatemalaGuernseyGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHeard Island and McDonald IslandsHondurasHong KongHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIranIraqIrelandIsle of ManIsraelItalyIvory CoastJamaicaJapanJerseyJordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKosovoKuwaitKyrgyzstanLaosLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMacaoMacedoniaMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMarshall IslandsMartiniqueMauritaniaMauritiusMayotteMexicoMicronesiaMoldovaMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMontserratMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmar (Burma)NamibiaNauruNepalNetherlandsNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNiueNorfolk IslandNorth KoreaNorthern Mariana IslandsNorwayOmanPakistanPalauPalestinePanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPitcairn IslandsPolandPortugalPuerto RicoQatarRepublic of the CongoRéunionRomaniaRussiaRwandaSaint BarthélemySaint HelenaSaint Kitts and NevisSaint LuciaSaint MartinSaint Pierre and MiquelonSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesSamoaSan MarinoSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSint MaartenSlovakia (Slovak Republic)SloveniaSolomon IslandsSomaliaSouth AfricaSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSouth KoreaSouth SudanSpainSri LankaSudanSurinameSvalbard and Jan MayenSwazilandSwedenSwitzerlandSyriaSão Tomé and PríncipeTaiwanTajikistanTanzaniaThailandTogoTokelauTongaTrinidad and TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluU.S. Minor Outlying IslandsU.S. Virgin IslandsUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUnited StatesUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVatican CityVenezuelaVietnamWallis and FutunaWestern SaharaYemenZambiaZimbabwe

StateAlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareD.C.FloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew MexicoNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyomingAlbertaBritish ColumbiaManitobaNew BrunswickNewfoundland and LabradorNova ScotiaNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioPrince Edward IslandQuebecSaskatchewanYukon(AU) Australian Capital Territory(AU) New South Wales(AU) Victoria(AU) Queensland(AU) Northern Territory(AU) Western Australia(AU) South Australia(AU) Tasmania(AF) Gauteng(AF) Western Cape(AF) Eastern Cape(AF) KwaZulu Natal(AF) North West(AF) Northern Cape(AF) Mpumalanga(AF) Free StateMy State is not listed

I am a health/wellness practitioner

The post What Do Chicken Feed Labels Mean? appeared first on Barefood Angel.

[hedgehogsofasgard]

Hedgehog nutrition

Hedgehog nutrition is probably one of the most widely debated topics when it comes to hedgehog care. Why? It’s because we don’t really know what hedgehogs need. We know what they eat, but breakdowns of ratios and percentages of their nutritional requirements are still unknown or very vague, or too difficult to replicate in captivity. Very little research has been done towards pet hedgehog nutrition so a lot of what’s recommended right now has been discovered through trial and error over the years and by looking at their natural diet and attempting to recreate it as best as we can.

In the wild

Hedgehogs are not just insectivores (and definitely not rodents!) but more like opportunistic omnivores: scavengers who will eat nearly everything they find, but the staple of their diet consists of invertebrates. The term that would describe them best would probably be ‘insectivorous omnivores’.

The studies that have been done on hedgehog diets in the wild mainly look at the frequency of occurrence of certain food types. While this works well for large sample sizes and makes it easier to compare various studies, it doesn’t give us full insight when it comes to the importance of different foods; it is more difficult to say which foods are actively selected or avoided by the animals in question. A single small arthropod occurring in twenty stomachs might show as a 20% occurrence, while twenty large arthropods in one stomach might be a 1% occurrence, even though they form a much larger proportion of the diet (Yalden, 1976). This is illustrated in the following figure:

(Source: The food of the hedgehog in England by D. W. Yalden, 1976)

This is one of the problems we’re facing: we do know what hedgehogs eat, but we’re unsure about the specific ratios and the nutritional importance of those various food types in relation to the hedgehog. Still, these studies can give us important insight and can help us recreate the most natural diet for our pets.

Invertebrates

Researchers in the Waitaki Basin, New-Zealand kill-trapped European hedgehogs (which are an invasive species in NZ) to examine the contents of their guts and found the following percentage occurrence:

Image source: Diet of hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in the upper Waitaki Basin, New Zealand: Implications for conservation by C. Jones et al. (2005)

From left to right: beetles (Coleoptera); butterfly and moths (mainly larvae) (Lepidoptera); bees, wasps and ants (Hymenoptera); grasshoppers, locusts and crickets (Orthoptera); flies (Diptera); birds; spiders (Arachnida); lizards; larvae (excl. Lepidoptera); eggshell; true bugs (Hemiptera); dragonflies (Odonata); worms (Annelida); stoneflies (Plecoptera) and alderflies, dobsonflies and fishflies (Megaloptera).

With the exception of birds, lizards and eggshells, these are all invertebrates. This includes the first five food types found in the highest occurrence. The ratios per hedgehog differed and some invertebrates were found in large quantities: three hedgehogs had consumed over 30 butterfly/moth larvae (and one over 52)! One animal contained 40 bumblebee legs and 52 spider wasp wings were found in another. Another study found the remains of 85 beetles in a single stomach. This abundance of one or two particular food types suggests the ability to focus on and exploit a locally abundant food source, a good example of the hedgehog’s opportunistic nature.

This corresponds with data from other studies (from Europe, Africa, Asia and NZ), such as that of Yalden (see first figure), or Jones and Norbury (2010) who examined faecal matter of NZ hedgehogs in an arid habitat and found “the most commonly eaten foods were beetles, including rare native species (in 94% of droppings), earwigs (92%), spiders (25%) and native skinks (14%)”.

Image source: Feeding selectivity of introduced hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus in a dryland habitat, South Island, New Zealand by C. Jones and G. Norbury, 2010

While we might not know all the details about hedgehog nutrition yet, every study agrees on the following basis: the hedgehog displays an opportunistic, omnivorous nature but with a strong reliance on invertebrate prey with it being the staple of their diet.

Vertebrates and eggs

The amount of vertebrates found in several studies is quite low and they do not seem to make up a very large part of the hedgehog’s diet. Yalden (1976) notes an occurrence of 12% when it comes to mammals, 16% for birds and 11% for eggs. Those numbers are most likely higher than usual since the trapped hedgehogs were mainly baited with (dead) rabbits, hares and eggs. Most mammalian remains found in other studies came from small animals such as mice and shrews and ranged from small bone and fur fragments to (although rare) entire mice skeletons. Fly eggs and maggots found in hedgehog stomachs suggest the feeding on carrion as does the occurrence of larger mammal remains.

Most occurrences of birds are based on just a few feathers. It is difficult to say whether or not these all belonged to avian prey; the feathers could have been ingested while raiding nests e.g. those of bumblebees which sometimes use them for nest lining, as the remains of those nests were found in some stomachs as well (Yalden, 1976). However, in several instances skin was still attached to the feathers.

When it comes to eggs it is difficult to say whether or not the eggshells found in faeces or guts are a good estimate because hedgehogs are more likely to leave the shells and only eat the contents of the egg (which is difficult to retrieve from stomachs or faeces).

One study found that adult female guts contained three times as many lizard remains than those of adult males (with a combined percentage occurrence of 6%). This might relate to higher energetic demands (protein) of the female during breeding season (Jones et al., 2005). Some studies didn’t find a noticeable difference between males and females. Identifiable lizard remains ranged from a few scales to whole feet and bone fragments (Jones and Norbury, 2010).

Plant matter

Since the hedgehog is considered to be somewhat omnivorous some plant matter in its diet was expected. Yalden (1976) found a percentage occurrence of 44%; however, the vast majority came from finely chewed plant matter from the guts of ingested invertebrates (mainly caterpillars). Most other plant matter, such as grass or pine needles, seemed to have been accidentally ingested. In most stomachs the quantity of plant matter was not or barely noticeable. In the stomachs where more and larger plant matter was found it had not been chewed nor digested; even though animal remains in those same stomachs were reduced to nothing more than bits of fur, feather and exoskeleton. Other studies reached a similar conclusion, with undigested plant matter found in both faeces and guts (Jones and Norbury found it in 49% of samples): it seems that most plant matter is not deliberately eaten and hedgehogs might not be able to digest it very well. Hedgehogs have a very simple gut system with no external distinction between large and small intestine and no caecum, the part where cellulose is digested in herbivores. There’s an exception to be made for fruit (and possibly young shoots); several studies have found fruit and seed remains in larger quantities, although never in many animals.

No plant matter was found in long-eared hedgehogs (Maheshwari, 1983).

The African pygmy hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris)

All studies cited here - except for one - have been done on European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus). Other studies with different species show corresponding results: a primarily insectivorous diet and an opportunistic nature. This goes for the most common pet species as well, the African pygmy hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris). Not many studies have been done on this species but their results suggest a similar diet selection: a staple of invertebrates, primarily termites, beetles, worms, millipedes, ants, grasshoppers and slugs as well as small vertebrates such as reptiles (both snakes and lizards), frogs, and young and eggs of ground-nesting birds (Cansdale 1960; Haltenorth and Diller 1988). They might eat some fruits, roots, groundnuts and fungi as well.

In captivity

Based on the information above one might expect a diet of primarily invertebrates with some meat and a little plant matter (fruit). However, this is not the standard. In most places the recommended diet for hedgehogs is high quality cat food with insects and other things as treats. This recommendation is based on the easy and relatively cheap availability of cat food and the simple fact that there currently isn’t a better, nutritionally balanced option when it comes to commercially available processed foods. 

Commercially available foods

Cat food has been fed to hedgehogs for a long time even though it is not made for them and therefore in several ways ill-suited. When pygmy hedgehogs were first domesticated in the US a lot of the info about hedgehog care came from British hedgehog rescues working with European hedgehogs. In Europe it is common to feed rescue hedgehogs cat food (wet food) because it is a cheap and easy option and a good way to fatten them up when they are malnourished and sickly. With nothing better on the market, the cat food diet stuck with the pet hedgehog community through the years and kibble is still the most commonly used staple food around the world.

Cat or dog food?

Both cat and dog food can be given to hedgehogs but most people give cat food because of the smaller kibble pieces. Dog kibble can be crushed to an appropriate size before feeding. When considering the more omnivorous nature of the hedgehog and not counting the insectivorous part they might more closely resemble canids than felids in terms of dietary needs; specific problems linked to obligate carnivores (such as taurine deficiency) have not been seen in hedgehogs. There is the possibility dog kibble might actually be a more suitable food for the hedgehog (out of what’s available at the moment).

Because cat and dog foods are not made with the intention to be eaten by hedgehogs, not all kibble is suitable. The current recommended percentages for protein, fat and fibre are as follows:

Protein: 28%-35%

Fat: 10%-15%

Fibre: as high as possible

These percentages have been estimated through trial and error in the past. Common food-related problems in hedgehogs are obesity, FLD (fatty liver disease), diabetes and renal problems, amongst other things (it has to be noted that it can be difficult to pinpoint whether or not a condition is completely diet-related).

Why most hedgehog food isn’t good for hedgehogs

In some countries special hedgehog or insectivore food is available (such as Exotic Nutrition or Mazuri), so why not feed those? Because the majority of these foods are of very bad quality. Unfortunately hedgehog food is often recommended by vets - though this is usually through no fault of them, since many (including exotic vets) often know very little to nothing about hedgehog nutrition as hedgehogs are not a common pet and most medical (US) papers on hedgehog nutrition are outdated. Hedgehog foods tend to contain lots of useless fillers and there are plenty of cat (and dog) foods of higher quality with better ingredients. The only plus side of some of the hedgehog/insectivore foods is the higher fibre content, but with such low quality ingredients and the fibre mainly or only coming from powdered cellulose it’s usually not worth it (or only as part of a mix) as fibre can be supplemented in other, healthier ways, such as feeding your hedgehog insects.

The importance of good ingredients

Not all kibble is created equal! There are huge differences in quality of ingredients when it comes to both cat and dog food. Many of the cheaper foods (although price doesn’t always guarantee quality) contain mostly fillers. Fillers such as grain, corn, potatoes and rice, which will fill your hedgehog’s belly but have very little nutritious value. What you’re looking for in a good food is meat in the first or preferably first few spots of the ingredient list. Don’t look at pretty labels and advertising, because companies - even those of so called ‘high quality’ foods - often have great marketing while the food in question might not be that great.

In general, things you want to avoid as a main ingredient are: corn, wheat, brewer’s rice, unnamed meats, unnamed meat meals, unnamed fats and by-products. Those are fillers or can be ‘waste’ like feet or intestines or other animal parts with very little nutritious value. Unnamed meats and such don’t necessarily have to come from animals slaughtered for the pet food industry so it’s a good idea to stay clear of vague unnamed ingredients. Ingredients to watch out for because they might be linked to health issues in cats or dogs are BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, menadione sodium bisulfate and food dyes.

Good ingredients are: named meats (e.g. chicken, lamb, turkey etc.), named meat meals, named fat, minimal amounts of grain and foods with multiple sources of protein. Another way to provide multiple protein sources is by mixing different foods together. Since we know so little about hedgehog nutrition, offering a wide variety increases the chances of including the right things. Ideally, you want the first few ingredients on the list to be meat or meat meal, since the first ingredients (up till the first fat/oil) make up the bulk of the food. Be wary however of grains listed after the meat(s) - if it lists a lot of different fillers, such as corn, rice, barley, etc. all those grains together probably still make up more of the food than the meats. Manufacturers of ‘grain free’ foods sometimes trick their customers by splitting their ingredients on the label (e.g. dried potatoes and potato protein) while it’s essentially the same thing.

Both dry kibble and wet food can be fed, although the latter tends to make the poop smellier. When feeding wet food it can be a good idea to calculate the dry matter basis (DMB) for protein and fat since the percentages listed don’t account for the extra moisture in the food, and the protein/fat recommendations for hedgehogs are based on the DMB percentages of kibble. Canned foods are often very high in protein and fat so this is especially important if you’re using wet food as a staple - the only way to compare a dry food to a canned food is to compare their DMB values. You can calculate the DMB with the following formula:

100% - moisture content = dry mass % fat or protein % / dry mass % =  fat or protein DMB %

Protein

It is recommended to keep protein levels below 35% because dry food with high protein can be hard on the kidneys. With wet (canned) foods or other high protein foods such as meat and insects this is less of a concern because the moisture in the food helps flush everything out - in the wild, animals rarely eat food as dry as kibble, so their bodies are made for a diet with more moisture. This means that when they’re eating a dry kibble diet they do not always drink the needed extra water. Because of this it is best to err on the side of caution and don’t go (far) over the 35% protein limit when choosing a dry food (for wet food it’s wise not to go too high either, just to be safe). Pregnant and nursing females might benefit from higher protein (preferably from meat and/or insects).

Fat

Hedgehogs in captivity have the tendency to become overweight which is why a low fat percentage is recommended: under 15%, but preferably under 12%. This depends on the hedgehog in question though, as some are more active than others and might benefit from a higher fat percentage, as do nursing mothers and hoglets under 4-6 months old who can be fed food with 15%-20% fat. It is important to keep an eye on the weight and body shape of your hedgehog and adjust diet/feeding accordingly.

The fibre issue

In the wild hedgehogs seem to have a relatively high fibre diet. Feeder insects have a fibre content between 14% and 52%, and it’s likely the insects consumed by wild hedgehogs contain similar amounts of fibre. Most cat (and dog) food however has a much lower fibre content, usually around 2-4% and rarely above 6%. This lack of fibre in the diet of pet hedgehogs might be linked to common dietary problems, such as obesity. A small-scale study has tested the ability of hedgehogs to digest two types of fibre: chitin (from crab shells) and cellulose (powdered cellulose). Hedgehogs possess chitinases which implies they can use chitin, which is found in the exoskeletons of invertebrates, as a source of dietary fibre. The animals in the study were either given the control diet (no added fibre), added chitin or added cellulose. 64% to 68% of the dietary fibre added as chitin was digested, compared to 38% of the added cellulose (Graffam et al., 1998). Another thing that stood out was how the digestibility of fat increased with the diet where the highest amount of chitin was added (25% in dietary dry matter). This suggest there might be some interaction between the chitin and the fat because this diet also showed the highest fibre digestibility (as well as the lowest faecal ash content, suggesting some fibre/mineral interaction as well). Visually, the quality of the faeces also appeared to improve with added fibre. While this preliminary study was too small to draw any hard conclusions from, its results in combination with the natural diet of the hedgehog suggest a preference for chitin and adding insects to your hedgehog’s diet (and/or like this study, ground crab shells) might create a more nutritionally appropriate diet and could possibly help against common diet-related issues.

Ca:P

Ca:P (also written as Ca/P sometimes) stands for the calcium:phosphorus ratio. Calcium and phosphorus are important minerals and deficiencies can affect the body in a negative way. A 1:1 ratio would mean calcium and phosphorus are found in equal quantities, 0.5:1 means there’s half the amount of calcium versus phosphorus. Calcium is absorbed by phosphorus - but excess phosphorus binds calcium and impairs its absorption by the intestines. On top of that, the excess phosphorus can actually start to take calcium that’s already present in the body: for example from the bones or teeth. An imbalanced Ca:P ratio in an animal’s diet where the phosphorus is too high can lead to diseases such as MBD (metabolic bone disease) or tooth decay, amongst other things. Deformed bones due to a lack of calcium are quite commonly seen in animals that are fed primarily insects, such as lesser hedgehog tenrecs and some reptile species. In Husbandry and Nutrition of Hedgehogs (Smith, 1999) a ratio of 1.2-1.5:1 is recommended. With regards to the little info we have on hedgehog nutrition and the recommended ratio for most other vertebrates (1.5-2:1) it might be best to stick around 1.5:1. When feeding a lot of insects or a raw diet it is extra important to check the Ca:P ratio, since many feeder insects and deboned meat have an imbalanced Ca:P ratio. Calcium can be supplemented by adding bonemeal, ground eggshells or commercially available calcium powder to the food. While calcium deficiency is more common than calcium overdose it is a possibility so keep an eye on the recommended ratio when using a calcium supplement. 

(Live) insects should not be optional: they are a staple

This is something that cannot be stressed enough: considering the importance of invertebrates in the hedgehog’s natural diet, insects are a must for hedgehogs in captivity. Unfortunately many hedgehogs only get insects as a minor treat and some never get them at all. Insects are often (falsely) accused of making hedgehogs fat or people are simply told they are not necessary because “hedgehogs do just fine on cat food”. However, doing just fine doesn’t mean an animal’s natural needs are met (all the dietary problems found in hedgehogs are a good example). Depriving insectivores of insects may cause malnutrition and allow opportunistic pathogens to become active (Campbell, 1997). Opportunistic viruses and bacterial infections are given a change to infect an animal when it has a weakened immune system or disrupted gut flora, while those same pathogens usually don’t cause sickness in a healthy animal.

Mealworms are the most commonly fed insects but there are many more (and better) feeders available. Some are more nutritious than others; while insects such as wax worms are quite high in fat and might not be ideal for hedgehogs which gain weight easily or are already overweight, there are plenty of other options available. While live insects are best there’s also canned insects or freeze dried ones, although the latter should be fed in moderation since they can cause impaction. See ‘Feeder insects for hedgehogs’ for more information about adding insects to your hedgehog’s diet.

Live insects do not only have nutritional value - such as the importance of chitin-based fibre - but also provide and stimulate mental and physical activity (like foraging). No animal should be deprived of the staple food of its diet!

Variety is key: the “ideal”diet

The hedgehog is an opportunistic, insectivorous omnivore - so let’s feed them accordingly, as best we can! Based on their natural needs and everything we’ve learned over the years through trial and error, the ‘ideal’ diet (with what’s available to us right now) would look something like this:

(Live) insects daily or at least several times a week (and as much variety as possible)

Another staple ‘backup’ food (kibble)

Eggs and some meat (f/t pinkies, mice, day-old-chicks, (raw) meat)

Very minor amounts of plant matter (preferably fruit or veggies that are easy to digest)

Insects are, as mentioned before, an important staple of the diet. Kibble has many downsides - so why still feed it? The simple answer is because it doesn’t seem to be awfully bad (if meeting the right requirements) and given how little we know about hedgehog nutrition, it functions as a ‘backup’ food nutrition-wise: since hedgehogs are able to survive on it it must have some good things too. This doesn’t mean a diet where kibble is the only food (except for occasional treats) is a great diet for hedgehogs. Taking their natural needs into account it should be clear it isn’t: a primarily kibble-based or kibble-only diet might be able to sustain a hedgehog, but is not ideal.

A much more natural diet can be created by adding (live) insects as a staple food, together with kibble and meat. Feeding just insects creates an unbalanced diet as there are only a few species available as feeders as opposed to the wide variety hedgehogs encounter in the wild (not to mention the other things they eat). Portions of (raw) meat can be fed; the most natural would be f/t pinkies or mice and day-old chicks as well as meat from chicken and other poultry and rabbit/hare. Eggs can be fed too, as well as very minor portions of vegetable matter. Considering the seemingly limited ability of the hedgehog to digest cellulose, and their inclination towards consuming fruit, feeding vegetables and fruits that are easy to digest might be the best option (watch the high sugar content of fruit). The easiest way to add some plant matter to your hedgehog’s diet is by gut loading insects with vegetables and fruits before feeding them.

Raw/home-made diets

Another option is feeding an entirely raw/home-made diet where the kibble is left out and replaced by other foods such as raw meat. Special raw diets for cats, dogs and ferrets can be used for hedgehogs too. Because there is no kibble in the diet to work as a ‘safety net’ against deficiencies, a 100% raw diet should only be considered after thorough research. Because there’s so little known about hedgehog nutrition it is more difficult and time-consuming to set up a completely raw diet that’s properly balanced. A separate post about raw feeding will go into more detail about this way of feeding pet hedgehogs.

We still have a long way to go before we will know everything about hedgehog nutrition. While this means hedgehogs aren’t an easy pet to feed with no commercially available diet (yet) that covers all their needs, the little research we have as well as the trial and error from the past forms a stable basis which will hopefully lead to more research and maybe even a proper hedgehog food in the future. For now, the key to a happy, healthy hedgehog seems to lie in high fibre, low fat, a varied diet and lots of insects!

Sources: - Diet of hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in the upper Waitaki Basin, New Zealand: Implications for conservation by C. Jones et al. (2005) - The Impact of Molluscicide Application on Hedgehog Populations: A Review by J. Bunner (2002) - The Food of the Hedgehog in England by D. W. Yalden (1976) - Feeding selectivity of introduced hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus in a dryland habitat, South Island, New Zealand by C. Jones and G. Norbury (2010) - Atelerix albiventris (Erinaceomorpha: Erinaceidae) by E. M. Santana et al. (2010) - Intestinal candidiasis in an African hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris) by T. Campbell (1997) - Beginner’s Guide to Hedgehog Nutrition - Feeding behaviour and nutrition of the African pygmy hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris) by E. S. Dierenfeld (2009) - Necropsy and histopathologic findings in 14 African pygmy hedgehogs (Atelerix albiventris): a retrospective study by J. T. Raymond et al. (1999) - Husbandry and Medical Management of African Hedgehogs by M. Mori and S. E. O’Brien (1997) - Fiber Digestion in the African White-Bellied Hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris): A Preliminary Evaluation by W. S. Graffam et al. (1998) - Husbandry and Nutrition of Hedgehogs by A. J. Smith (1999)