Author: Zoe Smith

Home » Archives for Zoe Smith

Llamas are efficient forage animals: grass hay and pasture cover almost everything they need, and they get by on noticeably less feed than their size suggests. A llama typically eats around 1 to 2% of its body weight in dry matter daily, and most need no grain at all.

They are camelids rather than ruminants in the strict sense, with a three-compartment stomach instead of four, and they evolved on sparse, low-quality Andean forage. That history is why over-feeding is a more common problem with llamas than under-feeding.

Built for Poor Forage

Llamas process fibrous, low-protein forage very efficiently. Put one on rich pasture or feed it like a horse and it will become overweight, which is a real welfare issue and hard to reverse in an animal that hides condition under fleece.

Practically, that means grass hay rather than alfalfa for most adult llamas, and pasture that would look unremarkable to a cattle farmer is often exactly right. Body condition should be assessed by hand along the spine and ribs, not by eye, because fleece conceals a great deal.

The Daily Diet

• Pasture. The mainstay in the growing season. Llamas graze and browse, taking both grass and some shrubby growth.
• Grass hay. The winter staple. Timothy, orchard or mixed meadow hay.
• Alfalfa. Only for pregnant or lactating females and growing youngstock. Too rich for most adults.
• Camelid minerals. Free-choice, formulated for llamas and alpacas.
• Clean water. Always available. Llamas drink less than horses but still need constant access.

Grain and pelleted supplements are for animals with a genuine extra requirement, working animals, pregnant or nursing females, or an underweight individual. Feeding grain as routine enrichment is how llamas get fat.

Minerals and Selenium

Use a mineral formulated for camelids where you can get one. Sheep minerals are a common substitute because they are also copper-restricted, and llamas do not need the copper levels goats do, but a camelid-specific mix is preferable.

Selenium is the one that varies by geography. Large parts of the US have selenium-deficient soils, and camelids in those areas often need supplementation, while over-supplementing in a selenium-rich area is itself harmful. This is a case where local advice genuinely beats general advice, ask a vet or extension office rather than guessing.

Llamas and Alpacas: Same Diet, Different Animal

Nutritionally the two are very close, and much of this page applies to both. The practical differences are size and purpose: a llama is roughly twice the weight of an alpaca and is often kept as a pack animal or a guard animal for sheep, while alpacas are kept primarily for fleece.

That guarding role is worth knowing about if you keep sheep, though a livestock guardian dog is the more capable option against determined predators. See our guide to what alpacas eat for the alpaca-specific detail.

Foods and Plants to Avoid

Avoid	Why
Rich alfalfa as a routine adult feed	Excess protein and calories, obesity
Routine grain for idle animals	The most common cause of overweight llamas
Goat minerals	Copper level is higher than camelids need
Mouldy hay	Mycotoxins
Rhododendron, azalea, oleander, yew	Toxic, as for most livestock
Wilted cherry leaves	Cyanide compounds
Lawn clippings	Ferment rapidly, cause digestive upset

For how this compares across the rest of the yard, see our overview of what most farm animals eat, or browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (other livestock): pigs eat, horses eat, rabbits eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.

Home » Archives for Zoe Smith

Quail need considerably more protein than chickens, and feeding them chicken feed is the most common mistake new keepers make. Quail chicks want a gamebird starter at roughly 26 to 30% protein, where chick starter typically carries 18 to 20%.

Get that first six weeks wrong and you see poor growth and weak legs that never fully correct. Get it right and quail are among the least demanding birds on a smallholding.

Quail Feed by Stage

Stage	Age	Protein
Gamebird starter	0–6 weeks	~26–30%
Grower	6+ weeks	~20–22%
Layer / breeder	Laying hens	~18–20%+, with added calcium

Coturnix quail, the commonest backyard type, start laying at around six to eight weeks, which is remarkably fast. That early maturity is exactly why the protein requirement is so high, the bird is building a laying body in under two months.

Can Quail Eat Chicken Feed?

Not as a proper diet, and the reasons differ by feed type. Chicken starter at 18 to 20% is simply too low in protein for quail chicks. Chicken layer feed is worse: around 16% protein, far below what quail need, and its high calcium level is actively harmful to chicks and to males.

If gamebird starter is genuinely unavailable, a high-protein turkey starter at 24 to 28% is a reasonable short-term substitute. Grinding standard crumble finer also helps very young chicks physically manage it, but it does not solve the protein shortfall.

Practical Feeding Notes

Quail are messy and wasteful with feed. They scratch and scatter, and an open dish can lose a surprising proportion of a bag. Feeders with a narrow lip or a cover pay for themselves quickly.

Water needs care with chicks. Quail chicks are tiny and drown readily in an open waterer, so use shallow water with marbles or pebbles in the base for the first couple of weeks. Laying hens need free-choice calcium, crushed oyster shell in a separate dish, and grit if they are eating anything beyond crumble.

What Do Baby Quail Eat?

Gamebird starter crumble, ground finer if the birds are struggling with the particle size. Chicks are extremely small at hatch and need feed within easy reach, spread on a tray or paper for the first day or two so they find it. Keep them on starter for a full six weeks rather than switching early.

What Do Wild Quail Eat?

Wild quail are largely seed eaters as adults, taking grass and weed seeds, waste grain, leaves, buds and berries, with insects making up a much larger share of the diet for chicks. That insect protein early on mirrors exactly why captive chicks need such a high-protein starter.

If you are managing land for wild quail, habitat matters far more than feeding, they need low cover for nesting and bare ground for dust-bathing and foraging.

Treats and Foods to Avoid

Quail take mealworms, chopped greens, and small amounts of fruit and vegetable scraps happily, and mealworms are genuinely useful during laying or moult. Keep treats modest so they do not dilute a high-protein ration.

Avoid	Why
Chicken layer feed as a staple	Too little protein, too much calcium for chicks and males
Avocado	Toxic to birds
Raw or dried beans	Lectins toxic until fully cooked
Anything mouldy	Mycotoxins
Salty or heavily processed food	Poorly tolerated
Open deep waterers for chicks	Drowning risk rather than a food issue, but a common loss

Quail sit alongside the rest of the poultry on a smallholding, see what chickens eat for the contrast in requirements. For how this compares across the rest of the yard, see our overview of what most farm animals eat, or browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (poultry and waterfowl): chickens eat, ducks eat, geese eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.

Home » Archives for Zoe Smith

Cows are ruminants, and almost everything about feeding them follows from that. Their four-compartment stomach lets them convert grass and other fibrous forage, which humans cannot digest at all, into meat and milk. A cow’s diet is therefore built on forage: pasture in the growing season, hay or silage out of it.

Grain has a role, but a smaller and more careful one than people assume, because the rumen that makes cattle so useful is also easy to upset.

How a Cow’s Digestion Shapes Its Diet

A cow does not digest grass so much as host the microbes that do. The rumen is a large fermentation vat where bacteria and protozoa break down cellulose, and the cow lives largely on the products of that fermentation. Chewing the cud, regurgitating and re-chewing forage, is part of the same process.

The practical implication is that you are feeding the rumen microbes as much as the animal. That population adapts slowly to change, which is why any shift in ration has to be gradual, and why a sudden load of grain causes real trouble.

Forage: The Foundation

Forage	What it is	When used
Pasture	Live growing grass and legumes	Main feed through the growing season
Hay	Grass or legume cut and dried	Winter staple, and whenever pasture is short
Silage	Forage fermented at high moisture	Stored winter feed, common on larger farms
Haylage	Wilted forage, baled and wrapped	Between hay and silage, popular at small scale
Crop residues	Corn stalks, straw	Low-quality filler, needs supplementing

Quality matters more than quantity. Hay cut early is far higher in protein and energy than hay cut late and stemmy, and the difference is enough to determine whether a cow holds condition through winter without supplementation. Our guide to fodder types covers the distinctions in more detail, and feed storage covers keeping it in good condition once it is baled.

Grain and Concentrates

Grain, usually corn, barley or a formulated concentrate, raises energy density for animals that need it: dairy cows in peak lactation, cattle being finished for beef, and animals in poor condition. A dry cow on decent pasture typically needs none.

The risk is acidosis. Grain ferments much faster than forage, and a sudden large intake drops rumen pH sharply, which harms the microbial population and in serious cases the animal. Introduce grain gradually, feed it in divided portions rather than one large meal, and always keep effective fibre in the ration.

Water, Minerals and Salt

Water is the most underrated input. A lactating dairy cow can drink 30 to 50 gallons a day, and intake rises sharply in hot weather. Restricted water cuts feed intake and milk yield before any other sign appears, so a reliable supply matters more than almost any refinement to the ration. See our guide to choosing a water trough for sizing.

Cattle also need salt and trace minerals, usually offered free-choice as a block or loose mix. Requirements vary regionally because soils vary, selenium deficiency in particular is a known problem in parts of the US, so local advice beats generic advice here.

What Not to Feed Cattle

Avoid	Why
Ruminant-derived protein (meat and bone meal)	Banned in most countries under BSE control rules
Mouldy hay or spoiled silage	Mycotoxins, listeria risk from poorly fermented silage
Sudden large amounts of grain	Acidosis, potentially fatal
Lush legume pasture without care	Bloat risk, introduce gradually and never turn out hungry cattle
Wilted cherry leaves	Cyanide compounds, same hazard as for goats
Frosted or wilted sorghum	Prussic acid risk

Bloat deserves particular attention. Turning hungry cattle onto lush clover or alfalfa is a classic and avoidable cause. Fill them on hay first, and introduce rich legume pasture gradually.

The Bottom Line

Build the diet on good forage, treat grain as a supplement for animals that genuinely need the energy, never let the rumen face a sudden change, and keep clean water in front of them at all times.

For how cattle compare with the rest of the yard, see what most farm animals eat. For what goes into formulated rations generally, see the different types of animal feed, or browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (ruminants): sheep eat, goats eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.

Home » Archives for Zoe Smith

Turkeys need more protein than chickens at every stage, and the gap is widest when they are young. Poults want a turkey or gamebird starter at around 28% protein, stepping down as they grow, where chick starter typically sits at 18 to 20%.

That single difference causes most of the trouble people have raising turkeys alongside chickens, and it is the reason chicken feed is not a straight substitute.

Turkey Feed by Stage

Stage	Age	Protein
Starter	0–8 weeks	~28%
Grower	8–14 weeks	~24%
Finisher	14 weeks to maturity	~18–20%
Breeder / holding	Adults kept over	~16%, restricted to avoid over-conditioning

Turkeys grow fast and put on a lot of frame in a short time, so under-feeding protein early shows up as poor growth and leg problems that do not correct later. This is a stage where getting the right bag matters more than saving a few dollars.

Can Turkeys Eat Chicken Feed?

As a short-term stopgap for adult birds, yes. As a plan, no. Chicken starter does not carry enough protein for poults, and chicken layer feed is worse on two counts, too little protein and too much calcium for growing birds.

If you cannot get turkey starter, a gamebird starter is the closest equivalent and often easier to find. In a genuinely mixed flock, an all-flock or flock-raiser feed at 18 to 20% with oyster shell offered separately is the usual compromise, accepting that poults are better served by a dedicated starter for their first couple of months.

Pasture and Foraging

Turkeys are capable foragers and will take insects, seeds, greens and grass across a run or pasture. On good ground in summer, foraging supplies a real share of their intake and improves both growth and meat quality. Heritage breeds tend to forage more actively than the fast-growing commercial strains.

They also appreciate height. Turkeys roost readily and will use perches, low branches or a raised bar, and providing that reduces squabbling and keeps birds off damp ground.

The Blackhead Problem With Chickens

This is the reason experienced keepers often house turkeys away from chickens. Blackhead disease (histomoniasis) is caused by a protozoan carried by the caecal worm. Chickens frequently carry it with few symptoms, while turkeys are highly susceptible and it is often fatal in them.

It is not a certainty, and plenty of people keep mixed flocks without incident, but the risk is real and rises on ground that has carried chickens for a long time. If you are starting out and have a choice, separate ground for turkeys is the safer default. Our guide to common diseases of farm animals covers the wider picture.

What Do Baby Turkeys Eat?

Poults get turkey or gamebird starter crumble from day one, and they can be slow to work out where food and water are, slower than chicks. Shallow feed trays, bright feed and sometimes a few chicks to demonstrate all help. Poults that fail to start eating in the first day or two are the ones that get lost.

What Do Wild Turkeys Eat?

Wild turkeys are opportunistic omnivores. Acorns and other nuts are a major autumn and winter food, alongside seeds, berries, green shoots, insects and the occasional small amphibian or reptile. Poults in particular eat heavily on insects, which supply the protein they need to grow.

Their diet shifts sharply with season, and in hard winters they rely most on whatever mast crop, acorns, beech nuts, is available. Feeding wild turkeys is discouraged in many places because it concentrates birds and spreads disease, so check local guidance before putting anything out.

For the rest of the poultry side, see poultry farming for beginners and what chickens eat. For how this compares across the rest of the yard, see our overview of what most farm animals eat, or browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (poultry and waterfowl): chickens eat, ducks eat, geese eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.

Home » Archives for Zoe Smith

Pigs are true omnivores with a digestive system much like ours, which is exactly why feeding them is more regulated than feeding any other farm animal. The base of a domestic pig’s diet is a formulated grain-based ration, supplemented with vegetables, pasture and forage.

The part that surprises most first-time keepers is the law. Feeding food waste to pigs is restricted or banned in most of the developed world, and the rules are stricter than people expect.

What Pigs Eat Naturally

Wild and feral pigs root through soil for tubers, roots, fungi and invertebrates, and eat fallen fruit, nuts, acorns, eggs and carrion opportunistically. That rooting instinct is powerful and does not disappear in domestic pigs, which is why a pig on pasture will turn over ground with remarkable speed.

Used deliberately, that is a feature. Pigs are genuinely effective at clearing rough ground and breaking up compacted soil before cultivation.

The Base: Formulated Pig Feed

Commercial pig rations are corn and soybean based, balanced with vitamins and minerals, and sold by growth stage. Protein needs fall as the animal grows, which is the opposite of what many people assume.

Stage	Approx. weight	Typical protein
Creep / starter	Piglets to ~25 lb	20–22%
Grower	~25–125 lb	16–18%
Finisher	~125 lb to market	13–15%
Gestation	Pregnant sows	12–14%, fed restricted
Lactation	Nursing sows	16–18%, fed generously

Gestating sows are the one class that is normally fed a restricted amount rather than free-choice. A sow allowed to eat freely through pregnancy will over-condition, which makes farrowing harder.

The Food Waste Rules You Need to Know

This is the single most important thing to understand before feeding a pig anything from a kitchen. Feeding food waste, sometimes called swill, is the historic route by which serious livestock diseases including foot-and-mouth and African swine fever have entered national herds.

In the United States, the Swine Health Protection Act prohibits feeding food waste containing meat to pigs unless it has been heat-treated at a licensed facility, and a number of states ban feeding food waste to pigs outright. In the United Kingdom and across the European Union, feeding catering waste of any kind to pigs is banned, including waste from vegetarian kitchens, because of the cross-contamination risk.

Garden produce that has never entered a kitchen, surplus vegetables, windfall fruit, spent crops, is treated differently from catering waste in most jurisdictions, but the specifics vary. Confirm locally rather than assuming.

Safe Supplements and Forage

• Pasture. Pigs graze as well as root, and good pasture can supply a useful share of a grower’s diet.
• Vegetables. Squash, pumpkins, root vegetables, brassicas and surplus garden produce.
• Fruit. Windfall apples and pears, in moderation given the sugar.
• Acorns and nuts. Traditional autumn feed, though heavy acorn intake affects fat quality.
• Dairy. Surplus milk or whey, where local rules permit it.

Growing your own supplementary feed is a genuine cost saver at small scale, our guide to growing your own livestock feed covers which crops are worth the ground.

What Not to Feed Pigs

Avoid	Why
Any meat or meat-contaminated waste	Illegal in most places, serious disease risk
Mouldy grain or spoiled silage	Mycotoxins, pigs are notably sensitive to them
Raw or dried beans	Lectins are toxic until fully cooked
Large amounts of raw brassicas	Goitrogens affect thyroid function in quantity
Green or sprouted potatoes	Solanine is toxic
Excess acorns	Tannins cause digestive upset in large amounts

The Bottom Line

Feed a stage-appropriate commercial ration as the base, supplement with garden produce and pasture, and be scrupulous about food waste rules. Pigs will eat almost anything, which makes it entirely your responsibility to decide what they should.

If you are choosing a breed, see our guide to the best pig breeds for a homestead, and compare with what most farm animals eat across the rest of the yard. Browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (other livestock): horses eat, rabbits eat, llamas eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.

Home » Archives for Zoe Smith

Chickens are omnivores, and a healthy flock diet is roughly 90% complete formulated feed plus whatever the birds forage themselves, with treats and kitchen scraps making up the small remainder. The feed does the nutritional work; everything else is enrichment.

That 90% figure is the part people tend to get wrong. Scraps and scratch feel generous, but they dilute a carefully balanced ration, and the first thing to suffer is usually eggshell quality.

What Chickens Eat Naturally

A foraging chicken spends most of its day scratching through leaf litter and topsoil hunting insects, worms, grubs, seeds and green shoots. They are genuinely opportunistic, a free-ranging hen will take small frogs, mice and just about any insect she can catch.

This is why chickens do so well on pasture, and why free-range birds often show deeper yolk colour: the carotenoids come from greens and insects, not from the pellets.

The Base: Complete Feed

Formulated feed is designed to supply everything a chicken needs in the right proportions, and which one you buy depends entirely on the bird’s stage of life.

Feed type	For	Typical protein
Starter	Chicks, 0–6 weeks	20–24%
Grower	Pullets, 6–16 weeks	16–18%
Layer	Hens in lay, 16+ weeks	16–18% plus added calcium
Broiler / meat bird	Birds raised for meat	20–22%
All-flock / flock raiser	Mixed-age or mixed-species flocks	18–20%, calcium offered separately

The critical rule is that layer feed should not be fed to birds that are not laying. Its calcium level is set for eggshell production, and that much calcium is hard on the kidneys of chicks, growing pullets and roosters. In a mixed-age flock, feed all-flock and offer oyster shell separately so the laying hens can self-select.

For specific product picks, see our roundup of the best chicken feed for backyard flocks, and how to choose a chicken feeder for keeping it clean and off the ground.

Grit and Calcium: The Two Extras

Chickens have no teeth. They swallow food whole and grind it in the gizzard using small stones they have eaten deliberately, which is what grit is. Birds with access to bare ground usually find their own; birds kept on grass, in a run, or fed anything beyond pellets need it supplied.

Calcium is the other one. A laying hen puts a remarkable amount of calcium into shells, and layer feed alone is not always enough for a heavy layer. Crushed oyster shell offered free-choice in its own container lets each bird take what she needs. Thin, soft or shell-less eggs are the usual first sign that she is not getting enough.

Kitchen Scraps and Treats

Most vegetable and grain scraps are fine, and chickens are excellent at turning kitchen waste into eggs. Leafy greens, squash, cooked rice and pasta, oats, melon, berries and most cooked vegetables all go down well. Scratch grain is best thought of as a treat rather than a feed, it is largely carbohydrate and it will dilute the ration if it becomes a staple.

Keep the total from all treats to around 10% of intake. Beyond that you are meaningfully changing the nutritional balance of a ration that was designed as a complete diet.

What Not to Feed Chickens

Avoid	Why
Avocado (skin and pit especially)	Persin is toxic to birds
Dried or raw beans	Contain lectins that are highly toxic until fully cooked
Anything mouldy or rotten	Mycotoxins cause illness and can be fatal
Chocolate and caffeine	Theobromine and caffeine are toxic to poultry
Very salty or heavily processed food	Chickens tolerate salt poorly
Raw potato peel, especially if green	Solanine is toxic
Onions in quantity	Can damage red blood cells and taint eggs

There is also a legal point worth knowing: in many places it is illegal to feed meat or kitchen scraps that have been in contact with meat to poultry, under the same disease-control rules that apply to pigs. Check your state or national guidance before feeding anything from a meat-handling kitchen.

The Bottom Line

Buy the right feed for the birds’ life stage, offer grit and oyster shell free-choice, let them forage as much as your setup allows, and keep treats to roughly a tenth of the diet. That covers almost everything a backyard flock needs.

If you are just getting started, our guide to getting started with raising chickens covers the rest of the setup, and poultry farming for beginners goes wider. Browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (poultry and waterfowl): ducks eat, geese eat, turkeys eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.