Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Was at the local pet store today and checked out all the different pet foods. It got me thinking.

Could you feed fish on, for example, rabbit pet food?

From what I can understand they contain pretty much the same thing. Soy, some vegetables and a few minerals and vitamins...

The rabbit food is just an example. The price for rabbit food was just 25% of what the goldfish food was...
Then there was pet rat food, hamster, bird,cat etc. All with basically the same content. Some with "meat" (no other explanation of what sort of meat) and other just with soy and wheat.

What do you guys think? Perhaps feed the goldfish fish pellets every third day and rabbit food the rest?

maybe in a pinch, but i wouldn't do it regularly
i found a purina dealer near my home that orders whatever i want, i just pick up at the store (and they don't charge shipping)

Keith, it's not that I can't get a supplier, I was looking to save some money.
And wanted your opinions on this forum about ingredients and content of different pet food.

Rabbits grow really well on rabbit food... rats grow really well on rat food... hamsters grow really well on hamster food...

And surprisingly... yep, you guessed it... fish grow really well on FISH FOOD...

And you dont want any land based animal products in you fish food if you are planing to eat them IMO.

I can agree upon the not feeding the fish any land based animals, except for worms then...

But funny irony aside I don't see the big difference between the cat-food pellets with 20%fish,soy, corn and vitamins and the fishfood with 20%fish, soy, corn and vitamins...

So animals never die in rivers?
Crocodiles dont leave scraps that fish then eat?

i can see not making it a large part of thier diet, but i think to say a big "no" to any land animal protien at all is a bit hasty.

I think people are just being cautious in their advice and saying "don't feed your fish raw chicken because you might get salmonella" rather than "feed your fish road kill, it's cheap and high in protein!"

Hmm, having eel in the fish tank and only feeding them overrun badgers... hmm... could work...if..

Yes well is only you realised what was put in our sausages, hot dogs, nuggets etc would you then realise what they would then put in pet food and what process it probably went though to make it safe edible even for an animal...... 10 day old maggot infested Road kill would be a healthy treat.

Oh, I'm aware alright! Why do you think I want to grow my own fish and veg?

I've done some more research and have found out a little more.
Went to petco.com so I could find some lists of content in english.

The way I see it is the rabbit food more diverse and healthier for a fish. And apart from that the koi feed has fish meal and the rabbit has alfalfa there isn't that big of a difference.
But a lot of the stuff shouldn't be in there... Like the cobalt chloride that is a food colouring, but not really a healthy one. Cancerous when inhaled...

This is one of petco's koi feed:
Ingredients:
Fish meal, ground corn, dehulled soybean meal, wheat flour, corn gluten meal, fish oil, wheat germ meal, dehydrated alfalfa meal, potassium sulfate, dl-methionine, l-lysine, propionic acid (a preservative), l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), vitamin A supplement, choline chloride, vitamin E supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin supplement, zinc oxide, ferrous carbonate, manganous oxide, menadione dimethylpyrimidinol bisulfite (source of vitamin K activity), niacin, ethoxyquin (a preservative), calcium pantothenate, copper sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, cholecalciferol (source of vitamin D3), cobalt carbonate, folic acid, calcium iodate, biotin, sodium selenite.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude protein (min.) 35%, crude fat (min.) 5%, crude fiber (max.) 4%, moisture (max.) 12%, ash (max.) 10%, phosphorus (min.) 0.8%.

And this is their rabbit food:
Ingredients:
Dehydrated alfalfa meal, ground corn, heat processed soybeans, whole corn, oat groats, barley, soybean meal, timothy hay, wheat middlings, soybean hulls, dehydrated carrots, feeding oatmeal, mineral oil, dehydrated apples, dehydrated pineapple, dehydrated dates, peanuts, cane molasses, salt, dehydrated potatoes, minced onions, parsley flakes, celery flakes, dehydrated red peppers, dehydrated green peppers, cabbage flakes, leek flakes, dehydrated zucchini, tomato flakes, spinach flakes, ground limestone, dicalcium phosphate, choline chloride, vitamin A acetate, vitamin D3 supplement, whey solids, vitamin A palmitate, dl-alpha tocopheryl acetate (source of vitamin E), ground wheat, corn gluten meal, ascorbic acid (source of vitamin C), soybeal oil, dried whole egg, calcium carbonate, zinc amino acid complex, dried bacillus subtilis fermentation product, dried aspergillus oryzae fermentation product, dried lacto bacillus bulgaricus fermentation product, dried lacto bacillus lactis fermentation product, lecithin, mixed tocopherols (preservative), sodium selenite, niacin, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, d-calcium pantothenate, vitamin B12 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K), folic acid, biotin, cobalt chloride, copper aino acid complex, manganese amino acid coplex, dl-methionine, magnesium oxide, magnesium xide, ferrous carbonate, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, cobalt carbonate, color added (red 40, yellow 5, yellow 5, yellow 6, blue 1).

Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude protein (min.) 16%, crude fat (min.) 5%, crude fiber (min.) 18%, crude fiber (max.) 23%, moisture (max.) 12%, Calcium (min.) 0.1% (max.) 0.6%, phosphorus 0.35%, salt (min.) 0.1% (max.) 0.6%, vitamin A (in.) 2400 iu/lb, vitamin D3 (in.) 1000 iu/kg, vitamin E (min.) 30 iu/kg.

I'm very interested in using meat scraps as a supplementary food source.. If chickens can eat it or I can eat it, then the fish can eat it.. although I have no doubt that this would depend on the species.

Nikenik, I suspect I have been through a similar thought process to you concerning this matter. Recently I scored really cheap bags of out-of-date cat food and high quality puppy food. As it turns out, the cat refuses to eat the cat food, and the eat-anything pup won't even look at its food!
After reading through the analysis of ingredients I thought seriously about feeding it to my Silver Perch, perhaps as an occasional supplement rather than as a replacement feed. I tried it out on my poultry first and both types of feed were readily consumed.
I have held back on feeding it to my fish, primarily because I am very conscious that cat and dog food are produced for consumption by animals that are not destined for human consumption. On this basis I intend to crush some puppy biscuits and feed the stuff to my Goldfish. By extension, I think that any feed produced for animals destined to be eaten by humans are likely to be ok to feed fish, although these feeds will be sub-optimal for those fish.

My wife has far to many cats! We have leftover cat food on a daily basis and I have been feeding this to the trout for three seasons.

I know this is "not recommended" but given that i wake up every morning under a blanket of cats i figured that there's not many diseases left that the rub off on me

Gabe: That's very interesting. After my "google-spree" yesterday I found that all (!) catfood has about 20% chicken meat (or what you want to call it) in it. Even "salmon cat food"...

Can you check the content of the cat food you feed the trout?

There is always some guy on the internet who says "you can't do that because it won't work".

Here is another slant to think about: Talking to my doctor that I have known for over 20 years. He told me if ever there is a a war or something really bad happens like earthquake, flood. DON'T bother with supermarkets go to a vet surgery or a pet barn and get as much dry pet food (dog/cat) as you can carry. It has all the vitamins and minerals to sustain life reasonably well.

Just putting another log on the fire lol.