Trout Chow Feeding?

[guidofatherof5]

I have been thinking recently about finding a premixed food to feed as a supplement to regular feedings of night crawlers and pinkies. I have also wanted something that troubled eaters (guppies only) would eat. I've been fooling those eaters by overloading the feed dish with worm pieces and very few fish. This has worked but guppies are expensive and aren't always available when I need them.
One of our new members(PINJOHN) got me brainstorming on this idea.
I've been feeding my snapping turtles a multitude of thing and Trout Chow is in the mix. I got thinking about the Trout Chow. It is fish based and seem to work well on my turtles.
The brand I'm using is Purina- Grower 500 Here's what I found out about it.
I tested a few water soaked pieces out on a couple young radixes and they seemed to like it. I can imagine this wet meal being mixed in with worm parts.
What are your thoughts.




Purina Mills Aquamax Grower 500 is a floating, extruded, nutrient dense complete fish feed for carnivorous (animal eating) fish such as trout, bass, yellow perch and red drum.

Product Form: Extruded floating particle - 3/16" x 3/16".

Feeding Directions: See bag for specific feeding instructions.

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS

Crude protein (min)

41.0%

Crude fat (min)

12.0%

Crude fiber (max)

4.0%

Calcium (Ca) (min)

1.65%

Calcium (Ca) (max)

2.15%

Phosphorous (min)

1.15%

Sodium (Na) (max)

.40%

Ingredients: Fish meal, dehulled soybean meal, ground corn, poultry by-product fish meal, fish oil, wheat middlings, flash dried blood meal, pyridioxine hydrochloride, menadione dimethylpyrimidinol bisulfite, choline chloride, DL-methio-nine, calcium pantothenate, Lascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), thiamin mononitrate, biotin, folic acid, cholecalciferol, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, dl-alpha tocopheryl acetate, vitamin A acetate, ethoxyquin (a preservative), zinc oxide, cyanocobalamin, mangaous oxide, ferrous carbonate, copper sulfate, zinc sulfate, calcium iodate, calcium carbonate, cobalt carbonate.

[Selkielass]

I don't know about the soybean meal, ground corn and wheat middlings... But then wild mice would likely be gut loaded with lots of grains so it might not be a bad thing at all.

[guidofatherof5]

I don't know about the soybean meal, ground corn and wheat middlings... But then wild mice would likely be gut loaded with lots of grains so it might not be a bad thing at all.

Along with all the other junk(plastic,wood,etc.)

[guidofatherof5]

I did some checking on the ingredients listed. Here's what I found.

menadione dimethylpyrimidinol bisulfite
MENADIONE DIMETHYLPYRIMIDINOL BISULFITE
pyridioxine hydrochloride(vitimin B6)

Choline Chloride is a complex vitamin that is added as an important nutrient in poultry, pig and other animal feeds. It is normally supplied as a 70% solution in water which is suitable for applying to cereal for addition to animal feed.

DL-methio-nine
DL-Methionine is an essential amino acid which must be supplied to the body through protein intake. DL-Methionine is necessary for the body to make SAMe. The body combines DL-Methionine with ATP, which in turn produces SAME. SAMe is directl active in 40 biochemical processes and involved indirectly in many more.
calcium pantothenate(Vitamin B-5)

Thiamin mononitrate-(Vitamin B1)

Biotin-is a water-soluble B-complex vitamin (vitamin B7)

Folic acid-also known as vitamin B9 or folacin

Cholecalciferol-is a form of vitamin D, also called vitamin D3 or calciol

Riboflavin-also known as vitamin B2

Nicotinic acid- or niacin, the water-soluble B vitamin

Dl-alpha tocopheryl acetate-vitamin E acetate

Zinc oxide-as a source of zinc, a necessary nutrient

Cyanocobalamin-is an especially common vitamer of the vitamin B12 family

mangaous oxide-a major source of manganese

ferrous carbonate, copper sulfate, zinc sulfate, calcium iodate, calcium carbonate, cobalt carbonate-a source of these minerals

[mb90078]

I did some checking on the ingredients listed. Here's what I found.

menadione dimethylpyrimidinol bisulfite
MENADIONE DIMETHYLPYRIMIDINOL BISULFITE
pyridioxine hydrochloride(vitimin B6)

Choline Chloride is a complex vitamin that is added as an important nutrient in poultry, pig and other animal feeds. It is normally supplied as a 70% solution in water which is suitable for applying to cereal for addition to animal feed.

DL-methio-nine
DL-Methionine is an essential amino acid which must be supplied to the body through protein intake. DL-Methionine is necessary for the body to make SAMe. The body combines DL-Methionine with ATP, which in turn produces SAME. SAMe is directl active in 40 biochemical processes and involved indirectly in many more.
calcium pantothenate(Vitamin B-5)

Thiamin mononitrate-(Vitamin B1)

Biotin-is a water-soluble B-complex vitamin (vitamin B7)

Folic acid-also known as vitamin B9 or folacin

Cholecalciferol-is a form of vitamin D, also called vitamin D3 or calciol

Riboflavin-also known as vitamin B2

Nicotinic acid- or niacin, the water-soluble B vitamin

Dl-alpha tocopheryl acetate-vitamin E acetate

Zinc oxide-as a source of zinc, a necessary nutrient

Cyanocobalamin-is an especially common vitamer of the vitamin B12 family

mangaous oxide-a major source of manganese

ferrous carbonate, copper sulfate, zinc sulfate, calcium iodate, calcium carbonate, cobalt carbonate-a source of these minerals

I would be more concerned about the soybean and cornmeal, they are listed 2nd and 3rd on the list, meaning there is more of those ingredients in it than everything else.

[kibakiba]

Personally, I wouldn't try it. I'd rather get various edibles for garters and chop them up in a dish to provide a varied diet at once, but my snakes will eat anything (except Runt, he'll only eat night crawlers from a dish). They aren't troubled eaters, and Mama will take probably anything since she has a seriously voracious appetite. Hope it all goes well for you, Steve.

[ConcinusMan]

I don't know about that Steve. I wouldn't try that myself. You can't go wrong with "pure" foods such as fish (whole or fillet meat) worms, pinkies, etc.

My first instincts, and believe me, my end stinks, is that the ingredients don't sound very good.

I don't even like the idea of supplements that are listed. If the food was good, it wouldn't need supplements IMHO.

I know you think I "wear it like a badge" but I rarely fed supplements to those garters I had that lived "an exceptionally long time". If the food is right, there is no need for that stuff. They certainly do not need any grain ingredients.

I wouldn't do it. Probably wouldn't hurt them in the short term, but I would stick to the basics. Just plain old safe fish, pinkies, worms, etc.

Can't go wrong with feeding essentially wild garters on food they've been eating since garters were "invented".

[guidofatherof5]

Thanks for all your input. I by no means am going to impliment this with my snakes I just wanted the forums opinion.
I posted it as "food for thought"
Thanks again.

[Kevinh583]

I would pretty much agree with the others about it not being the best food source. But I would also never feed a pet dog or cat commercial processed pet food. In my opinion it is always best to feed animals a biologically appropriate raw food diet.

That being said I don't see any problems using it occasionally if/when other food items run out as long as it is not a large part of their diet. There shouldn't be anything in there that a garter snake can not digest even if the nutrient ratios are not ideal. I would basicly treat it as a junk food item for snakes. A person wouldn't want to make mcdonalds meals a dietary staple but the occasional cheeseburger won't do much damage. A visual inspection of fecal matter after a trout chow meals should give you clues as to whether there are any serious digestion problems going on.

[guidofatherof5]

I would pretty much agree with the others about it not being the best food source. But I would also never feed a pet dog or cat commercial processed pet food. In my opinion it is always best to feed animals a biologically appropriate raw food diet.

That being said I don't see any problems using it occasionally if/when other food items run out as long as it is not a large part of their diet. There shouldn't be anything in there that a garter snake can not digest even if the nutrient ratios are not ideal. I would basicly treat it as a junk food item for snakes. A person wouldn't want to make mcdonalds meals a dietary staple but the occasional cheeseburger won't do much damage. A visual inspection of fecal matter after a trout chow meals should give you clues as to whether there are any serious digestion problems going on.

Good thoughts and advice. Thanks.