Have you ever thought about making chicken bread?

Cheryl aka JM · #1 02/27/13, 03:49 PM

I'm not sure which forum I should ask about this in~ but since it's goats milk I'm wanting to use I finally decided to ask in the goat forum. I've got a couple dairy does~ but sadly I am the only one in my household who drinks goat milk. I enjoy it very much...but there is a limit to how much goat milk one human can drink. In the past I've gotten pigs to consume the extra milk~ but this year I'm thinking I may have a better idea. I'd like to feed the extra milk to my rats (I breed rats to sell to the pet stores as snake feed.) Currently my rats are getting a lot of extra eggs, and I'd like to find a way to cut my rodent feed costs by adding the milk to thier diet as well (Quality rodent chow costs me $27 a bag). I'd like your opinions on the nutritional quality of the "Chicken bread" I made this morning. I soaked 2 1/2 cups of 12% protein "all stock" in a quart of canned goat milk from last year. I added 5 eggs~ shell and all, then baked the "Bread" till it was solid. The chickens seem to love it, and the rats seem to be eating it. It won't work as the only feed source~ the rats require quite a bit of protein which is why I don't just feed them all stock pellets not enough protein. But mixed with eggs and milk......

What do you think? Good idea? or I'm wasting my time as the eggs and milk will not add enough protein to the all stock to make it worth the time of soaking and baking it? (all stock is about $9 a bag vs the rat feed at $27 a bag)

Cyngbaeld · #2 02/27/13, 04:59 PM

1 qt goat milk has about 34 Gm protein.
1 cup eggs, about 5 each, has about 30 Gm protein
12% feed has 12 Gm protein per 100 Gm of feed. Do you know how much 2 1/2 cups weighs? I'm guessing 2 cups equals 1 #, but don't have any to weigh. That would make the 2 1/2 cups equal about 500 Gm so would have 60 Gm of protein. Total protein would be 124 Gm.

You didn't say what protein level the rat feed is.

Might be easier to let the rats drink the milk.

Cheryl aka JM · #3 02/27/13, 05:16 PM

I've thought of that but I keep coming up against the largest cost of raising rats for sale~ my labor in cleaning the tubs. I'm concerned that giving the rats liquid milk would soil the litter faster. But as I sit here thinking of all the reasons I CANT use liquid milk it occurs to me that I've never considered just using a water bottle to offer milk.......
Thank you
I don't know if it will be too messy or not~ but as I still have a couple dozens jars of milk from last year I think I will look into how messy that would actually be.
And thanks so much for the protein ratio on the goat milk~ thats VERY helpful!
I would very much like to make the time spent milking my dairy goats useful for more than just a glass of milk for me and a lot of wasted time and milk! I really do enjoy the time spent with my goats.

Otter · #4 02/27/13, 05:41 PM

Milk and eggs have a good bit of protein. I'd mix it in with rolled grains and cook it up, and give it to the rats 2 or 3 days a week, and the other days their very expensive regular feed.

; And I'd put milk in the water bottles.

Also, I only have a couple of mice, but any cage I bed with shavings or sawdust I clean with a shop vac. I just vac it all out and then swipe with a wet washcloth.