Feeding ostriches is a rather time-consuming process that requires accuracy and mode. This is especially true for ostriches who do not know how to control themselves. In ostriches, in comparison with other birds, fiber is well absorbed, which allows you to get delicious red meat with virtually no cholesterol.
What do ostriches eat?
Ostriches are used to living in the wild, naturally they eat the food that they themselves get, that is, they are omnivores. The diet of ostriches is quite diverse, because they can be consumed as plant food:
- alfalfa;
- various grass;
- leaves from the trees.
So is the living creature:
- small insects;
- bugs;
- snails.
The diet is supplemented with compound feed, crayons, shells, proteins, vegetables and crops.
In nature
Ostriches, which are large feathered birds, live in the African savannah with long plains. A large amount of greenery and young leaves grow in these parts - this is the main food for ostriches. In the African savannah grazed a lot of herbivorous living creatures. In nature, the diet of ostriches is pasture.
Feathered birds can be without water for quite a long time, so they often nest in dry desert surroundings, where they eat seeds, roots, branches that grow on bushes.
For a change, in addition to greens, they eat small insects, rodents and reptiles. In order for the ostrich to spend a lot of energy and he could run far, he needed about 4 kg of feed per day.
In nature, ostriches come in contact with antelopes and zebras, these animals have excellent eyesight, so the former can notice a wild beast and notify their friends about it. Antelopes with zebras help ostriches with food, they get insects from the grass with sharp legs.
On the farm
Birds living on a farm or on a personal farm do not have much different diets than free birds. The food that ostriches eat in the wild, they eat it at home or on the farm. The only difference is that on the farm they are allocated a little space, so they move less, respectively, use little energy and eat a little. The main food for them is fresh grass, herbs and leaves.
The table below shows the costs of concentrated feed per individual of different ages:
Periods | Bird age in months | How much feed is needed per year |
Newborn | from 0 to 2 | 16 kg |
Start | 2 to 4 | 84 kg |
Fattening | from 4 to 6 | 100 kg |
Finish | from 6 to 10 | 300 kg |
Slaughter | from 10 to 12 | 150 kg |
With proper feeding of the birds, they should weigh as follows:
- in 1 month up to 3 kg;
- in 2 months up to 10 kg;
- from 2 to 6 months to 60 kg;
- from 6 to 11 months to 100 kg;
- from 11 to 14 months to 120 kg.
The influence of the ostrich digestive system structure on the diet
The digestive tract of birds corresponds to the habitat in the droughts of savannahs and prairies. Goiter in these birds is absent in comparison with other poultry. Food enters the pre-gastric compartment, where it is softened by the fluid released from the walls of the pre-stomach.
After that, the soft mixture passes into the stomach, where there are thick rigid walls. Ostriches have no teeth, so they often swallow small stones. Food, which consists of coarse fibers, is processed together with pebbles.
At the end of the process in the small intestine, whose length is 5 meters, beneficial substances are absorbed. Fiber is only broken down in the processes of the cecum.
Thanks to this, birds can for quite some time go without water, as it is replenished from food.
Feeding methods
The diet should be given a lot of attention when breeding ostriches. With proper, nutritious and rational feeding, ostriches will be pleased with a good weight gain, good development and high productive qualities. In winter, you need to give preference to alfalfa, which is sold in the form of hay, and in summer they give fresh alfalfa mixed with mixed feed. One and a half kilograms is enough for one individual.
There are 3 types of feeding, the choice is up to the bird owner:
- Intensive method.
- Semi-intensive.
- Extensive.
Intensive method
This method involves feeding ostriches with compound feed or self-prepared grain mixtures (crushed corn, wheat, oilcake, premixes). Also, silo, hay and mass from perennial herbs are added to the diet.
Semi-intensive
If the territory for walking is small, then choose a semi-intensive feeding method. In this case, ostriches are on their own walk, move a lot, eating pasture. But at the same time, the owner feeds with specialized feed in the form of feed pellets with chopped vegetables and herbs. This method is considered the best, since birds feed both in a natural and artificial way, getting everything they need.
Extensive feeding
As for the extensive method, so it carries an independent search for food, walking in the pasture. This option is very economical since there is no need to constantly buy feed in stores. The diet is supplemented with compound feed. In Africa, people have long been breeding ostriches and they noticed that the best gains they get from grazing, especially in a meadow dotted with alfalfa. The walking area should be as follows: 1 hectare per 10 birds.
In addition, it turned out that from two weeks to 4 months it is better to keep the chicks in the pasture, after which they are transferred to enclosed pens and they are given alfalfa in granules or simply chopped.
Experienced farmers walk ostriches on the herbs of seredella, clover, wiki. They also graze well on the field after harvesting wheat. In drought, when there is a little natural food, feeding is done as in the intensive method.
How to choose compound feed?
Every ostrich farmer wants to buy the best food for their livestock. There are many types of feed with various additives. Compound feed should be selected based on the weight and also the age of the bird. Usually divided by age into several types of feed:
- from 0 to a month;
- from 1 to 2 months;
- from 2 to 4 months;
- from 4 to 6 months;
- from 180 to 330 day;
- from 330 to 420 days;
- compound feed for feeding during rest;
- compound feed during the laying period.
It is important to purchase food in specialized stores or in trusted locations. When purchasing goods, you need to pay attention to the composition and shelf life. Do not give small ostriches food for adults and vice versa.
The table shows the names of the feed and their approximate cost:
Feed name | Cost in rubles, wholesale price for 1 kg |
KS-30 | 19 |
KS-60 | 18 |
KS-120 | 16 |
KS-180 | 16 |
KS-330 | 15 |
KS-420 | 12 |
KC0 | 17 |
SPE | 16 |
You can look at actual prices on the website strausferma.ru
Self-cooking
Compound feed can feed ostriches from the first days of life, since the composition allows you to replace complementary foods. Compound feed was created so that the animal received the necessary substances in the right amount.
It includes:
- wheat;
- cake;
- corn;
- fish flour;
- calcium phosphate;
- a piece of chalk;
- soybeans;
- sodium chloride;
- premixes;
- lysine;
- methionine;
- threonine.
You can always make feed yourself, following the table:
Component | Growth period from 2 months to a year,% | Productivity period,% | Productivity period,% | Productivity period,% | Unproductive period,% |
Barley | 15 | 20 | 5 | 27 | 25 |
Wheat | 12 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 18 |
Corn | 30 | 15 | 20 | 15 | 20 |
Oats | 3 | 12 | 20 | 12 | 5 |
Fish flour | 5 | 10 | 7 | — | 5 |
Bran | 5 | 5 | — | 7 | 10 |
Sunflower meal | 7 | 10 | 5 | — | 2 |
Soybean meal | 10 | 5 | 15 | — | 5 |
Yeast | 5 | 3 | 5 | — | 2 |
Bone flour | 2 | 2 | — | — | 2 |
Vegetable oil | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
a piece of chalk | 1,2 | 3 | — | — | 1,4 |
Monocalcium | 3 | 2,5 | — | — | 3 |
Salt | 0,1 | 0,01 | — | — | 0,01 |
Premix PKK P 8 569 | 0,5 | — | — | — | — |
Premix PKK P 9 570 | — | 0,5 | — | — | — |
Premix PKK P 9 571 | — | — | — | — | 0,05 |
UVMKK "Felucen" 1175 | — | — | 10 | — | — |
UVMKK “Felucen” 654 | — | — | — | 25 | — |
Feeding Features Ostrich
If ostriches feed improperly, they can grow up with uneven legs that will not allow them to live a normal life. Newborn ostriches can live without food for several days, which simplifies feeding and long-distance transportation. This is due to the fact that their body contains a lot of protein, which resolves in only 10 days.
On the first walk, the chicks are allowed to clean water and food, which consists of crushed alfalfa or clover leaves and compound feed. Once every 1-2 days they are offered low-fat cottage cheese with chopped boiled hard-boiled egg.
In the following video, the farmer shares his experience of feeding ostriches:
Starting from the second week of life, ostriches gain 300 grams per day and increase daily by 1 cm. At three months of age, the chicks weigh 15 kg. Babies need to be given gravel, otherwise the stomach simply will not be able to digest food, indigestion will occur, and they will be constantly hungry.
At the age of three months, fiber and protein are added to the main feed. Juicy grass should also be present in the diet of chicks as well as flour and silage. In order for the digestive tract to improve, crushed pebbles are needed, they are necessary so that the chick chewing on solid food does not die.
For some reasons, young growth is fed with droppings of adult birds, this allows you to colonize the intestines with good microflora. But before doing this process, you need to make sure that the adult ostrich is completely healthy and not infected with worms.
Until the chicks are six months old, they are fed five times a day, from six months to a year old, the number of feeds is reduced to 4 times. An adult feeds twice or thrice a day.
Oviposition Feeding
In the period of laying eggs in females and males, the need for substances changes. As for the females, their need for calcium increases, since eggshell is formed during this period.
In males, a lot of calcium interferes with the absorption of zinc, which plays a major role in sperm production. A high norm of substances in females is needed for the egg to form correctly, and if the male overeats, this will lead to obesity, and fertility will be low.
Feeding during the laying period of females and males should be different. They keep males and females separately, and let them in only for a few hours every other day. But this process is done only after she eats.
Ostriches can be fed during oviposition with the following products:
- wheat;
- crushed corn;
- succulent leaves;
- compound feed;
- foods containing calcium;
- a piece of chalk;
- grass.
Drinking mode
Although ostriches are accustomed to droughts, they still need to offer clean water. In the household and on the farm, a drinker is put together with food so that they can get drunk with all their heart. An important condition is the purity of the water, because the health of the bird depends on it.
There should be 2.5 liters of water per 1 kg of dry food, and access to water should be constant. The height of the drinker should be 70 cm from the ground or floor.
How does the diet change in winter, spring, summer and autumn?
As with any animal, the diet varies depending on the time of year, ostriches are no exception.
Summer. In the summer, ostriches spend most of their time on walking, where they themselves are looking for food. In addition, they need to offer one and a half kg of feed every day, which they should eat in a day. To replenish the body with all the necessary substances, and especially protein, lupine, beans, fruits, and cake are mixed into the main feed. These components are easily absorbed by the body, especially in conjunction with the amino acid, which is found in chalk, shells, eggshells and bran.
Autumn and spring. In the spring-autumn period, ostriches should eat greens or grass meal, gravel, oilcake, grain must be present. It is recommended to dilute food with bone meal, table salt and chalk. Also, vegetables are required in the diet, both adults and ostriches.
Winter. In the winter season, ostriches are fed with hay prepared in advance, which is mixed with concentrated feed and cereals. Birds are allowed to give between feedings:
- cabbage leaves;
- beet tops;
- fodder beets;
- carrot;
- zucchini;
- apples
- waste.
The main food in the winter is hay, it is better if it is from alfalfa.
The following report talks about feeding and keeping ostriches in Siberia:
What can not be fed?
Although ostriches are omnivorous, but still there is a certain set of products that can not be fed birds and there are those that need to be given in a limited way.
Do not feed the following foods:
- potato;
- parsley and dill;
- rye.
It can be given in limited quantities:
- cabbage;
- flour;
- bran.
Popular questions and answers
Beginner farmers have many questions about keeping and breeding ostriches. Before starting livestock, you should collect as much information as possible about the keeping and feeding of birds.
1Question: do ostriches and adult birds need to be fed together or separately?
Eating at ostriches and adult birds should be separate, because babies can’t eat a lot of things, which can be grown up. The same applies to the number of feedings per day: newborns eat 5 times a day, and adults only 2-3 times.
2Q: How many ostriches can live without water?
Ostriches can do without water for several days, but if it is available, they drink it in large quantities. Nevertheless, clear water should always be in birds. Drinking bowls should be washed daily.
3 Question: Do ostriches need to be given a shell rock?
Limestone and shell rock should always be present in birds, and in free access, because they help the skeleton to form correctly. They are especially important in the first days of their lives.
4Question: when to start feeding ostriches?
Newborn chicks do not need bait, because they have a yolk sac in their umbilical cord for several days, which serves as their food. Adult birds are fed 2-3 times a day, and in babies food should be constant. When complementary foods begin, the chicks should receive a variety of mixes, concentrated feed, crushed leaves without stems.
Feeding ostriches is a rather time-consuming process, since the ratio of grain, grass, compound feed, etc., should be taken into account. The health and life span of a bird depends on proper feeding. The diet should include all the nutrients and nutrients that are responsible for the proper formation of the body.
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