How to Process Feed for Mink and Foxes? A Detailed Explanation of the Technical Points

Fur animals such as mink and foxes have well-developed canine teeth, a short digestive tract, a small stomach volume, no cecum, and fast food passage through the digestive tract; moreover, their digestive glands secrete little amylase and more lipase. Therefore, their feed should be based mainly on animal-based feed, and especially animal protein feed should account for a very large proportion of the diet. Thus, the feed processing and preparation methods for mink and foxes have distinct characteristics, which are introduced below:

1. Material selection

Large pieces of fat should be removed from meat feed, the gallbladder and thyroid should be removed from livestock and poultry offal, and lumps, impurities or foreign matter should be picked out of dried animal powder and grain powder. Vegetables should have their roots removed and yellow leaves and rotten leaves picked off. Any feed that is spoiled or from epidemic areas must not be used under any circumstances.

2. Washing

Meat, fish, livestock and poultry by-products, and fruits and vegetables must be washed with clean water to remove dirt and mud before use. For animal-based feed that is slightly less fresh or suspect, it must first be disinfected with 0.05%-0.1% potassium permanganate for 5-10 minutes, then rinsed clean with clean water.

3. Soaking

Fish meal and bone meal should be soaked in clean water for 4-6 hours (change the water 2-3 times), lightly dried fish should be soaked for 12 hours (change the water 2-3 times), and alkali-dried fish should be soaked for 1-2 days (change the water 2-3 times daily). Silkworm pupa powder, blood meal, liver residue powder, and lower-quality dried fish, dried stomach and intestines, etc., in addition to being fully soaked, also need to be steamed and cooked.

4. Steaming and boiling

Lower-quality meat, fish and livestock and poultry offal, after disinfection with potassium permanganate, also need to be steamed and cooked; freshwater fish should be steamed for 2 hours; pork with measles must be treated under high temperature and high pressure after fat removal; grain powder should be mixed with water to make steamed buns and fully steamed, and each kilogram of grain powder can be cooked into 1.8-2 kg of steamed buns, or it can be parched into roasted flour and then mixed with boiling water into a thick porridge; fresh cow's and sheep's milk should be heated for disinfection, and milk powder should be mixed and diluted with boiling water; poultry eggs should be boiled; blood meal should be boiled before feeding and then mixed into the feed; spinach and bok choy should be blanched in boiling water after washing to remove the bitter and astringent taste. All feed that has undergone heat treatment must be cooled before it can be mixed and prepared.

5. Weighing

According to the feed varieties and quantities specified in the feed formula sheet, weigh each one separately.

6. Grinding

The feed that needs processing should be ground separately with a meat grinder for later use; feed that is too large in volume can be cut into small pieces with a knife and then ground. Hard feed such as rabbit heads and rabbit skeletons should first be crushed with a crusher and then ground again.

7. Preparation

After the preceding processing steps, the feed is all gathered in the mixing tank, and then dairy products, water (or soybean milk) and other supplementary feed are added according to the regulations. Medicinal yeast or feed yeast can be added directly; bread yeast or beer yeast needs a small amount of water added, heated to 70°C-80°C, and kept for 10-15 minutes, or it can be mixed with grain powder and steamed into buns. Bone meal can be added directly to the feed according to the amount, and must not be mixed and fed with yeast, VB1, etc.; drugs and vitamins should be added last and stirred evenly. The thickness of the prepared feed should be appropriate, and the feed for nursing mothers and newly weaned young animals can be slightly thinner. Always keep the feed room clean and hygienic, wash the processing equipment frequently, and disinfect regularly to prevent bacterial infection and the spread of disease.