# Would you feed a pig Cat food if you got it free?



## cARRIE (May 11, 2002)

A farmer up the road told me I can have as much cat food as I want. It's old and ants got into it. Would you feed it out to your pigs? Thanks cARRIE


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## bumpus (Jul 30, 2003)

Yes I would, but I would mix it along with other foods.

Starting out with a small amount at first.


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## Mike in Pa (May 29, 2002)

Nope! But that's just me.


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## Mike in Pa (May 29, 2002)

Nope! But that's just me.


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## Noel Goetz (Sep 2, 2003)

My favorite saying is "if it's free, it's for me". I'm a newbie here but I figure we're all tryin to save a few bucks. See if you can get the ingredients list. My bet is that it's mostly vegitable proteins-"what pigs like". If there is any mold however, I'd stay away from it. Molds and fungus can produce poisons which can sicken and or kill. Other than that, my pigs eat right out of the mud and don't slow down on day old/week old anything and I'm sure yours don't either. If your pig starts purring or starts getting picky about what it eats contact a tabloid newspaper-
"scared pig climbs a tree- fire dept. brings ladder and barbeque"  Noel


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

Cat food has very high protein designed to digest within the very short intestinal maze peculiar to cats. Some cat foods are better than others. I might mix it with their regular feed (swine feed) but I wouldn't feed it to pigs by itself. As for it having ants (insects in general)however (or if it was moldy) it doesn't sound like it should be fed to anything. You never want your diet to cause problems. A diet should provide the nutritional markers to promote healthy growth and maintenance. The word "free" (not meant as an address to Noel but in consideration of the original question) should not be given any more weight in a decsion than the word "appropriate." On a side note I have lately been reading about cheap ways to feed pigs. IMO, it doesn't get much cheaper than $13.00 for 100 pounds of food designed specifically for swine. The economy of alternatives sometimes has a double edge in terms of growth and health and labor. If I had access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and grains, and was able to combine them to meet the nutritionl needs of my pigs in a more economical way, I certainly would. I've read about other feeds that sound like they are meeting nutritional needs so I know it is just swine food that does it. But it is very easy to scoop out 2.5 pounds of swine feed and pour in their bowls each morning and evening and know they are in peak condition for breeding or butchering. Just .02 cents worth.


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## Snuffy Smith (Dec 9, 2002)

I don't know... what goes in to the pig you get back later. Might make the meat taste strange. Or make the pig go "meow".


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## stumpyacres (May 10, 2002)

yes


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## stumpyacres (May 10, 2002)

yes


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## bumpus (Jul 30, 2003)

JIM WTX said:


> I don't know... what goes in to the pig you get back later. Might make the meat taste strange. Or make the pig go "meow".


_____________________________

That might not be to bad 
I hear cat meat taste like chicken and I like chicken

CHICKEN PORK


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## Gimpy_Magoo (Jun 17, 2003)

> That might not be to bad
> I hear cat meat taste like chicken and I like chicken



PORKEN - I like it.

Gimpy


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## Kathy (May 12, 2002)

PLEASE  do not feed cat food, dog food or any other "food" that may have meat products in it that have not been cleared for feeding to animals destined for human consumption. The last Foot and Mouth outbreak in Britain was caused by pigs consuming contaminated meat which is why most of us now will not feed commercial meat scrap to livestock (it could be different if you knew EXACTLY what sort of meat you were feeding your stock) and it may even be illegal to feed such sources of feed to livestock now. And the cat food sounds as though it is past its "due date" anyways and probably would not be good to feed to anything. PLEASE do not feed this to your pigs!!!


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## Guest (Nov 13, 2003)

we only feed pig food to pigs!!
it is formulated for pigs


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## Pops2 (Jan 27, 2003)

Bumpus
housecat has texture similar to pork and is excellent in stir fry. because i believe in you kill it you eat it my wife won't look closely at anything i bring home already dressed. she also knows that i will shoot free roaming house cats where i hunt because it is public land or military land and animal control won't bother w/ them.


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## Linda Camello (May 7, 2003)

Yes....feed the cat food to the pigs...they'll love it! If you have any chickens...feed it to them too! My chickens help themselves to my outdoor cat food all the time!! (My cats hardly get any of it if the chickens are out!!) LOL The ants will not hurt the pigs anyways...and pigs do eat everything...so even a little mold or a few ants won't hurt them!!! They've been known to eat a lot worse stuff.


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## birdie_poo (May 10, 2002)

I've fed all sorts of stuff to our pig. He's a pet and not for eaten, though. He rally loves ham bones, too :haha: 

We had a friend that fed dog & cat food to all his wild animals that he rescued and put back in the wild (yes he was licensed), and there was never any adverse affect. He got it free from all the pet food stores when bags would rip.

Anywhooooo...it's ultimately up to you, though. Take what everyone says with a grain of salt. I highly dougt that there is anything in the food that will cause an outbreak of any disease, or that you will get anythign if you eat the pig that ate the cat food that was made from who knows what. Call the company that maufactured it if it concerns you.

Regardless of how old it is, or ants been in it, or even Italian flour moths, if the pig likes it, he will eat it. Heck, I have a dog that seems to keep finding mumified rats to chew on, yet wont eat rawhide chews. GO figure.


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

It irks me to no end that this thread has me as its author when I only commented on it and negatively at that. Does anyone know how to change it. This was a little snafu during the change in software


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## vtfarma (May 6, 2003)

We have been raising pigs for years. Fall Pigs butchering in the Spring. The best thing that we have done is feed them what we have or are given for free. We grain them a good quality feed that they have available in a wall feeder at all times. We also feed the scraps from all the neighbors, we were given girl scout cookies and balance bars that could not be sold "corporate crap reasons" they were less than 3 months old and they were not using them for sale. We also have gotten powdered milk bags that were also from a warehouse that had a problem in storage that popped several bags on to the others - no resale there. We fed them all these and not a single pig came out tasting like Raspberry Balance Bar. I ask the neighbors to refrain from meat scraps. We have a guy in town who owns a Dunkin Donuts he feeds the leftovers everyday - not fatty pigs either. (wish that worked for me). Our pigs actually have very little fat and the odor is minimal - we clean them out everyday in the evening where they poop and put in fresh shavings. Whole pen is cleaned 2 times per week - more if needed. 

I would feed the cat food - is it dry ?


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

"The last Foot and Mouth outbreak in Britain was caused by pigs consuming contaminated meat which is why most of us now will not feed commercial meat scrap to livestock (it could be different if you knew EXACTLY what sort of meat you were feeding your stock) and it may even be illegal to feed such sources of feed to livestock now."

It is believed the outbreak of F&MD in England was caused by feeding undercooked galley garbage collected from ships at the docks. They are no longer allowed to dump it at sea, so it has to be stored for discharge in ports. Commerical buyers were obtaining it, cooking it to kill everything, and then reselling it as hog feed (swill). Apparently meat from a F&MD infected country was purchased, undercooked and the scraps sold this way.

However, England has a horrible problem with banned meats being slipped past customs and inspections. They have a fairly high immigrant population who still long for the foods from their home countries. The second theory of the cause of the outbreak is due to this - smuggled up meat somehow ended up as hog feed.

The U.S. has really clamped down on what can be fed to hogs which will end up in commercial sale. Periodically I buy fresh catfish (as in they are taken out of the tanks and cleaned) at a place which buys them from commercal fishermen. I asked what they did with the head, guts, skins, etc. I was told a local hog producer use to pick them up but the USDA has banned this practice. Now they have to carry them to a landfill.

Years ago a ladyfriend visited with two cats. She left behind a bag of dry cat food. I dumped it into the feed trough for my cattle with other feed. They picked through it, leaving all of the cat food.

I go with those who say it should be OK if mixed in with other feed. If it still has ants, well - they are protein.

Ken S. in WC TN


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## Chuck (Oct 27, 2003)

My pigs would eat the pants off you if you stood still long enough.

I put a piece of old plywood in their pen to shield their high-quality pig food from the rain. They ate the plywood. Go figure. 

We supplement our feed with day-old bread that we get for free from Safeway. We give them all the food they will eat, and all the water they will drink. Hey, if they only get to live for about 15 weeks anyway, why not let them have a good time.


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## BillHoo (Mar 16, 2005)

Kathy said:


> PLEASE  do not feed cat food, dog food or any other "food" that may have meat products in it that have not been cleared for feeding to animals destined for human consumption. The last Foot and Mouth outbreak in Britain was caused by pigs consuming contaminated meat which is why most of us now will not feed commercial meat scrap to livestock (it could be different if you knew EXACTLY what sort of meat you were feeding your stock) and it may even be illegal to feed such sources of feed to livestock now. And the cat food sounds as though it is past its "due date" anyways and probably would not be good to feed to anything. PLEASE do not feed this to your pigs!!!


http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/petfood1.html
The next jump of Mad Cow to another species is probably going to come from pet food.

"In February 1990, the San Francisco Chronicle carried a macabre two-part story detailing how stray dogs, cats and pound animals are routinely rounded up by meat renderers and ground up into - of all things - pet food."

..." he found that the "hoggers" (the large vats used to grind and filter animal tissues prior to deep-fat-frying) held an eclectic mix of body parts ranging from "dead dogs, cats, raccoons, possums, skunks, deer, foxes [and] snakes" to a "baby circus elephant" and the remains of Bozeman, a Police Department quarterhorse that "died in the line of duty"."

All the animals are cooked up into a protein slurry, skin, bones and fur included.


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## GeorgeK (Apr 14, 2004)

Ants aren't likely to be a problem, mold can be, but it depends on the pig and whether it is penned or pastured. Penned pigs will eat whatever they can get, whatever is brought to them since they have no other choice, pastured pigs especially if raised to be freerange will actually turn their noses up at somethings and so are less likely to eat something that isn't good for them. For them, generally if they are willing to eat it then it should be ok


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## GeorgeK (Apr 14, 2004)

BillHoo said:


> http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/petfood1.html
> The next jump of Mad Cow to another species is probably going to come from pet food.



Probably correct. Prion diseases have a potential to be far more difficult to control than AIDS since controlling feeding and slaughtering practices is so horribly mismanaged by both the government and the individuals




BillHoo said:


> "In February 1990, the San Francisco Chronicle carried a macabre two-part story detailing how stray dogs, cats and pound animals are routinely rounded up by meat renderers and ground up into - of all things - pet food."
> 
> ..." he found that the "hoggers" (the large vats used to grind and filter animal tissues prior to deep-fat-frying) held an eclectic mix of body parts ranging from "dead dogs, cats, raccoons, possums, skunks, deer, foxes [and] snakes" to a "baby circus elephant" and the remains of Bozeman, a Police Department quarterhorse that "died in the line of duty"."
> 
> All the animals are cooked up into a protein slurry, skin, bones and fur included.


Ok, aside from the Prion question, so assume this was 1950, why is that macabre? In the big scheme of things any protein should be able to be recycled into meat. Ultimately the way of nature is everything gets eaten by something, and is eventually part of the food chain that gets back to us. I knew a plastic surgeon who on april fools day cut the casing off a hotdog and submitted a piece to the pathology lab as a "biopsy" the result was Zeissner's glands (Eyelids) with endometrial tissue (Uterus) and cartilage, favor benign teratoma as the final diagnosis. He said he never ate another hotdog after that


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