# Feeding Animals if SHTF?



## ladybug (Aug 18, 2002)

In the event of SHTF or TEOTWAWKI does anyone have contingency plans for pets and livestock? What do you feed them once the preps run out and does anyone know of resources that explain how to grow balanced food for your livestock? We currently only have chickens and rabbits as livestock but are eventually looking towards getting goats again, and a cow.:cowboy:


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## wvstuck (Sep 19, 2008)

Chickens can free range most of the year, they actually grow, bigger, healthier and lay better when they run around feeding themselves.

Cattle are best raised on grass... That's what God decided they would eat when he invented them... We as a group of smart humans decided to feed them grain so we could grow them faster and make more money off of them fattening sooner.. Short answer, good, plentiful pasture with a mix a Alfalfa, Clover and maybe some Blue Grass, add some herbs in there and you'll have a good place for them to much all day. Grow good hay for the winter months... Remember they only need 2 things, Roughage and Protein.

Pigs can easily eat root crops... Grow more potatoes, beets, peanuts, carrots, turnips and stuff like that, plus they love your left overs... In a CHTF scenario, you'll be trying to fatten them, so you won't be interested in keeping super lean, grain fed animals... The fat makes soap, cooking lard and other things you will need.

What do rabbits eat when they run free... They like hay in the winter.

Think simply for resources needed when no commercial sources are left. Most of the animal feed business today has to do with high speed and commercial growing.

Grow sunflowers, pumpkins, squash, wheat, oats and (corn only if you have to).


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## shanzone2001 (Dec 3, 2009)

I have planted comfry roots for my rabbits and chickens to eat.


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## ryanthomas (Dec 10, 2009)

My livestock (only horses at this point) don't eat any commercial feed.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

I've got about 6 months of dog and cat food in metal trash cans, but after that I don't know. The cats would probably hunt and survive, but the dog would have to make do with our scraps I suppose. The chickens and rabbits would do ok foraging or on meadow grass, but I've also got 6 months of feed for them in cans. Thankfully it doesn't get cold for long here, so the plants don't ever really die down.


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

This is a goal we are working towards. Currently, stored hay would cover most of the livestock, until it runs out of course, then I don't know. harvest with the hay equipment until the fuel runs out? By then, we would have butchered the herd down to core animals, and wouldn't need to store so much hay. Then, I guess, suffer with scythes. We have a couple.

For rabbits, I would have to butcher most of them. I have so many. I am currently experimenting with rabbits in colonies. I show, so of course, right now, that is top cull reason. But, I am learning, as I rotate, which of my bucks make good colony bucks and which ones don't. Which ones seem to do well on a reduced pellet diet and which ones don't. I have yet to find success with no pellets, but, as said, its a work in progress. 

For the pigs, grow more roots. We haven't got there yet, but try better this coming year. The poultry, we don't much feed them in the summer, but they still need extra feed in the winter. Right now, a lot of them are eating out of the pig troughs. We have a real problem coming up with good protein sources for the pigs and poultry in the winter.

For the goats, I am getting rid of my top bred high milking, high maintenance saanens, and getting kinders, a smaller, hardier, less grain needing breed. 
Our dogs eat butcher scraps mostly already, so thats almost easy and the cats, well, mice or die I guess. We have a few real good mousers and a few not. Survival of the fittest. I have a feeling, that there will be plenty of feral cats around if someone wants one.

I think switching to breeds that do better on their own is a step in the right direction.


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## Redeemed98 (Feb 4, 2004)

This is a good topic. I have been thinking on this a little bit myself. I actually wish I could avoid buying so much at the feed store now as prices are crazy and will only probably get worse.


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## ladybug (Aug 18, 2002)

Great ideas, I have been trying to find information on what they were fed before commercialized feeds but I haven't had much luck. We have boatloads of bunnies, right now we are keeping them in a rabbit tractor and moving them to fresh grass daily plus their pellets. They are all very healthy now, but I worry about them if suddenly there were no pellets available. Please keep the great ideas coming!


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## secretcreek (Jan 24, 2010)

Goats thankfully do best on natural browse and are second only to felines in going ferel easily. Downsizing to smaller breed goats and still getting milk and meat, maybe fiber/leather too, is smart. It's a 5 month gestation for goats much shorter than for cattle.

Goats: kids growing, breeding bucks, a doe carrying kids or in milk production would need something better than junk roughage.


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## rags57078 (Jun 11, 2011)

ok rabbit people in the rabbit forum there is a large post on feeding naturally and feeding weeds , there is a ton of great info


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## Wags (Jun 2, 2002)

I have Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats - less than 2 ft tall and a good milking goat will give a 1/2-3/4 gallon a day of very rich creamy milk at their peak. They come into season year round so you can stagger breedings in order to have some dairy product all year long. Bucks generally good natured and easily handled. And their small size means they are easy to transport - or hide in the garage if you needed to keep them safe from two legged predators.

I do grass based dairying. I live in the "grass seed capital of the world" where the winter climate is pretty mild, and I only have to feed hay when the weather is really bad. Otherwise they get browse and alfalfa pellets - no grain. I do grow and give them and the chickens sunflower seeds as a treat.

We are working on improving the pasture with a special blend designed especially for goats that includes things like clover, chicory and alfalfa. That alone would be enough in a pinch and I could put by enough hay by hand to get through the winter.

My biggest concern for the goats would be having enough minerals for them, since this is a selenium and copper deficient area. I try to keep a years supply on hand at all times, but not sure what alternatives I would have if I ran out of it.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

buy animals bred to do well on grass only. Be prepared to feed them more hay than you do now. Grow garden crops for them as you can.


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

Wags said:


> I have Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats - less than 2 ft tall and a good milking goat will give a 1/2-3/4 gallon a day of very rich creamy milk at their peak. They come into season year round so you can stagger breedings in order to have some dairy product all year long. Bucks generally good natured and easily handled. And their small size means they are easy to transport - or hide in the garage if you needed to keep them safe from two legged predators.
> 
> I do grass based dairying. I live in the "grass seed capital of the world" where the winter climate is pretty mild, and I only have to feed hay when the weather is really bad. Otherwise they get browse and alfalfa pellets - no grain. I do grow and give them and the chickens sunflower seeds as a treat.
> 
> ...



this is why I am choosing to switch to kinders. I dont care for the tiny breeds. kinders are medium, but as the dwarfs, they can be bred year around. That was an important deciding factor to me, and since they are technically a cross, much hardier.

minerals are a big thing. I have read that oldimers made their goats eat pennies when there was nothing else for copper. Wouldn't be ideal, but I think, better than nothing. Copper bolus are cheap. Having a back supply is a very good idea, and standard mineral blocks, the kind that are good for any ruminant can be stacked in a corner of the garage. So long as they are kept dry, I suspect they would last forever. Same with injectable Bo-Se. Its inexpensive and stores well.

We also use Redmond mineral salt, the loose kind. I am working on getting some back stock of this. I order a couple extra bags each time the feed truck comes now. Its inexpensive, and in a pinch, humans could eat this also.


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## Rocktown Gal (Feb 19, 2008)

One thing my mom told me was in the morning...they would put a bucket with a little water in it...and through out the day they would add scraps to it...and that is what the dog ate. They had no dog food.

The chickens free ranged and the cattle grazed.

Hogs also had scraps and grazed.


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## PD-Riverman (May 24, 2007)

Mom_of_Four said:


> I've got about 6 months of dog and cat food in metal trash cans, but after that I don't know. The cats would probably hunt and survive, but the dog would have to make do with our scraps I suppose. The chickens and rabbits would do ok foraging or on meadow grass, but I've also got 6 months of feed for them in cans. Thankfully it doesn't get cold for long here, so the plants don't ever really die down.


Dogs want live off eating grass BUT they can live off animals that do eat grass and weeds like rabbits ,chickens, goats, raccoons, possums, etc. You can cook the animal for the dog if you prefer, if you do add some potatoes, and other vegetables to the pot or cook a side pot of vegetables. My dog never cared for raw vegetables but I do not recall him ever leaving cooked vegetables in his bowl. My dog(pitt) Loved to eat a live rat---every time I was disking the field he would follow alone with me and catch several rats. Raising rats is not hard but I think I had rather breed a few more rabbits for him if I had to. There was not any commercal dog food hundreds of years ago but people had dogs. If the SHTF and we had to process all out meat animals we eat, there would be some of parts of the animal we could let the dog have as well as my dog was like my child----he got a plate of what I cooked for myself.


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## pancho (Oct 23, 2006)

Most of the domestic animals today are specialists. Birds bred especially for the production of eggs or meat. Cattle and goats especially bred for meat or milk. Hogs bred especially for fast growth and quality of meat. Rabbirs bred especially for numbers in litters and growth rate.

These animals are great. They produce food for many people. If SHTF happens people will have to forget about quality and quanity and, for a time, think about self substaining. Many of the animals we have today will not make it. They will be replaced with those animals that can make it. There will not be enough to furnish the type and abundance of food we have now. Many people will not have enough to eat.

Some people today keep animals more likely to make it on their own. These animals do not furnish an abundance of food. People have to decide. If they want an animal that has a chance of making it through SHTF they will have to be satisfied with less production. It will have to come down to a choice. Cheap and abundant food now with less chance if SHTF happens or less quantity and quality food now and a better chance if SHTF.

Forgot to add. If SHTF ever happens there will be few actual pets. They will be a luxury. People just trying to survive will forget about the luxurys for some time. There will be little need for pet food as there will be few pets.


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