1st homemade food..

[jlcoop277]

I made my first batch of food yesterday. It's been in the freezer overnight. I'll cut it
Up and do the first feeding at lunch.
Ingredients
Shrimp
Cod
Spinach
NLS Discus pellets (crushed up)
Women's multi vitamin
Garlic
Baby food (Banana)
We'll see how the like it. I made a small batch this go round so I can tweak and adjust things as needed without wasting to much.
Let me know anything I should add or subtract.
Thanks all!

[seanyuki]

Your recipe is fine.....imo you already got shrimps for bidding and may skip the banana perhaps add beefheart or ground turkey to yr recipe.

[ericatdallas]

was the baby food banana for binding? Trying to think about my kid's baby food and it's not a really effective binder. I would go with the real thing next time --- it's cheaper.
Although there's something to be said about baby food and the nutrition value. I've thrown it in before as well since we had a bunch leftover of the brand my daughter didn't like too much so it wouldn't go to waste, but not for the binding properties.

I try to use as much binder as possible though and I have good luck. Still dissolves a bit, but holds up well (fish, shrimp, banana, and gelatin all in one recipe). I am considering using turkey next time to avoid the mess.

But yeah, recipe looks good to me. I never use my mix as my sole source of nutrition anyway. Always try to keep a mix...

I also throw in freeze-dried brine shrimp to soak up any excess liquids if my concoction is runnier than I would like. A high protein flake food works too for this and I've put brine shrimp or earthworm flakes as well.

The following is a list of stuff I've used, but not necessarily saying is NECESSARY or SUPERIOR to any other ingredient. These are additional ingredients that are just tried (by me personally) as well as things I've seen other people put in their mixes: eggs (raw, but I might try powdered next time), garlic pills, calcium supplements (tums - one or two depending on batch, when I'm feeding fry), DHA (had leftover from wife's prenatals), seaweed (although I imagine spirulina works well too but it seems more expensive - get seaweed at asian stores), scallops (also has binder qualities), paprika, kale, green peas, green beans, and probably some other stuff. I have mix results with garlic so I just leave the fresh stuff out altogether.

I like to make two different batches that varies a major ingredient a little (i.e. one has kale while the other has spinach). Then I alternate them for feedings.

Also like to mix it up between batches.

Not sure it's "better" technique, but I go with the philosophy that keeping a large range of food is best.

I also keep an eye out when I'm grocery shopping. Sometimes those large bag of shrimp go cheap, sometimes it's scallopes, or ocean perch... so if I can get it on sale, keep it in the freezer, I'll make those my main ingredients next time.

Anyway, congrats on the homemade food. I definitely noticed my fish grew a lot faster on my mix (subjective assessment) and I think it's cheaper too.

[jlcoop277]

Thanks! Im having an issue getting beefheart local, I've gotta drive to get it and didn't have the time. I will add it in for the next batch.
The baby food was part of several different recipes I looked at. I have Knox gellitan but forgot about it. I also was planning on adding flake, but forgot.
I did add a scoop of baby oatmeal.
I put some in both tanks at lunch today and when I came home the growout juvies tore it up, but my adults and roselines didn't touch it. Which gave me the chance to see that it held together
Great. It floats though.
Any way to make the next batch sink?

[ericatdallas]

A lot of people don't think the gelatin helps since you have to have a hot liquid that cools down for it to take effect. However, gelatin has a lot of amino acids... not all of them useful, so I figured it might help.

I'm not too sure if baby cereal is a good idea... cloudy water and "filler" come to mind, but I don't know for sure.

I don't think you have to do beefheart. Lots of people swear by turkey or seafood. A lot of people cringe at the idea of feeding beef to fish... (I have no such prejudice, I just hate doing beefheart b/c it's messy and time consuming. I ran out of my last BH mix, so it's time to try something different).

Mine doesn't sink. My thought is your recipe has too much liquids... not sure though... so maybe you could do what I do and add freeze-dried stuff and flakes to soak up the excess. Also, maybe not add so much liquid either...

[jlcoop277]

Yeah, I def will drop the whole jar of baby food, maybe half next time. Turkey is a real possibility. And less garlic.
I read someone else using oatmeal so I figured it was worth a try.
I have seen a lot of seafood mixes.
I may do turkey and shrimp for the next batch.
Time to see if my two adults will eat it or not. So far not

[ericatdallas]

I've seen the oatmeal recipe too... but I really don't know. I guess it's no different than the other "meals" that are put in pet foods, maybe it's even better.

Actually, I'm glad this topic came up. For months now I keep forgetting to lookup the difference between baby oatmeal and adult oatmeal. Apparently it's coffee grinder. It's time to tell my wife to stop buying this and to buy regular oatmeal. Sheesh... we spend like $3 per box in what is normally 50 cents of oatmeal.

[lipadj46]

Oatmeal is used as the binder as it has glutens or whatever in it that will gel up. I believe discus hans recipe uses lean ground beef instead of beefheart and it has oatmeal in it.

[jlcoop277]

Ok so I'm gonna make a new batch of food tomorrow as my fish won't touch my first batch. Even the juvies just look at it now.
So this round I'm gonna do the following
Turkey
Shrimp
NLS/flake
FD blood worms
Multi vitamin
Oatmeal
Egg
spinach
Anything I should drop or add? I feel like I
Should drop the oatmeal and just use the egg.

[ericatdallas]

No comment on oatmeal since I don't use it.... so I don't know how well it works.

Otherwise, looks good to me. You could always melt off your old mix (depending on how much you made) and remix it with more dried items to get it to sink. Nothing seemed peculiar about your first batch, it may just take time for them to get accustomed to it. However, I do think discus preferred sinking foods.

[jlcoop277]

Normally I'd let them figure it out before trying a new food, but when I put the mix in they head to it and before they get there they turn and bolt the other way. Even my roselines won't eat it. Maybe to much garlic. It's pretty stout.

[ericatdallas]

I had a small quantity of garlic BH that another SD member gave me. My fish would pick at it. When I put mine in, they would tear it apart. When I put both in, they would ignore the garlic one. Not scientific or anything, but I know my fish didn't like it. Try the odorless garlic pills... I bought mine at Kroger in their discount cart for 50% off (another nod at always keeping an eye out for ingredients on discount and incorporating it in future batches). It has the supposed "active ingredient" and it's suppose to make them more resistant to worms (which is what I read but don't know how to quantify myself - people dissected the fish to see worm populations of garlic and non-garlic feeds).

So it's a possibility... of course, other people swear by it.

BTW, you might consider live worms (i.e. earthworms). Kind of gross but might be a good ingredient.

[jlcoop277]

Made a
New batch tonight. In the freezer now, we'll see
How they like it tomorrow

[zman78]

i just finished my second batch of food this past weekend.
The first batch i was not happy with as it didnt have enough gelatin and came apart in the tank..
This second try turned out how i wanted it...like jell
I used 1/2 lb of bh, 1/4 lb fresh seafood, spinach, peas and garlic. For this batch i used two small
packets of knox gelatin. My six juvies love it. Actually the smallest of the bunch wasnt eating for
about 5 days or so, now hes right in there scrapping for pieces of bh combo!

[jlcoop277]

I was wondering if adding carrots to the mix would add any value to it? I know carrots are great for us, but what about fish?