Feeding and Caring for your Animal
Show Swine
Show Beef
Show Sheep
RABBITS
Layers
Animal:	Show Swine
Age:	all
Weight:	60 to 260
Feeding your animal:	How to Feed Your Pig With a little help from King Brand Feeds If you have just purchased your pig, you are probably moving it to its new home. Make sure that you protect your pig from getting sick. It is a good idea to feed your pig King Brand Pig Starter. Pig Starter contains medication to prevent illness that can sometimes come from transportation, other pigs, new weather and new surroundings. One bag per pig of King Brand Pig Starter is all you’ll need. After you have finished the one sack, you can begin feeding King A.N.S. Hog Show Mix, we have made both of these feeds so that they can work together. Feed your pig King A.N.S. Hog Show Mix 2 times per day, morning and night. You should feed between 3–5 pounds per day. Feed the same amount of King A.N.S. in the morning as you do in the evening. Weigh and mark your feed scoop or container to make sure that you feed the right amount of King A.N.S. Always use the same scoop or container, don’t borrow from someone else and assume they are feeding the same amount of feed. You should always give your pig fresh feed. If your pig is leaving old feed behind, you are probably feeding him too much. Don’t mix or add any other feed with King A.N.S. Hog Show Mix, it has been formulated to give your pig all of the vitamins and nutrients it needs. By feeding King A.N.S. Hog Show Mix, your pig should gain 1.5 to 2 pounds per day. Don’t forget to weigh your pig on a weekly basis to make sure it isn’t getting too fat or staying too thin. Be mindfull of weight minimums and maximums for the Fair you plan on entering. Make sure your pig has fresh clean water at all times. Swine require adequate protection from the environment – this pig has to live where you put it. If it rains, it can’t run off to find shelter, you need to provide shelter from wind, rain and sun. Remember: swine can’t sweat! So, if it gets hot out it is up to you to keep them cool. Spray them down with water or give them a mud hole. They like to roll in mud and by doing that it will protect them from sun-burning. Do not drench an overheated animal with water, it may put them into shock. We don’t like to eat off dirty plates . . . Swine have a natural instinct to root and thus, will often tip their troughs over or push shavings and dirt into their troughs. Fresh water and clean troughs are a must. Thick rubber pans are recommended for feeding they last longer. Find more information for Show Swine at "Steps to Develop a Champion Animal" under the 4H/FFA tab of our website.

Animal:	Show Beef
Age:	All
Weight:	All
Feeding your animal:	Provide fresh water and provide comfortable environment. Feed 2 to 3% of Body weight in a grain ration, KING Beef Grow and Show or KING T& S Show Feed and Hay divided into two feedings per day. Worm your animal once per month. Most fairs require that you have ownership of your animal for at least 120 days prior to the weigh in day of the fair. Find more information for Show Beef at "Steps to Develop a Champion Animal" under the 4H/FFA tab of our website.

Animal:	Show Sheep
Age:	all
Weight:	all
Feeding your animal:	If you have just purchased your lamb, you are probably moving it to its new home. Whenever a change in a feeding program is made, it should be made gradually. It is a good idea to assume that your lamb has previously been on a unique feeding program consisting of hay and other types of feed. So that your lamb will easily adapt to King Lamb Show Complete, make the change in the feeding program in a gradual manner, especially when changing from a diet high in roughage (hay) to a diet high in grain content. For lambs that have been on a high roughage diet, gradually increase King Lamb Show Complete by about ½ pound every other day while slowly decreasing the daily amount of roughage. Until you aren’t feeding any hay at all. Feed your lamb King Lamb Show Complete 2 times per day, morning and night. You should feed your lamb between 2 ½ - 4 ½ pounds of grain per day. Feed the same amount of King Lamb Show Complete in the morning as you do in the evening. Remember that you shouldn’t feed any hay to your lamb when you are feeding King Lamb Show Complete. Although we recommend feeding King Lamb Show Complete, we also manufacture King Lamb Supreme. For those of you that prefer feeding hay, this classic formula has been designed work in partnership. You should feed a combined weight of Lamb Supreme and Hay of approximately 3-4 ½ pounds per day. Weigh and mark your feed scoop or container to make sure that you feed the right amount of King Lamb Show Complete. Always use the same scoop or container, don’t borrow from someone else and assume they are feeding the same amount of feed. You should always give your lamb fresh feed. If your lamb is leaving old feed behind, you are probably feeding too much. Don’t mix or add any other feed with King Lamb Show Complete, it has been formulated to give your lamb all of the vitamins and nutrients it needs. King Lamb Show Complete also contains Deccox, an ingredient used to prevent coccidiosis in young lambs. By feeding King Lamb Show Complete, your lamb should gain ½ - 1 pound per day. Your lamb will achieve the maximum rate of gain when it is on full feed. Don’t forget to weigh your lamb on a weekly basis to make sure it isn’t getting too fat or staying too thin. The Salinas Valley Fair has a weight minimum of 100 pounds and a maximum pay weight of 130 pounds. Make sure your lamb has fresh clean water at all times. Find more information for Show Sheep "Steps To Develop a Champion Animal" listed under the 4H/FFA Tab of our Website.

Animal:	RABBITS
Age:	ALL
Weight:	ALL
Feeding your animal:	A rabbit is an animal which eats roughage, or plants, etc. It is a herbivore. When we look at hind-gut fermenters (what a rabbit is), there are two which come to mind: cecum fermentation (what the rabbit has), and colon fermentation (what the horse has). This tells us about the relationship of where the bacteria and protozoa of fermentation occur in regard to the small intestine. Classification of herbivores can also be done according to feeding habits. The rabbit is classified as a concentrate selector (prefers succulent parts) as opposed to a browser, such as a cow or sheep, where the preference is to eat nearly anything. Now, the rabbit will eat some coarse roughage in the wild, but the coarse roughage is eaten not as a nutrient source but to maintain intestinal health. When given a choice, it would eat readily digestible roughage. HOW RABBITS WORK The rabbit\'s digestive process is designed to eliminate fibers from the gut as fast as it can and focus its digestive processes on the readily digestible components. When roughage or non-digestible fiber is consumed, it passes through that intestinal tract rapidly. The digestible portion, not absorbed in the stomach and small intestine, is brought back to the cecum and fermented. There are two types of feces produced by the rabbit. The non-digestible fiber/roughage that this animal eats and cannot digest is excreted out rapidly as hard feces. Material which is recycled back into the cecum, fermented for awhile, and then expelled, is excreted as soft feces. The fiber portion of the diet, therefore, is not necessarily in there for nutrition. It is in there to keep that rabbit healthy. The hard feces will pass out during the first 4 hours after an animal eats, and the soft feces is passed soon after this. The soft feces is then consumed from the rectum. This is called coprophagy. The rabbit will get many nutrients from soft feces. On a low fiber diet, however, the flow of soft feces is reduced due to the reduction in motility of the intestinal tract. When we have a low fiber diet, there is much material that passes back up into the cecum. This will reduce the flow of material through the intestinal tract. The motility is what moves material throughout the intestinal tract. The rabbit’s stomach is a pouch-like organ which meters feed into the small intestine. The stomach is normally never empty. Even after 24 hours, that stomach may be half full. It slowly meters feed out of the stomach and into the small intestine. . . where much digestion and nutrient absorption occurs. The remaining material then passes down to the \"hind gut\". The cecum is large in the rabbit, and this is where the fermentation of the readily digestible portion of roughage occurs. It enters the hind gut and the particles are separated. All food particles in the rabbit are relatively small. Some are larger than others. A rabbit will chew about 120 times a minute and nothing too large gets by very often. When these particles travel down the intestinal tract and enter the hind gut, they\'re separated mechanically. The large fibers pass out as hard feces and the small particles move up to the cecum, for fermentation and recycling, via the soft feces. The separation and rapid excretion of fiber allows the rabbit much flexibility. The rabbit can utilize roughage without having an overly large gut. With the cow, the roughage that goes into the stomach may stay in there for 48-72 hours. Roughage in a rabbit goes through very fast. When roughage is consumed, the non-digestible portion goes out relatively fast; the digestive tract then concentrates on the remaining, easily digestible nutrients of the roughage. The separation and rapid excretion of fiber impacts feed intake. When fiber passes through very quickly, the animal can consume more feed. Were it to hold that material for a long period of time to digest it, feed intake would be reduced. Then, the animal cannot consume enough feed to meet its nutrient needs. If the fiber passes through fast, the rabbit can eat a lot of feed, excrete the non-digestible fiber, and concentrate on the readily digestible feedstuffs meeting nutrient needs. The trouble we get into with rabbits is that there are many different sizes of rabbits with some having unique digestive characteristics. An animal\'s metabolic rate is related to size. Large animals have slow metabolic rates and small animals have fast metabolic rates. In dwarf rabbits, for example, the metabolic rate is so fast that the rabbit will do an even poorer job of consuming enough roughage or feedstuffs to meet its nutrient needs. We have to be very careful with dwarf rabbits to make sure they are not getting a high roughage diet or a diet considered to be non-nutrient dense. The rabbit may be the only animal that we deal with where fiber minimums are more critical than fiber maximums. The flow of food through the intestinal tract is critical. When we have the prolonged retention time of the material in the cecum we frequently have rabbits with diarrhea. A low fiber diet reduces the motility and feedstuffs stay longer in the cecum. This can result in the development of organisms which produce diarrhea. Young rabbits do not produce much amylase. Amylase is an enzyme which digests starch. So when rabbits, especially young ones, consume a high level of carbohydrates (or starch) (usually from a low fiber diet), the carbohydrates accumulate in the cecum. The result is reduced motility of the intestinal tract. Clostridia organisms can proliferate in this kind of environment and produce diarrhea. They are always present and they are very opportunistic. Feed companies which least-cost their formulas (indications are color changes and periodic problems with fines), often reduce the amount of expensive roughage and increase the amount of relatively inexpensive grain. KING Rabbit foods are fixed formulas designed specifically for the unique digestive processes of the rabbit. Leslie Dorrance, of Central California writes, “We have tried many different rabbit feeds and have found in the past 3 years that the best rabbit feed we can use is KING Brand Cloverleaf and KING Lifelong Natural Rabbit. American Fuzzy Lops need a certain level of protein because of their long wool but, to find the right balance within a reasonable price range with the added plus of being fresh and consistent has been hard. We have found that these 2 products are all of these. We also had problems with chronic diarrhea. Switching to Lifelong cleared up the problem. KING FEED’s Director of Formulation is Dr. John Throckmorton. Dr. Throckmorton obtained his undergrad studies from U. C. Davis and Oregon State. He received his M.S. in Animal Nutrition at Oregon State under Peter Cheeke. The University of New England, New South Wales, Australia is where Dr. Throckmorton was awarded his Ph. D. in Animal Nutrition. KING Brand Rabbit are unique products, formulated by Dr. John Throckmorton, one of the most respected names in “hind-gut” digestion. Dr. Throckmorton’s U.S. and international studies have made him especially capable of developing a diet for these unique animals.

Animal:	Layers
Age:	Less than 20 weeks
Weight:	All
Feeding your animal:	Follow the baby chick program to 20 weeks of age as detailed under the baby chicks category of Chickens/Poultry.