Page 27 - Koi Net - On-Line Koi Magazine - Issue 68

FEEDING YOUR KOI

David Brown gives a simple guide to help
you understand the different types of Koi
food, when to feed them, and why.

The production of Koi food is a carefully formulated
process and I remember listening to an unbiased talk
given at the South East Koi Club some years ago by
Dr David Poole, who worked for many years at Tetra.
He said one could not just look at the percentage of
protein marked on the packaging, as it was the quality
of the protein and the quality of the other ingredients
WE HAVE A which was reflected in the price of the food.
CHOICE OF A simple example was that a bag of chicken feathers

WHAT WE EAT, contains protein, but it’s of no benefit to our Koi. I saw
a bag of trout pellets on a stall at our local market,
BUT OUR KOI these are high in protein, very cheap and designed to
CAN ONLY EAT put weight onto farmed fish at the most cost-effective
price for the catering trade, but this is not suitable for
WHAT WE our Koi and is detrimental to their long term health.
FEED THEM Sadly today so many things are bought on price, but it
does seem that, as with most things, you get what you
pay for!
We have a choice of what we eat, but our Koi can only
eat what we feed them. The last thing I would do is
make any suggestions, I suppose it all comes down to
personal experience and trust of the manufacturer of
the product.

In their natural environment carp can feed all day on
natural live food, our Koi cannot enjoy that luxury so we
have to feed them manufactured food of which there
are many on the market.

There are floating pellets, sinking pellets, pellets to
enhance colour, pellets to increase growth, pellets to
increase digestibility (all these in different sized pellets),
and to make it still more confusing some manufacturers
make the same product, but brand it to be sold by
different retailers – confusing isn’t it.

01 27