Omega 3 and omega 6 in respect of grass fed animals & birds

[Glenda L Heywood]

There has been much discussion of the fact that grass fed birds have Omega 3 in them.

This information denotes with grass fed chickens or beef it means the added Omegsa oils are there
and that is good for people's lives.
Well, after some research I do find that what they eat is what the egg and meat is made of.

from:
Why Grassfed Animal Products Are Better Chickens that eat vegetables high in omega 3 fats, along with insects and lots of fresh green grass, supplemented with fresh and dried fruit, ...
www.mercola.com/beef/health_benefits.htm

Your Body Can't Make These Fats So You Have to Get Them From Your Diet


Omega 3 and omega 6 fats are not interconvertible in your body and are important components of practically all cell membranes.

Whereas the proteins in your cell are genetically determined, the unsaturated fats of all your cell membranes is to a great extent determined on what you eat.

Therefore you need sufficient amounts of dietary omega 6 and omega 3 fats and they need to be balanced for normal development.

From:

Grass Fed Beef - Health Benefits Jan 18, 2007 ... In fact, countries with a high level of omega-3 consumption have fewer ... i.e., grass-fed cattle produced higher percentages of omega 3 ...
www.csuchico.edu/agr/grassfedbeef

Grass-fed beef, or beef produced from cattle finished on forage only diets, has been touted as a more nutritious beef product. There are a number of reports that show grass-fed beef products contain elevated concentrations of ?-carotene and a-tocopherol, increased levels of omega-3 fatty acids, a more desirable omega-3mega-6 ratio, and increased levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), all substances reported to have favorable biological effects on human health.

From:
Food that is High in Omega-3 Meat and dairy products may contain omega-3 but the animals must then have been fed fresh grass, something which is not so common today with the demand for ...
www.omega-3.se/en/food.html - 19k - Cached - Similar pages

 

[Cats Critters]

Interesting, thanks for posting it

 

[willheveland]

Good post Glenda. Will

 

[jamieneenah]

Does anyone know if adding flax seeds to the hens diet increases the omega 3 in the eggs they produce.
Thanks
Jamie

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

yes I think that you will find several interesting thought on using flax seed in the chickens diet
to increase flax omega 3 oil in the actual egg
go to
http://www.google.com
enter flax seed and chickens
here are just some of the thoughts

 

[jamieneenah]

Thanks for the intresting information. I feed grit, do i still need to worry about the size of the grass fed? Would hay and alfalfa be better?
Thanks
Jamie

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

grit in its use is not the factor in this information
the grit is in the gizzard which is NOT the crop where the feed eaten by the chicken goes FIRST
the way this works is the chicken keeps stuffing long pieces of grass in its beak and this goes to the crop
in the crop it continues to wind around and around and makes a laege hard ball of grass

then the chicken can't get rid of it
thus one needs to do crop surgery on the bird
if you are not strong enough to do the surgery your self
then the only thing is finding a vet to do the surgery
and vets usually charge any thing over $100.00 to do this ssurgery

which I have done many times as having pouter pigeons they eat grains and some of the grains are not small enough to go thru the crop hole to the gizzard

so because I did not have money to spend on vets I learned how
you have to take in consideration that I was raised up on a working farm in the 40's thru the 80's and learned to be sufficient in my work

The crop surgery really is not hard and had a fellow from Georgia call me one nite at 1:30 in the morning and give him and his wife a walk thru the surgery on a very expensive large fowl cochin
so it is doable and necessary if that is what has to be done

I have a nice version of it given me by a friend and it is some what easy to do and very safe
email me PM and will send the surgery procedure to you all

Now back to
Hay and alfalfa
I always hung a piece of baled alfalfa wrapped in a piece of chicken wire from the ceiling to 12-18 inches from the floor
very good for the chickens as they pick the leaves off the stems
restock when it is just stems
fresh alfalfa is good as it is small lesaves and the chickens do eat it
hay perse' is not much on it if not alfalfa
that is why people use it for beding as it is stems mostly
any other question PM me or use my email listed here