10 TYPES OF FOOD GRASSCUTTERS EAT & HOW TO GET THEM WITHOUT SPENDING CRAZY MONEY LIKE POULTRY & CATFISH FARMERS.
Do you know the beautiful thing about Grasscutters?
They are easy & cheap to feed.
Each and everything they eat can be gotten around us, all you need is to simply source for it.
Grasscutters eat the stem of fluted pumpkin.
Igbo’s call it Ugu.
I don’t know what the Yoruba’s & Hausa’s call it, do you?
Imagine my delight when I found out that they could eat it. My immediate source which was my mothers kitchen wasn’t enough so I extended my sourcing to my neighbors in our yard at Okpoko and why not? they were glad to give me their waste, which was gold to me.
Everybody deposited their Ugu stem in a bag for me.
At a point it wasn’t consistent and I once again extended my sourcing.
Their was a market close to our house called afia ojoto where I pass every morning to go to my fathers office where we sell building materials. I realized that these women after there daily sales generate 1 full empty bag of rice filled with Ugu stem.
Some 2, some 3.
That was how I built my Ugu stem supply link🤓
Everybody in the market now knew I bred Grasscutters and even when I didn’t come to pick my Ugu stem supply, they kept it for
me.
One man’s waste another man’s wealth.
Grasscutters eat sugarcane.
You peel the hard outer layer…
You suck and enjoy the juice…
You spit out the chaff and throw it away with the back you peeled.
Not anymore…
Only throw away the chaff after sucking the juice but you see that outer part?
Give it to Grasscutters and you will find out why they are called Cane rats. You can also give them the flesh. If Grasscutters jam your cane farm at night, in the morning you might be forced to think that some supernatural powers used your farm for there annual general meeting.
Grasscutters eat Cassava tubers.
Please only feed them the edible Cassava as there is a poisonous specie that is capable of wiping out your flock if you feed them with it. And they also eat the stem too (you can imagine that).
Grasscutters eat water melon, pineapple, cucumber, matured but unripe paw-paw.
At Coke Market, trucks from the north always come to offload some of these fruits. I simply go there after the offload and most of the sales have been done to collect fruits that are broken and some that were rejected may be because a part is not good.
I bag them, take them home & prepare fruit salad for them🤓
Grasscutters are in love with Panicum Maximum and Pennisetum purpureum🤓
Those are the botanical names for Guinea grass & Elephant Grass respectively.
Forage form the major part of their meal as they are herbivours.
Everything in Maize is food to Grasscutters.
The dried seed, the fresh seed, the husk, the stem & the leaves. Just pray that Nchi does not jam your maize farm at night.
.
Forage Grasscutter eat include:
• Elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum), also known as napier Grass.
• Guinea grass (Panicum maximum).
• Sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum):Leaves.
• Maize (Zea mays): cob, leaves, husk.
• Bamboo (Oxythenanthera abyssima) young shoots.
• African giant star grass (Cynodon sp.).
• Gamba grass (Andropogon gayanus).
• Sheep grass (Brachiaria decumbens).
OTHER AGRO BY PRODUCTS INCLUDE:
• Unripe but Mature Mango
• Unripe but mature Pawpaw
• Cassava Tubers
• Pineapple crown
• Potato
• Watermelon.