Nutrition is the study of how the inorganic and organic materials are ingested by living organisms, to maintain a fully and functional lifestyle. Through nutrition, tissue cells that are damaged can be replaced, growing is possible as wells as a prolong life can be obtained. When animals are fed it must be assured that the food are of best quality. The more enhanced the quality of food are for animals, the more young they can produce, and will be more prone against parasites. Any animal on this planet must have food, clean water and shelter. When animals have a nutritional shortage it can become very complex for a farmer, because during the capturing of animals the chances of mortalities are higher. The animals can hyperventilate or inhale and regulate their rumen content, and during immobilisation and tranquilisation animals can die of overdose (Lameed & Adetola 2012).
During the 90's it was not known that farmers would have fed their wildlife herbivores additional fodder. As the years past it became more common to feed game animals, even if it is not winter or dry seasons (Fourie. 2008). Jacobs (2015), states in the early age's wildlife herbivores survived in the hardness of South Africa, because they had migration paths. As game ranches developed they fenced off the migration paths which made it difficult for the wildlife herbivores to survive. Animals that are placed in a small fenced off camp need to be supplemented due to limited graze. There are a lot of debates of fencing animals. Farmers came to a conclusion, if they fence in animals they have the responsibility to give wildlife supplementary feeding by reason of limited nutrients and minerals (Fourie. 2008).
The feeding of wildlife can become very complex during times of drought or nutrient deficiencies. The moment a farmer are looking for a company to provide supplementary feed make sure the feed that they offer will support your shortages. During times of supplementation it is important to know when and how to give the nutritious feed (Shepstone, 2015). According to Cronje (1990), the farmer must get a scientific view point from a veterinarian to make sure the requiring nutrients are given. Before any conclusion are formed, the time of year and geography can also play a big role when you need to give additional fodder. The metabolism of an animal can make work a bit harder due that they have microbes, in rumen, which also need protein roughage to stay active. To maintain healthy and strong animals, the farmer need to provide wildlife with energy and utilizable nutrients. Lameed & Adetola (2012), states that there are mineral elements which occur in soil or in living tissues that can be large or small capacities. The large quantities of elements are called macro elements and the small quantities are called micro or trace elements.
Energy in the feed
Jacobs (2016), says during times of drought the grazing pastures contain low levels of energy and protein, while there are high levels of lignin. There are two types of segments in grazing namely energy and unbound energy. Energy consist of bound energy and hay, which situated inside the cell wall. Unbound energy are established in the cytoplasm, and consist of sugars and carbohydrates. These segments connect the energy value to a specific material which are metabolism energy (ME). The metabolism energy are the total energy left after, urination, defecation and gas production. Factors such as gender, age temperature, season, lactating or physical condition will depend how much energy intake the animal will consume. Perkins (1991), stress the protein supplementation is very important when the animal are lactating or growing horns. Protein are always necessary to give to you animals but it must not be all that you give them to feed on.
Protein
Jacobs (2015), states the protein fraction from any raw materials are divided into 3 part, rumen ungradable protein (RUP) rumen degradable protein and protein bond. The protein bond should not be fed to wildlife. The RPD are used for the rumen's digestion. Most of the raw materials consist of proteins but the quantity will differ. Wheat bran, sunflower cake oil, gluten 20 and luserne are the basic proteins which is mixed in wildlife feed and has a high RDP value. Urea are a very high protein concentrated product produced from raw materials, and it is not advisable to feed too much for your wildlife, especially your exotic wildlife. The reason why urea is toxic for wildlife, is the quick ammoniac release in the bloodstream when the amount of urea is not well managed. As for the RUP, when protein is digested it will move to the lower part of the digestive system which goes through the rumen. It is important for, horn length, milk, meat and reproduction. The RUP consist of sunflower cake oil, soybean cake oil, canola cake oil, Gluten 20 and Gluten 60. It is essential that the RDP fraction should be prime, owing that it will quickly increase the microbes in the rumen and there will also die some because there are so many. The microbes that died is called microbial protein and it is a big part of protein intake. The reason why protein are supplemented, is to unlock the energy which is trapped in the plant form which is carbohydrates and to make it available to the animal. To accomplish this, there must be a microbial action in the rumen to alter the carbohydrates in a more accessible form such as volatile fatty acids. Animals need to take in the right amount of RUP and RDP. Right amount per animal is 75% RDP and 25% RUP which is economic for a farmer.
Essential nutrients for animals
Phosphate,
Energy,
Vitamins,
Rumen degradable protein,
Micro elements,
Macro elements (Jacobs. 2015).
Type of licks
Lameed & Adetola (2012), states salt are a natural mineral that come from ground, forests, and animals will eat soil or lick it. Salt licks provide herbivores with minerals which are deposits from the salt. This salt licks give the animals the necessary minerals such as zinc, calcium magnesium and sodium. Water holes are the natural source of salt licks. Animals will consume the salt lick if the vegetation does not provide the right amount of minerals. During heavy rainy times plants can lose their water soluble sodium salts. In these times some of the plants have a substitute ion, potassium, which replaces the sodium ions. Plants like, Acacia elatoir, Achyranthes aspera, Echolium amplexicaule have both sodium and potassium ions. During spring, animals also require a salt lick due to growth, healthy bones and muscle development. This lick will have minerals such as sodium calcium, phosphor, iron, and zinc. Artificial licks comes in two different forms, which is bagged or a block. The block are placed in the veld as ease or it can be mounted, some farmers hang their block from trees. The bagged form are buried in holes and during the wet season it will spread and becomes popular under the animals.
Problems with licks
Lameed & Adetola (2012), ensure there are three kind of problems which is observed on game farms. The spread of diseases, veld trampling and soil removal. Disease are spread by animals through urination, defecation and drinking around the licks. A respiratory disease can also develop when the lick or troughs is crowded by animals. A disease like anthrax spores can be left at a lick or trough and can contaminate the whole farms animals. The removal of soil are through the stumbling and licking of soil by animals. As for the veld trampling the animals are roaming around the lick. Due to all the animals that comes and visit the lick their hooves are the killers of the vegetation destruction. During the dry season the water can be polluted by transferrable pathogens. Salt is one mineral that animals crave. Many plants have insufficient sodium and chloride in their content, which is why farmers need to provide salt licks. Sodium and chloride is the two minerals animals usually need to balance their diet. There are 7 micro minerals that are given in small quantities such as manganese, iron, iodine, copper, zinc, cobalt, and selenium (Lameed & Adetola, 2012).
Feeding times
Taute (2016), during the winter seasons the energy levels are very low for grazers because of low quality of food. Once the crude protein dropped lower than 7% the grass quality is low. While the grass matures the proteins and leaves decrease but the fibres increases. The grass becomes unpalatable the more it gets in contact with the animals, thus the energy level also drop. Between autumn and early spring the grass pastures are in such a condition that it is unable to sustain grazers. During time of drought it is essential to provide the herbivores with supplementary feeding and nutrients. Before the veld are deneoterating it is important that the farmer provide protein licks beforehand to ensure the herbivores physical condition will stay constant. Some animals are lactating in winter times thus they also need extra roughage protein supplements to keep them healthy and strong. Fourie, states that most animal deaths occur during the winter season due to lack of knowledge when to start to feed supplementation. The quicker the farmer starts to supplement the animals the better chance the animals will have to survive when the graze and browse are scares. The beginning of May are a good time to start to put out the additional feed.
Feeding as a management tool
The rotation where animals feed are very important in terms of veld trampling. Once most of the animals are familiar with a small quantity of additional feed they will move where ever you place the troughs. For tourism, the placement of feeding troughs near the route can be successful (Fourie).
Advantages and disadvantages of supplementation (Perkins, 1991).
Advantages
1. The mortality rate decrease
2. Genetics will develop in such way due to good population growth rate.
3. The trophy animals will show quicker than expected.
4. Animal''�s health condition will be impeccable.
5. The more animals you can accommodate to breed with.
Disadvantages
1. The farmer must intensively manage the animal���s requirements.
2. Additional feeding is very expensive.
3. You need to know when to give your animals nutrients on the right time.
4. Feeding non target animals.
Prevention of diseases and parasites
Sorensen et al (2013), says supplementation helps to prevent external and internal parasites. The healthier the animals are the longer their live span will be and will be free from these parasites. Orams (2001), says to keep a healthy animal population grow rate – ensure they do not become endangered, supplementation needs to be enforced. During the supplementation animals recover after searching for food and their physical condition are improving. The more nutrients and minerals animals consume the better chance they stand to be prone form parasites. Van Romsburg (Pers. Komin) (2016), states that the feeding troughs must be move as often as possible, because parasites and disease can infect the animal. The animals can infect each other with pneumonia. The moving of troughs can prevent external parasites to spread such as, ticks, lice. As well as internal parasites such as roundworms and tapeworms.
Disease management around the feeding facilities
There are intra- and inter specific disease transmissions among animal species. If an animal has an infectious disease it is highly that it will infect other animals which comes in contact is called direct transmission. Animals that walk in social groups and breeding herds become very problematic for the direct transmission of a prion or disease. When different animal species gather around the feeding site, it is also able to transmit diseases. As wildlife is captured and located into quarantine, their stress level are higher than normal and cause that their immune system is lower and thus are highly prone for diseases. The indirect transmission are caused when animals are walking around infected faeces, urine, saliva, blood and naval secretions (Sorensen et al. 2013).
Shortages and inaccurate nutrient feeding can lead to
Low fertility
Unregularly on heat
Increase of abortions
Increase of embryotic losses
Bad bone development
Low immunity
Anaemia (Jacobs. 2015).
Requirements when food are stored.
��� Make sure the one knows when the food expires thus it must be placed to see every day.
��� Feed must be kept out of sun and rain in a container.
��� Make sure the container have an air ventilator (Fowler 2012).
According Van Romsburg (per.komm) (2016), states it is the best when the feeding store has a cement floor and feed is placed on pellets.
Colclusion
It is possible to give wildlife the right amount of additional feed. It is imperative to see a well-informed feeding consultant so that the wildlife animals will get the right amount of nutrients (Jacobs. 2015).
References
CRONJE, PB. 1990. Supplementary feeding in ruminants ��� A physiological approach. South African Journal Animal science 20: 110-117.
FOURIE, G. 2008. Regular feeding of game. Game and Hunt October: 46.
FOWLER, A. Nutrition and food preparation for wildlife. BSc honours, University of Sidney, Sidney.
JACOBS, L. 2015. Die noodsaaklikheid van wildsvoeding. Veeplaas Februarie: 58-59.
JACOBS, L. 2015. Prote��enaanvullings vir wild. Veeplaas Maart: 42-43.
JACOBS, L. 2016. The role of energy in game feed. Wildsplaas/ Game farm February: 21-23.
LAMEED, AG & ADETOLA, J. 2012. Species-Diversity Utilization of Salt Lick Sites at Borgu Sector of Kainji Lake National Park, Nigeria. Kurelic, Croatia.
ORAMS, MB. 2001. Feeding wildlife as a tourism attraction: a review of issues and impact. Tourism management Journal 23: 281-293.
PERKINS, JR. 1991. Supplemental feeding. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Fisheries & Wildlife Division.
SHEPSTONE, C. 2015. Be feed safe. Wildlife ranching February: 200-209.
SORENSEN, A, VAN BEEST, FM & BROOK, RK. 2013. Impacts of wildlife baiting and supplemental feeding on infectious disease transmission rick: A synthesis of knowledge.
TAUTE, A. The importance of supplying the correct nutrients in winter.
VAN ROMSBURG, K. 2016. Voedselkonsultant vir Lubbern voer.