I find the new growth of Chaya to be more palatable than older leaves. So, I shear off the old growth to stimulate new leaves. Can Chaya be used for animal feed? Must it be boiled out or can it be fed raw?
Thanks and blessings,
George F Dones
FFFMI
Llorente, Eastern Samar, Philippines
I’d be interested to hear the answer to this question as well! Also, if chaya can be fed to livestock, which kind of livestock?
Thank you!
Hi George
I have about 7 000 Chaya trees on my property since 2009. My geese and chickens grace freely between the Chaya trees and eat the green leaves and never got ill from it. I founded they are more healthy and lay more eggs. There is also plenty of wild antelope on my property that eat the Chaya leaves and I never saw they got ill. In the beginning some of the small Chaya trees about 1m high was totally eaten even the tick branches. I only use the Chaya leaves during harvesting and fed the stems from the leaves to my rabbits. I never experienced any problem with my animals eating the raw Chaya leaves.
Regards
Rian Gouws South Africa
Hello Rian!
Thanks for your response! Sounds like you have a great project there. Have you ever fed the raw leaves to hogs? Chaya grows well here in Eastern Samar and we are looking to add Chaya to our non-commercial hog ration. I just want to make sure it doesn’t induce abortion or any other malady. Thanks and blessings, George
Hi George,
For most species, chaya must be processed in some fashion to release the anti-nutritive (toxic) hydrocyanic glucosides. Chickens seem to tolerate raw leaves, possibly because of the cell walls being crushed in their crop and the volatile toxins released before digestion occurs. Other monogastrics (such as pigs), should not be given raw chaya, in principle.
Ruminants usually will not eat raw leaves because of the toxic compounds, so processing is almost always required in order to incorporate into their diet. Ungulates (like the antelope mentioned in one post) tend to deal with the issue through their browsing habit–not eating more than the body can detoxify itself.
As for processing, there are many methods that range from drying and crushing into a protein leaf powder, boiling (for five minutes; then maybe drying and processing), and some extraction techniques that are a bit more high tech. The basic principle, though, is to crush as many cell walls as possible for the volatile glucosides to dissipate.
Hope this helps!
Cody
Cody,
Your response is much appreciated! We will continue to be careful with Chaya.
Blessings,
George
I find it interesting in various different topics, people read that a certain food or process is toxic and yet there are those of us who do it routinely all the time without a problem.
I think those who do the testing, there is an extreme sense of caution. So, for example, I read of one feed product that was deemed to be dangerous but when I went to the studies, I discovered the testing amount 1/3 the body weight of the animal. In other words, it was an amount that only in some extreme situation could an animal ever eat that much.
We treat our feed as a “salad”. In fact, we use the word “salad” to indicate we want the animals to have a diverse diet… not eating only one thing. So, although we feed a lot of Chaya to our animals, it represents a small percentage of their diet.
In ruminants (goats, sheep, cows, etc.), enzyme activity and acid in the rumen releases the cyanide from chaya. When absorbed, the cyanide inhibits the ability of the cells in the animals’ body to absorb oxygen, resulting in death if too much is consumed (this is called anoxia). There are bacteria in the rumen that are able to process the cyanide to a certain extent and transform it into a less toxic compound. This is why ruminants can graze chaya without any ill effects, as long as they also have other options. They know what their body can handle, and will stop eating the chaya before the toxicity level is too high. Pigs are monogastrics, just like people. If you can’t eat unprocessed chaya, neither can they. It is my understanding that poultry use amino acids containing sulfur to break down the cyanide in chaya so that it is less harmful. Amino acids are proteins, so a higher protein diet would be better for chickens that eat chaya regularly (chaya does not contain very many sulfur-bearing proteins). For any animal, either high amounts of chaya fed at once or low amounts fed over long periods of time will have a negative effect. I would not recommend feeding chaya to any ruminants unless you have done some careful calculations; if they eat it, it should be from grazing. Poultry can consume a higher amount, but they should still have other high-protein options available if at all possible.