Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations amount of feed

I use a texas hunter feeder - set it on 14 seconds three times per day. When it triggers my fish eat all of it within 30-40 seconds. Am I feeding enough - seems like they clean it up way too fast

That’s about how long I feed and it’s all gone in less than 15 seconds. I use cargill 45% 1/4” . I think it’s better for the fish not to be over fed cause they will eat until they blow up.... catch a few and look at their body condition.

Oh their body size is off the charts - I just read on here of guys saying it takes their fish much longer to clean the feed up - mine are like piranhas - if I tripped and fell into the water I am afraid I would be reduced to bones quickly!

Tim I guess that answers that...... just don’t fall in!

At one time my cnbg would have done the same and would have probably eaten the whole feeder full of feed if I would have emptied the feeder. But in a small pond, I think it can lead to excess nutrients in the water due to all the fish poop. So I have cut mine Way Back from all of that and remind myself I am SUPPLEMENT feeding.

I am also a fan of just supplemental feeding. IMHO I don't want my fish to be dependent on the pellets. I also try to keep my fish numbers to a quantity the pond has the capacity to support naturally without pellets. It was not that long ago when one of the major fish food manufacturers decided to stop production for several months with no advanced warning to their customers. There were a lot of folks scrambling trying to find a replacement chow to keep their pellet dependent fish from going hungry.

Would you guys know how many pounds of fish food you're throwing with each 14 second throw? I'd be refilling my feeder every 3-4 days if I did that with my TX Hunter's. I'm thinking our spinner plates are at different heights.

Oh, Texas Hunter got bought out by Pradco. Nothing's changed with the operational part of it, so it shouldn't affect anything.

Al I don’t know how much it is throwing but a 50 lb. bag of 1/4” Cargill lasts about 3 weeks +-

50/21 days = 2.4# per day.

I feed 2 to 3# per day `per acre` hand feeding.

the texas hunter directional feeder does not have a plate adjustment to my knowledge

Pat, your and John's #'s are pretty close to the average poundage per feeder that I throw too. It changes seasonally, but it probably averages out to that.

tim k, I have TX Hunters that are several years old, and the spinner plate heights are adjustable with an allen wrench.

I'm not sure if that's a good thing. PRADCo is part of a big conglomerate. QC may suffer in the long run, I think.

I will check - thanks

tim, it sounds like you're getting really good results with your feeder set up just like it is. I've only changed the slinger height when I was feeding smaller, and or grainier food.

True that. Texas Hunter is now a very small fish in a big pond.

My interpretation of what has been announced, is that Pradco will basically do what Correct Craft did when they bought Bass Cat Boats. BCB stayed in the same plant, with the same management and work staff, and nothing changed.

Hello.

I start to feed the perch only after they are spawning, and only 2 time a week by hand.

I give them the floating pellets the children like to see them.

A+

Maybe I am missing something but my direction feeder has no spinner plate that I can get to in order to adjust. It is totally enclosed - I bought it last year

Tim my TH feeds 1/2# every 8 seconds. Based off that, I'm guessing you are feeding a little over 2.5 pounds per day. How big is your pond?

You can adjust a TH spin plate by adding washers between the spinner mounting plate and mounting bracket. Very easy to do, took me about 5 minutes the first time, and could do one faster now. I had to increase mine to be able to throw MVP larger pellets.

I feed 50/50 1/8 and 3/16 Cargill feed in my Texas Hunter. 50 lbs. last 3 weeks. I agree with Pat and Tracy,I only am supplementing their diet. If I kept slinging feed I believe they would keep eating all day long.Funny you mentioned about falling in and being attacked. My grandson was swimming right next to the dock in just swimming trunksand we tested the theory. I threw feed all around him and they about wore him out/tickeled him to death. He actually stayed in the water and had them eating out of his hand. Pretty cool. I caught a lot of it on video!!