Food Support
With Food Support, adoption camels are helped who aren’t been fully adopted yet…
In recent years the cost of living in Egypt has increased dramatically. Including the livelihood of Camels, in addition to the fact that male camels cannot just roam freely without supervision when the Desert is in bloom.
What does a Camel eat?
A camel needs roughage and energy feed.
Energy feed:
Energy feed consists of hard corn and grain.
Corn: 2 – 3 kg per day.
And grain: 1 kg per day.
Before the revolution of 2011 50 kg of hard corn was 8 euro, now the same 50 kg costs almost 15 euro. Nowadays prices fluctuate a lot.
An adult camel lasts about 16 days with 50 kg of corn.
40 kg of grain costs around 10 euro (depending of the rate and price of that moment).
An adult camel lasts 40 days with 40 kg of grain.
Roughage:
By roughage we mean hay and dried Egyptian clover. Roughage is the most expensive and is very important because it replaces grazing.
Camels in Sinai should receive roughage twice a day. Camels are ruminants.
1 bale of basic hay : fluctuating from € 1.75 to € 2.50 (depending of the rate & price of that moment) .
A camel lasts 1 day with a bale.
1 large bale of dried Egyptian clover, around: € 15.-
An adult camel lasts 5 – 6 days with a large bale.
If an owner wants to feed his camel basic feed, it will cost him around 90 euros per month, this is excluding the good types of hay such as dried Egyptian clover, but including the basic hay.
An average monthly income of an Egyptian waiter is 75 euros, this applies to an Egyptian with a permanent job, not to a Bedouin.
Many Bedouins are often forced to give their camels (printed) cardboard as roughage and waste from restaurants as energy feed. They often even pay for this waste food from restaurants … the Camel is a hardy animal but there are limits.
The Camel is by nature a hardy animal
A disadvantage of this is that a camel does not show quickly if there is something wrong with him.
But a big advantage is that a lot is achieved with camels through prevention and meeting basic needs such as good & sufficient (basic) feed and clean drinking water!
