Feeding Your Koi

Feeding Your Koi

If you thought owning koi was all about collecting the different colors and watching them glide gracefully through the still waters of an aesthetic koi pond, you are partially right. Owning koi is also about experiencing their personalities and interacting with them. Koi love to be hand fed and will quickly learn to recognize the hand that feeds them.

You can feed your koi a variety of different foods, including small pieces of meat, fruit, vegetables and cereals. Worms and snails work well, but you can also use small pieces of chicken or other meats. Feeding your koi by hand is best in the months when temperatures are warm or mild. In the winter, koi go into hibernation and require very little feeding. At these times, you can do more harm than good, since overfeeding them will either make your koi sick or end up accumulating at the bottom of the pond.

Your koi will consider your feeding them as a special treat, however they do not depend on you entirely for their food. There are plenty of things for them to eat at the bottom of the pond, including worms and insects. They will also nibble on algae and certain varieties of plants.

Koi can live for a long time - it is not unusual for them to live well into their thirties, and a well kept koi that enjoys a nice big pond to grow in, along with a healthy diet, is capable of living up to, or beyond, two hundred years. So be particular in what you feed them.

You may also notice that the different combinations of food encourage different colors or patterns in their markings. Make sure they get enough protein and essential vitamins and minerals found in fruit and vegetables. They also need fat and fiber, just like humans. Baby koi need more protein as their intestines are quite short. As they grow, they can handle more vegetables and fruits and will become more interested in the plants they find in their pond. In the summer months, when the koi are active, they do most of their growing. A diet richer in proteins is good for this time of year. In the winter, when the weather is mild (if they are not in hibernation), you can give them more cereals, which take longer to digest and suit their slowing metabolism.

It's a good idea to check with your local pet store or koi supplier and stock up on pellets that are designed to offer your koi the correct nutritional balance. There are different kinds of pellets. Some are designed to sink to the bottom of the pond and supply the fish with essential nourishment when they are bottom feeding. Others are designed to float on top of the pond. These are useful when you are in the mood to stop and watch the fish. You can relax and enjoy the sight of them coming to the surface to nibble on the pellets or take the opportunity to inspect them to ensure they are healthy.

After your koi have spent about five minutes feeding, they have probably had enough. Don't over-feed them, but do watch the smaller fish and make sure there is enough for them to get their share over the bigger fish.