Vitamin K and Kale

[jiffystiffy]

I was reading some thread the other day about Kale. I don't even remember what it was about but I started thinking about vitamin K and Kale and I started wondering how much would a rat have to eat to fulfill their vitamin k requirements. I need help checking to see if I'm doing this right (and no, I didn't try feeding my rats this amount of kale).

So I'm going by the nutrient requirement set here: http://www.afrma.org/bc_ratdiet.htm

From the link above, I would need 50gm/kg of vitamin K to meet their nutritional requirement of that particular vitamin.

Then I went here: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/veg ... cts/2461/2

I changed the option to 100g since 100 is relatively simple to work with. It says that 100g of Kale has 817mcg of vitamin k.

Then I went here: http://www.convertunits.com/from/mcg/to/gram

817mcg = 0.0008169999... = 0.00082g (rounded up) of vitamin K.

So in short, 100g of kale is LESS than a gram of vitamin K which means you would need about 5000 grams of kale to make their nutritional requirement.

Am I wrong or is that just ridiculous? Kale is obviously not very efficient in getting vitamin K requirement.

And I apologize in advance if I'm completely wrong but it'd be useful to me to know where/if I'm going wrong.

 

[jorats]

My eyes glaze over when I see math stuff. lol Which is why I haven't done my own food yet.
But, I'll have my son look at it. He's pretty good at this stuff but to tell you the truth, it does need a lot!!! of kale to get the full requirements which is why when people don't feed a block and rely solely on their veggies for vitamin K, they are putting their rat's health at risk.
People should also note that many dog foods don't include vitamin k so those who feed a suebees mix and dog food... their rats are seriously lacking their nutrients.

 

[ryelle]

My eyes glaze over when I see math stuff. lol Which is why I haven't done my own food yet.

Hah! me too
Even if people were making their own food (which i totally dont see the point in when you can buy a decent block), is there not a vitamin K supplement you can get from a health food store to use? trying to make up the vit k requirements solely from veg seems ridiculous, as proven above

 

[jiffystiffy]

Yea, I haven't thought about making my own food at all but I enjoy knowing what foods has the most type of vitamin in it (or in this case, the least). It's more or less just a curiosity thing but I wouldn't really know enough to be comfortable changing out from blocks. I think if someone wants to feed just fresh food everyday as opposed to blocks, they would need to pick the most nutrients rich foods and add supplements on the nutrients they could not fill. There's also the question of even if you fed fresh food, how can you guarantee each rat would get their fair bite and like everything you provide.

I would so love to feed fresh food if I knew I would give them a balance diet. I admit that...

It almost makes me want to study nutrition. :nod: Almost.

 

[ryelle]

haha nutrition is a mind blower. i have just started studying it at university. we are only two weeks in and its difficult - looking at the molecular structure of everything, finding out what does what and what part of the body needs what more than others etc. my tutor owns a farm though so we mostly just talk about her cows and horse feeds.. which sucks, but i get to make up a diet for an animal of my choice for an assignment later in the year

 

[jiffystiffy]

I would love to study nutrition but alas, it's not really my thing. I just enjoy learning because I want the best for my boys. :lol2: